Pre-cruise stay ideas near Port of Dover?

[comcox]

We are sailing out of Dover in July (hopefully) and are flying in to Heathrow 6 days early.  We are looking for ideas on where to stay and/or visit near Dover during that time.  We prefer to stay in a holiday flat, rather than hotel, and will plan on getting a rental car once we are in the area.  We are interested in history and nature.  I was looking at Folkstone as a possibility (they have a Waterstones so we can stock up on books) but are open to other ideas.  We do not want to stay in London this trip.  Thanks for any suggestions.

[PhilbeachTraveller]

Loads of places to stay and visit! I live in Folkestone, so that's a good place to stay but check to see about car rentals as not sure if there is one here (I know there is one in Ashford). In the summer there will be a lot of things going on in the area. If you don't want Folkestone, then I can recommend Deal or St Margaret's, which are both near Dover. Of course, there is Canterbury, which is usually quite busy but a beautiful city and Hythe, which is just down the road from Folkestone.  Oh, and Sandwich, a little further from Dover, but not that much.

 

Loads of nature/woods/sea things to visit in this area of Kent. Here is a place to look:

 

https://www.kentdowns.org.uk/visit/50-places-to-visit/

 

 

[Post Captain]

Comcox ~

 

Just a few quick ideas off the top of my head, re. places (towns, villages) to visit that might well suit you.  Of course, these suggestions assume that things will more or less be back to "normal" by the time you visit--and I have no idea whether they will be.

 

Philbeach Traveller has provided some excellent ideas for places to stay and/or visit, and .  However, I would suggest that it's not absolutely necessary to stay "near" Dover.  With six days from the time of your arrival at LHR and your cruise embarkation in Dover, you would certainly have enough time to do some exploring a bit further afield.  (Not sure how near to Dover you mean when you say "near," but I would interpret the term broadly to include the counties of Kent and East Sussex. as well as possibly even Surrey and West Sussex.)  There's more than enough to see and do between London and Dover to fill far more than six days, without tying yourself to Dover during that time. 

 

In addition to Canterbury, I would put Rye (35-40 miles west of Dover) high on my list of possible bases.  In any case, Rye is well worth a day's visit even if you don't stay there.

 

As as for visiting historic manor houses, gardens, and small castles, and the like, I would definitely consider the following (listed roughly from northwest to southeast, between London and Dover):

 

Hever Castle

Chartwell

Knole

Igtham Mote

Sissinghurst

Leeds Castle

Bodiam

 

 

 

 

[comcox]

Thanks to both of you for the ideas.  I will look over all of these.