Coach Holidays in Kent, the Garden of England
Kent packs an unusual amount into one county: Canterbury Cathedral and the oldest church in the English-speaking world, moated castles at Leeds and Hever, Vita Sackville-West's garden at Sissinghurst, and chalk cliffs looking across the Channel to France. The soil that made it the Garden of England now grows vines as well as hops and apples.
Our Kent holidays are based on one hotel, usually around Maidstone, with a private coach and driver taking you out each day. Roads here are narrow and the properties are spread out, which is precisely why it suits a coach tour rather than a hire car.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Kent Tours
Our Kent holidays use hotels in and around Maidstone, which sits centrally enough to reach the castles, the gardens and the coast on day trips. Named hotels on current tours include the Mercure Maidstone Great Danes, the Delta Hotels by Marriott Tudor Park Country Club and Bridgewood Manor. Each tour page lists the hotel for that departure, and on some tours the hotel used depends on the date - ask us if you would like it confirmed before booking.
No, but it helps. Several of the Kent properties we visit - Sissinghurst, Chartwell, Knole, Scotney Castle, Ightham Mote - are National Trust, and entrance is included for members. If you are not a member, ask us how admission is handled on the departure you are looking at, as arrangements vary between tours.
More than on a purely sightseeing tour, because gardens are the point. Sissinghurst, Scotney and Hever all involve a fair amount of walking on gravel, grass and some slopes, and the great houses have stairs. That said, the coach parks close to the entrances and there is no obligation to see everything. Tell us what you can manage comfortably and we will be straight with you about a given itinerary.
Houses, castles and gardens
Kent has more great houses within a short drive of one another than almost anywhere in England, and our itineraries make the most of that. Sissinghurst Castle Garden was made by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson from a derelict Elizabethan ruin in the 1930s; the White Garden and the tower study are the reason most people come. Chartwell was Churchill's home for forty years, and his studio still holds his paintings.
Elsewhere you will find Knole, one of the largest houses in the country and barely altered since the seventeenth century; Scotney Castle, with its moated ruin below a Victorian mansion; Ightham Mote, a moated manor of the 1340s; and the timbered village of Chiddingstone, owned almost entirely by the National Trust.
Entrance to National Trust properties is included if you are a member. If you are not, do ask us how it works on the departure you are considering.
Kentish wine and the coast
Kent's chalk is the same seam that runs under Champagne, which is why English sparkling wine has taken root here so quickly. Two of our tours build in vineyard visits with a tour and tasting - Yotes Court and Squerryes near Westerham on one, and the Mount Vineyard at Shoreham with a cheeseboard on another. These are working estates rather than visitor attractions, and the person pouring is usually the person who made the wine.
The coast is a different Kent again. Whitstable made its name on oysters, dredged from the flats since Roman times. Further round are the chalk cliffs at Dover, the sandy bays of Thanet, and Canterbury a few miles inland with its cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey ruins and the little Church of St Martin, all three on the UNESCO list.
