The Kent seaside town that rivals Margate – without its hip tourist crowds (2024)

For too long, this rakish but ravishing old port has been overlooked in favour of its better-known Kent neighbours, Broadstairs and Margate, but now Ramsgate is having a turn in the spotlight. Time Out magazine named the town one of the best places to visit in 2024 – a “beauty”, it said, but not as “achingly trendy” as Margate… yet.

Ramsgate is not as blingy either. It does all of the usual seaside stuff (the beach is glorious) but it’s the town’s palpable sense of history that really stands out. It has the UK’s only royal harbour (a status granted by George IV in 1821) and contains about 1,000 listed buildings; tiers of fancy Regency terraces curve around the marina’s natural bay – a bustling boaty waterfront where chandleries rub shoulders with chip shops.

There are verdant squares and Victorian pleasure gardens linked to promenades by a zig-zag of steps and alleys, cliff walks and cliff-top views, yachts, salty old pubs, fish restaurants, arty shops, landmark churches and some unusual attractions – like Britain’s largest network of civilian bomb shelters.

Travel essentials

When to go

There are enough indoor attractions to make Ramsgate a good wet-weather or year-round destination, but the town really comes alive during its summer regatta, Ramsgate Week (11-16 August). Ramsgate Festival of Sound follows a week later (22-25 August) with a programme of live music staged in various venues (visitthanet.co.uk).

How to get there and around

Ramsgate is served by Southeastern Railway services from London St Pancras via Ashford International (in about 75 minutes), and direct from Victoria or Charing Cross (two hours). The station is a little out of the way, but use the Loop bus’s frequent Margate-Broadstairs-Ramsgate circuits. From Ramsgate station to the harbour takes 10 minutes on the anti-clockwise route.

Where to stay

Ramsgate’s finest boutique hotel is Albion House – a Grade II-listed Regency villa on the corner of Albion Place, with a wraparound veranda, elevated harbour views, a relaxed bar and brasserie, and décor that mixes antiques and ornate original features with heritage paint colours and white marble bathrooms. There is a lift and one fully accessible room. B&B from £100.

History buffs can book The Grange, the four-bed, Grade I-listed family home of Victorian Gothic revivalist Augustus Pugin, who designed the interiors of the Houses of Parliament. It has been restored by the Landmark Trust and is available for short breaks (four nights from £1,008).

For a traditional pub-with-rooms option, try the Falstaff in Addington Street (from £90 a night) or the revamped Bedford Inn (from £145 a night).

Day One

Up with the sun

In line with the Active Ramsgate initiative, which encourages visitors to take advantage of the town’s big outdoors (sea kayaking, scuba diving or cycling), start the day with a brisk walk along the Thanet Coastal Path. The five-mile “Sea it All” route follows a cliff-top trail to Broadstairs via beaches at Dumpton Gap and Louisa Bay.

Souvenir hunting

Explore Addington Street, in the heart of the town’s Georgian district: an enclave of niche boutiques, pretty houses, period shopfronts and occasional street fairs. Find homewares, clothing and “all things lovely” at No 36 by SP, and vintage furniture, and curios and taxidermy at Paraphernalia.

Don’t miss

Ramsgate Tunnels is a must. Join a fascinating 90-minute guided tour which starts in a vast Victorian railway tunnel (part of the former Harbour Station) and then delves below ground into a network of dimly lit chalk passages (torches are provided) built in 1939 to protect the population from Luftwaffe air raids (in August 1940, 500 bombs were dropped on Ramsgate in just a few hours).

The principal target was nearby RAF Manston, where the free Spitfire and Hurricane Museum displays original wartime aircraft and – since July this year – an Avro Lancaster simulator: take off, fly and land in the reclaimed co*ckpit of the classic bomber, furnished with original flight instruments (£75 per pilot).

Dinner reservation

A new venture from the team behind the popular Partenopei restaurant in Broadstairs, Porto Reale opened in July to bring authentic dishes from Naples and the Amalfi coast to Ramsgate. Expect rich olive, aubergine and tomato sauces, rustic pastas (manfredi, ziti, calamarata), slow-cooked ragu, char-grilled steaks, fresh fish, seafood and pavement tables.

Time for a sundowner

It hurts to put Wetherspoons over the town’s independent watering holes, but the Grade II-listed Royal Victoria Pavilion is not only the largest Wetherspoons in “the world”, they say, but the building is a striking domed landmark with beachfront and harbourside terraces and an upper-deck promenade. Once a variety theatre, designed in 1903 in the French classical-revival style, the restored pavilion has been a “Spoons” since 2018.

Day two

Hit the beach

Ramsgate’s Main Sands is a beauty – a long wide stretch of clean, golden sand, close to cafés, toilets and shops and, at low tide, stretching all the way to Broadstairs’ Viking Bay. Bathing is deemed safe, though there is a lifeguard on duty during the summer.

Lunch break

Out on a limb at the end of the harbour arm’s East Pier, the Royal Harbour Brasserie offers fresh fish, chalkboard specials, terrace seating, Sunday roasts and the best views in town.

Time to relax

Seek out one of Ramsgate’s historic green spaces: Grade II-listed Albion Square Gardens features an area of decorative Pulhamite rockwork (an artificial stone invented by Victorian landscaper James Pulham).

In a walled, wooded corner of the cliff-top George IV Memorial Park, you will find a fancy Italianate glasshouse (open Saturdays only).

Alternatively, join a boat tour from the harbour to Sandwich National Nature Reserve. After a choppy start, you’ll round a corner into Pegwell Bay and up the River Stour to see an active grey seal colony. There are several operators, and two-hour trips cost around £25pp.

A final treat

Grab a pastel de nata, a peanut caramel brownie or a slice of plum and vanilla gateau from Modern Boulangerie – a French-style bakery and deli on Harbour Street. Open daily to 5pm (4pm Sundays).

Three things you might not know about Ramsgate…

1) The town’s Grade I-listed, 1820s Church of St George is topped by an octagonal lantern tower, built to provide a navigational guide for passing ships.

2) A bust of Vincent van Gogh in Spencer Square celebrates the Dutch artist’s brief Ramsgate residency: in 1876, the 23-year-old was employed as a teacher at Stokes’ boarding school for boys and lodged nearby at 11 Spencer Square.

3) Ramsgate’s Military Road dates from the Napoleonic Wars, when the port was a troop depot.