Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club

The Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club sits right on Deal's seafront, and it's a proper links course - the kind where wind and rough grasses are as much the challenge as your swing. You're playing on genuine golfing terrain here, not some manicured suburban parkland. The course is historic too, which appeals to anyone who cares about that sort of thing, though honestly you come for the golf itself.

This is clearly for golfers. Non-golfers will find themselves watching from the clubhouse while someone else has a round, so it's not a family attraction in the casual sense. But if you're staying at one of the nearby holiday parks - Sandwich Leisure is just 3.2 miles away - and you've got a golfer in the group, it's well positioned. Kingsdown Camping and Turners Folly Field are also within easy reach.

You'll need to be a member or arrange a visitor's round in advance. Green fees aren't cheap for links golf, but that's standard for clubs of this calibre. Allow a full four to five hours for 18 holes, longer if the wind's up - and on the Kent coast, it usually is. Best to ring ahead about availability rather than just turning up. Winter's quieter if you fancy fewer crowds, though the weather's less forgiving. Come for the course condition and the sea views, but come with realistic expectations about what links golf demands of you.