New Romney

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway chugs into town with the enthusiasm of a toy train that's grown up - and that rather sums up New Romney's appeal. This ancient Cinque Port sits on the edge of Romney Marsh, where sheep graze on grass that's barely above sea level and the horizon stretches endlessly towards France.

St Mary The Virgin Church dominates the town centre, its Norman tower visible for miles across the flat marshland. It's a proper statement piece for what was once a major medieval port, before the sea retreated and left New Romney high and dry several miles inland. The railway station serves as both a working terminus and tourist attraction - you can catch the miniature steam engines that puff along the coast to Dungeness.

Romney Marsh itself is the real draw. This famously flat landscape feels like nowhere else in Britain, all big skies and grazing sheep. Fairfields Park offers decent walking, though don't expect hills. The area's golf course, Littlestone Golf Club, sits between town and sea - a links course that gets properly windy.

Littlestone-on-Sea lies just a mile south, where you'll find a shingle beach and Victorian seafront that's pleasantly underdeveloped. Getting here requires a car really - the nearest major town is Ashford, about twenty miles north. The M20 brings you close, then it's A roads through farming country.

Staying at one of the holiday parks around New Romney makes perfect sense if you're exploring this corner of Kent. You're ideally placed for day trips to Canterbury or Dover, yet far enough from the crowds to appreciate the marsh's strange, compelling emptiness.