Harts Holiday Park

As it’s an island, beaches abound on Sheppey. There’s the sandy stretch nearby at Leysdown-on-Sea, which also has a naturist beach, and a pebble beach at Minster for fossil-hunting among the London Clay. A mile away from Minster is Sheerness, the biggest town on Sheppey and the main seaside resort on the island; there’s a busy pier here complete with seaside amusements and easy access to sailing and watersports. For stunning views of the Kent countryside, climb to the battlements 200ft above sea level at the Minster Abbey Gatehouse Museum; there are countless relics including fossils and Roman coins among the museum exhibits. Also in the area, the Sheerness RSPB reserve Elmley Marshes is teeming with native birds and wildlife and has the highest density of wading birds in southern England; take a walking trail around the reserve or burrow into one of the five hides to spot species including marsh harriers, short-eared owls and golden plovers. Naturalists can also take their notebooks around the National Nature Reserve of the Swale to spot rare butterflies and plants. The fishing town of Whitstable is three miles across the Shale and is where James 2 was collared by William 3 in 1688; it’s known more nowadays for its oyster festival and seafood, and has a yacht club to lament enviously at as well as oodles of watersports and fishing to try. Further into the county is the historic city of Canterbury with its famous cathedral (now plague free), and Leeds Castle, where there are events, mazes, a Go Ape! centre to swing about at and hot air balloon flights over the Kent countryside. The Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Hythe is the spot to go on an English safari, and the kids should also go wild for playing at Hop Farm Family Park in Tonbridge and Diggerland near Rochester. Holidaymakers into their history and culture will find the area rich in pickings: for starters there are the historic dockyards at Chatham (make a stop here at Dickens World too), steaming along on the Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway or the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, and pootling around the Victorian mansion and landscaped grounds of Doddington Place Gardens near Sittingbourne.