Where in Kent would you live if...

[ExceptonWednesdays]

• You needed 4 double bedrooms
• Wanted a big garden and parking
• Worked in London
• Had primary-aged children and couldn't consider private schooling
• LOVED the sea, particularly with sandy beaches
• Were a serious trail runner (i.e. too much flat open space gave you the heebie-jeebies)
• LOVED Port Lympne (random, I know)
• LOVED a bouji hangout/café/eatery/arty spot
• Had £1.2m to spend.

Or would you look beyond Kent?! I'm a SE girl (not Kent), just always thought it's absolutely lovely whenever we go!

If you like trail running the North downs run is a good race....but it starts and finishes in Gravesend which is possibly not one of the best areas

Hythe or Folkestone.

Broadstairs.

Not Kent, but with your criteria I'd also give Horsham in West Sussex a look.

Has to be Saltwood.
Brilliant primary school and lovely village.
Not far from sea (Dymchurch has sand).
Hythe is very close (walking distance)

@PurpleWisteria1

''I live in kent. Don’t go to Folkestone or Dover or Margate. Most sea side towns are shut holes and not a good commute at all.
Kent is not really the place if you want a really nice place to live by the sea and get into London.
If I had 1.2 million I would 100% be moving to Tunbridge wells or Sevenoaks in as nice a house as that would get me and drive the 45 mins to the sea.
Nice people, great schools, lovely place for kids to grow up on the whole.''

What a lot of nonsense.

Folkestone is only 50 minutes to London Kings Cross and the line has fast and modern trains.

Places like Margate, Ramsgate and Folkestone have seen a lot of regeneration and are perfectly fine to live in.

I live in Deal and it is a lovely, friendly, very safe town by the sea.

Broadstairs and Sandwich are also nice places to live.

It really is quite sad to see someone who lives in Kent write that kind of blanket statements about its seaside towns.

I assume you haven't visited any of these places recently...

And sweepingly rule out Higham, Cobham, Meopham, Longfield, Southfleet and Hartley. You go girl!

I just know where the start and finish is and Gravesend doesn't rate highly. The course was lovely but my knowledge of Kent is pretty limited so I couldn't comment on the other places

If you follow the surrey hills along to the east, they run through Kent all the way to Dover.

We looked at houses in Meopham once on that sort of reasoning. With apologies to any Meopham dwellers on here - it seemed like a very odd place!

Maidstone (where we are-chosen for schools and commute) is a strange place but take a look at West Malling

Lovely lovely houses and accessible sea and country

You say good schools. Just be aware with the grammar system, there won't be as much choice if your kids aren't likely to get into one. House prices tend to rise rapidly next to grammars too, so you may be morally opposed to paying for school, but this isn't much different.

Separately @catwithnocream I need an orangery in my life!

I live in Dover (actually a little village between Dover and folkestone)..... It gets bad press and some parts of it are bad, but I kind of love it. Everywhere has bad and good bits.

I love the sea front and because of the harbor wall, it's great for paddle boarding and it's often really warm in the summer. I often take the kids to the sea front every day in the summer. Sail in deal and hythe. I run in the countryside around my house, very hilly and lots of country lanes. But there are also some lovely trails over the cliffs. Literally can't go five miles without tripping over a castle. I love all the beaches and trails around. There are loads of zoos within a close distance.

It is an area of deprivation, it isn't hugely fancy and I'm not saying move to it, it has problems but the advantage of that is fifty million people don't flood to it every sunny day 😁. You can always have space on the beach. I dislike it when people call it a shit hole.....anyway I have a huge detached five bed house with a double garage that I paid 650k for, so I'm pretty happy with my lot

But your list suggests you would enjoy folkestone. Deal isn't sandy but it is lovely. Small and cutesy...nice friendly Park fun.

Faversham definitely

Deal, Walmer, Saltwood or Sandwich - all beautiful and fit a lot of your criteria.

Where are you commuting to in London? I'd head for Hampshire if I wanted trail running and near the coast. The Meon Valley near Petersfield is lovely for trails

I haven’t been to all seaside towns recently no- but have been to Margate Folkestone Broadstairs whitstable dymchurch and all along that stretch plus other places within the last year. We visit the coast a fair bit for the day and have done with the kids since they were small.
A lot of it is pretty run down, crime figures are high and a lot of poverty.
Folkstone has a nice country park, the pebbly beach is ok and they have the harbour arm but even with the regeneration it still feels rough.

It isn't morally superior to buy a millionaire mansion in a grammar catchment then look down your nose at less privileged parents who scrimp to put their DCs through private education.

Came on to say the same.

This. If you didn't have £1.2m budget which is massive, to buy a house in an excellent school area you may feel differently about other options.

To be fair that's the risk she is taking by moving to an area where grammars operate. If her child/ren don't get in then she will see what the other options are (sadly very poor in a lot of grammar areas) and might have to resort to a private school. This is why I've been clear about looking at the schools first because I don't like the idea of having a lovely house but miserable kids failing or being bullied because they have a lovely house in a very deprived area. This is why I think seafront is not a wise option, Canterbury and Faversham both have grammars and maybe 1 or 2 semi-decent state schools and a few co-ed privates that the op might not need but are there as back-up.

Folkestone ticks all your boxes & there are loads of DFL's here giddy with how lovely life is here.

Agree re following the schools though. Folkestone has both boys & girls grammar schools. Dds are at the girls school & doing well there. Not highly selective- mostly if you get the score in the 11+ you will be offered a place. Options outside of the grammar schools aren't great IMO.

I used to be 100% a sandy beach fan and shunned pebble beaches. Since living down here I discovered beach shoes and the very many joys & benefits of pebble beaches. Now I'm totally converted & rarely go to the sandy beaches now.

Having spent 2 summers in the pandemic camping all over Kent and visiting many many beaches, I didn't find any better than folkestone. Yes some may be more dramatic & prettier, but overall the folkestone & Hythe beaches score very highly with me.

Right I'm off for a coffee - on the beach. It's a lovely morning 😁

If you’re only visiting on day trips and don’t actually live here then your opinion doesn’t count as much as you think it does. There are bad and good areas of every town. More good than bad in the folkestone especially.

personally I’d never live in Tunbridge Wells even though I could afford to. Soulless place.

Yes TW is completely soulless, with its food and music festivals, 2 theatres, bars and restaurants and new arts centre in town....🙄

It's horses for courses...I dislike east Kent, having spent a lot of time there when my PIL and DH lived there, but loads of people love it....(I also hated Surrey when we lived there too, that really was soulless)

That sounds dreadful @Panicmode1 , what on earth do the residents do?
I considered moving to Tonbridge years ago but life got in the way.

Surrey varies quite a lot, but I guess many counties do.

Chichester isn't a bad suggestion, close to the coast and the South Downs.

I like Tenterden but it isn't on the mainline for commuting to London, you'd have to drive somewhere like Headcorn or Staplehurst. And it's some distance from the coast, although Rye isn't too far away.

Where do you need to get to in London? St Pancras isn't that practical for a lot of job locations - going into Charing Cross/Cannon St/London Bridge is easier but I guess it depends on the difference between the high speed train and then needing to use the Tube.

Canterbury is a lovely city too. I really like Kent, it's so pretty.