The Best Boutique Hotels in Kent, England

You’ll find this white townhouse hotel in the Leas, Folkestone’s square-and-garden-lined clifftop promenade. All 44 rooms feature contemporary decor elements, including wood-panelled headboards and hues of grey and mauve, and period details. Expect high ceilings, fireplaces and bay windows with partial or full views of the English Channel. Menus at the sea-facing bar and restaurant, the Cliffe, focus on Kentish produce. Try a bowl of rope-grown mussels or tempura-style soft-shell crab before retiring to your room.

This boutique hotel is a stone’s throw from Margate’s glass-clad Turner Contemporary art gallery and the beach. The latter is visible from many of the individually designed rooms, lined with Regency-style striped wallpaper and mirrored furniture. There’s a relaxing bar serving refreshing cocktails, and the daily light bites menu features Spanish-inspired tapas. Things return to England for the traditional breakfast, served in the cosy dining room.

There’s more than a whiff of Gallic luxury – cream-painted Provençal-style furniture and swaddling bathrobes – at these boutique-chic rooms, sitting on the High Street in the historic market town of West Malling. Both cooked and continental breakfasts are on the menu, and lunch is available. However, when evening falls, we recommend you explore the quaint country lanes dotted with Kent’s signature oast houses in search of a quiet, bucolic old pub for dinner.

The red-brick Victorian exterior of this converted brewery and old schoolhouse in Royal Tunbridge Wells belies its stylish rooms and impressive glass atrium. Rooms – from Clubs to Junior Suites – look good in silk drapes and sleek walnut furniture; bathrooms encourage relaxation, with rainfall showers, free-standing baths and heady Temple Spa toiletries. Breakfast is a full English or pastry-led continental. For dinner, try the on-site restaurant, Steak. You’re also near the specialist shops, art galleries, cafes, restaurants and bars that line the Georgian colonnade of Pantiles.

Deep in the Kentish countryside, commanding acres of landscaped grounds, this Victorian country house spa hotel oozes tranquillity. Visit the Utopia Spa, one of Kent’s best, with a dramatic duplex swimming area resembling Roman baths. Bedrooms range from classic (marble bathrooms, plantation shutters) to modern (funky wallpaper, slick bathroom spaces). The orangery-style restaurant excels at breakfast buffets and à la carte dinner dishes – if you’ve room following afternoon tea. There’s no need to set foot beyond the grounds, but should you forget your cossie, Bluewater shopping centre is a 20-minute drive away.

Well placed in the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells, the Kent outpost of Britain’s much-loved boutique hotel-restaurant chain is an 18th-century listed mansion heavy with period features. As you’d expect, French-inspired menus – with dishes such as pastries and crêpes for breakfast and moules for lunch or dinner – draw crowds to the Bistro. Burgundy carpets and brown leather beds grace bedrooms – ask for one with views of the Kent landscapes – while the ensuite bathrooms feature free-standing roll-top tubs.

This pop-up restaurant with rooms off the high street brings a hint of the Mediterranean to West Malling. The Madeiran chef has a winning way with charcuterie-focussed petiscos (Portuguese tapas-style dishes). Upstairs, four individually designed rooms with Hypnos beds induce relaxation (and digestion) and feature tongue-and-groove walls, mid-century, modern-flavoured furniture and roll-top baths. Good strong coffee washes down eggs florentine come morning before you step out to browse the weekend farmers’ market, wondering what to take home.

Built in 1791, this renovated Ramsgate hotel has a history as rich and colourful as its decor. Rooms painted in heritage shades, with Carrara marble bathrooms, include the balconied Little Victoria’s Room, where Princess Victoria recovered in 1835. Its East Cliff location delivers views across the Royal Harbour, and Ramsgate Main Sands beach is a short walk away. Dine and drink in the former Mayor’s Chamber, where glass doors open upon a sea-view patio; breakfast features crushed avocado on sourdough topped with chilli, a poached egg and bacon.