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Day Trips

London is brilliant, but sometimes it is nice to get out of the city. The trains are actually ok, if you are booking four tickets together you get a bit of a discount. trainline.com is a good shout to see where you can go and how much.

Essex

This is where Mel is from, so we go back quite a bit. But just to the Southend-on-sea bit. Unsure if we’d reccomend any other bits…

A day trip to Southend… 

9.30am: Walk to Wanstead Park station and get the Suffragette line south to Barking.

Once at Barking you need to run upstairs - tap out-  and get tickets to Southend Central (annoying they don’t just make it digital). There’s fast trains and slow trains - check the digital boards/citimapper to make sure you get a fast one. There’s views can be nice if the tide is in, but not worth an extra 30 mins. 

Get off at Southend Central and head out of Station Approach to the High Street. The town centre is a bit run down now, but you don’t go to Southend to shop. If you need coffee/pastries at this point Wilma’s is pretty good.

Now head south on the High Street and walk all the way down until you see the Sea (actually an Estuary). Before the water is the first real stop of the day… ADVENTURE ISLAND.

Get your tickets and get involved.
Highlights include: RAGE, SKYDROP & AXIS for the adrenaline junkies. There’s also fun arcades and some slower rides.

(I think you can probably get everything done in four hours, but if you want to go on the rides more times, you can stick around the whole day – if that’s the case, grab some fish n chips and eat them on the promenade before you get the train home.)

Now, if you’re not staying in the theme park all day… What we usually do is get the open top bus down to Leigh-on-sea. Leigh has two parts, the old town and the new town.

The Old Town has loads of nice pubs, restaurants and little stalls selling local seafood staples like cockles and mussels. We usually go to The Crooked Billet because we’ve not been organised and booked a table at The Peterboat.

The New Town is quite trendy, there’s a record shop, pizza places with £5 negronis and coffee & wine bars.

We usually stick around til dusk and get the train home. Just remember to check the trains are running – you don’t want to have to stay at Mel’s parents.

Kent

The nice parts of Kent are all quite accessible by regular and mostly reliable trains from Stratford International (on the other side of Westfield).

Whitstable 

Our favourite, and the closest. Everything you want to do is a short walk from the station. There’s some more historical/gardens/tourist attraction stuff at the far end.

Eat: 
Samphire. Lovely little Bistro
The Lobster Shack. Fried delicous-ness on the harbour
Wheelers Oyster Bar. An institution 
Whitstable Oyster Company. Fancy place on the beach.
If you need basic, there’s a Zizzi - chain Italian.

Coffee/Snacks:
Blueprint Coffee & Books. Best coffee
Gilbert’s Cafe & Deli. Nice staff. Classic Brit breakfast
Gelateria Whitstable. Ice cream parlour

Drink

Old Neptune. Always the first spot to get a pint. Quaint pub. Outside seating with seaside charm
The Sea Farmer’s. Little tap room serving craft beer on the beach.
Pearson’s Arms. Decent pub.

Margate 

Known as the Shoreditch (trendy london) on Sea. Looks pretty bleak when you step out the train station. But once you get to the beach and beyond - it’s actually very nice.

This is what TimeOut says

The Hits: 
Dreamland. The picture perfect entertainment and amusement venue! A one stop shop of culture, food, festival fun and seasonal, vintage inspired amusement park rides. 
Turner Contemporary. Exciting art gallery in the harbour “We champion creativity, celebrate culture, and inspire our community.“

Broadstairs 

If you’re looking for a classic ‘beach’ day, this is probably the place. 

Get the train, walk down the hill, lovely stuff

This is what Timeout says

Ramsgate 

Nice, but the most industrial of the bunch. Home to the UKs biggest Werherspoons pub- which has a really lovely terrace, on a warm evening.

This is what TimeOut says