Dover in a day, or a weekend
Dover is usually seen from a car queue on the way to the ferry, and most of the people who pass through it never stop. That is their loss. Within its chalk valley the town has evidence of nearly every chapter of English history, from a boat built 3,500 years ago to tunnels made ready for nuclear war, and almost all of it can be reached on foot from the town centre.
With a single day, the castle is the obvious choice among the things to do in Dover, and it fills a day without trying. With two, add a white cliffs walk and an afternoon in the town centre, where the Roman remains, the museum and the medieval Maison Dieu sit within a few streets of each other. A third day opens up the Western Heights, the Dour valley and the coast either side. The guides in this section cover each of these in practical detail, and every one of them leads back to the history pages that tell the full story.
One practical point shapes every visit. The town centre and the seafront lie flat on the valley floor, but the castle, the cliffs and the Western Heights all stand on top of steep chalk slopes, and the wind off the Channel can be sharp on the high ground even on a mild day. Comfortable shoes and an extra layer are worth more than any guidebook.
The castle and the white cliffs
Dover Castle has the longest recorded history of any major castle in Britain. A Roman lighthouse and a Saxon church stand inside its walls, Henry II's Great Tower rises at its centre, and the cliff beneath holds the tunnels from which the Dunkirk evacuation was directed in 1940. The Dover Castle visitor guide explains what a ticket covers, how the opening pattern changes through the year, where to park and how long to allow. The history of every part of the site is on the Dover Castle pages.
Roman Dover and the town centre
The town centre is where Dover's age shows most clearly. The Romans called the town Dubris and made it the base of their British fleet, the Classis Britannica. In 1970 redevelopment between the Market Square and York Street led to excavations that revealed the town's Roman past, including the house now known as the Roman Painted House. Its wall paintings, preserved because the army built the wall of a new fort straight through the building around AD 270 and buried them, are the best preserved in Britain. The house is displayed in its own building just off the Market Square, and its opening is seasonal, so it is worth checking before setting out. The sites are described on the Roman Dover pages.
The Market Square is worth a slow look in its own right. A market probably grew up here around St Martin's Fair, established in about 1160; the Corporation built a Guildhall on the square in 1605 and met there until 1836; and the town gaol stood on its south side, stormed in 1820 by a mob freeing imprisoned smugglers. In the north-east corner stood the bakers Igglesden and Graves, whose shop is mentioned in David Copperfield. Little of that survives above ground, but the shape of the square has hardly changed.
The seafront is a few minutes' walk south of the square. Its shingle beach faces the harbour rather than the open sea, and the promenade runs from the Prince of Wales Pier to East Cliff below the castle. Dover beach and seafront covers the beach, the piers and swimming, Channel swimming from Dover tells the story of the swim to France that starts beside the town, and eat and drink in Dover describes where the town's cafés, restaurants and old pubs are to be found.
The Western Heights
Facing the castle across the valley, the Western Heights are among the most extensive fortifications in Britain, and among the least visited. Work began with simple earthwork batteries in 1779 and grew, over the following ninety years, into two forts, miles of deep brick-lined ditches, barracks and a hospital. The Drop Redoubt, named after the remains of Dover's second Roman lighthouse, belongs to English Heritage and is open only occasionally; the much larger Citadel, most recently used as an immigration removal centre, is not generally open. The Grand Shaft, a triple spiral staircase of 1806 to 1809 that drops 140 feet through the cliff to Snargate Street, has been restored and is opened from time to time.
The Heights also carry a stranger relic. The Bredenstone, a lump of masonry that is all that remains of the second Roman pharos, was for centuries the place where new Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports were installed. More recent installations have been held at the site of St Martin's Priory, now within the grounds of Dover College.
Even when the forts are shut, the grounds are worth the climb. A network of footpaths leads round the walls, ditches and ramparts, and the views over the harbour and across the Channel are as good as any from the castle. The full history is on the Western Heights pages.
Things to do in Dover for free
Many of the best things to do in Dover cost nothing. The seafront promenade and the beach are open to all, and watching the ferries turn in the harbour is one of the town's oldest entertainments. The cliff paths at Langdon and the level circuit at Samphire Hoe are free to walk, though the car parks may charge. The grounds of the Western Heights are open access. Connaught Park, opened in 1883 on the hillside below the castle, has terraced lawns, an ornamental pond, an aviary and an upper promenade with views across the valley. Pencester Gardens in the town centre, opened in 1924, has a pavilion built for the millennium with a path of a hundred flagstones, each recording an event in Dover's history.
The town's memorials are free to see as well. The War Memorial, a bronze figure of Youth by the Dover-born sculptor Reginald Goulden, stands outside Maison Dieu House on Biggin Street. Captain Webb and Charles Rolls have memorials on the seafront, and the Zeebrugge Bell hangs on the front of the Old Town Hall. Further out, Kearsney Abbey's parkland and lake are a free afternoon in the Dour valley.
Things to do in Dover with kids
Children tend to rate Dover highly, and several of the things to do in Dover suit families particularly well. The castle is the main event, with ramparts and banks to run along, a keep furnished as a medieval royal palace and tunnels underground, though the wartime tunnels can be dark and loud for very small children. The beach is shingle rather than sand, but it comes with ferries, pilot boats and the occasional cruise liner moving across the harbour in front of it. Samphire Hoe is flat and enclosed, which makes it easy with pushchairs and small legs, and the white cliffs path from Langdon offers Exmoor ponies and a view of the docks from above.
On a wet day, the Bronze Age Boat in Dover Museum is a reliable hit, and the Roman Painted House shows a Roman heating system under the floors. In fine weather, Connaught Park's playground and aviary and Kearsney Abbey's lake are easy half-days. As with anything run by others, opening times and facilities change, so it pays to check before setting out.
Things to do near Dover, and getting here
That is a lot for one small town.
Dover is a good base for the rest of East Kent. Canterbury is about 16 miles away; Deal and Walmer castles, Sandwich and Folkestone are all within easy reach; and Calais is roughly 90 minutes away by ferry. These, and the turn of the seasons in the town itself, are covered in day trips and the year in Dover. Three of the original Cinque Ports are close enough for a day out, and Dover's own place in that medieval confederation explains a good deal about the town.
For arriving by road, rail or sea, including the ferry port and the cruise terminal, see getting to Dover and the ferry port; passengers with a few hours ashore from a cruise ship will find a plan in the guide to the Dover cruise terminal. Anyone drawn into the town's wartime past will find the story told in depth in Dover in the First World War and Dover in the Second World War, when the town became known as Hellfire Corner. Current listings of attractions and events across the district are published by the local tourism site, White Cliffs Country.