h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having lived in Canterbury for the last ten odd years, I would like to point out that Whitstable is a pube on the toilet seat of humanity.
It is cold and wet....even in the height of summer. It is also the biggest retirement home in the South East (apart from Herne Bay and Planet Thanet).
As such, Whitstable smells of old people and wee-wee. The locals swear it's just the seafood, but we know better.
My advice ??? Stay away. Go somewhere warm instead, like Barbados.

Please poster let me know where you are visiting, so that I do go there when you are there!

Whitstable is a thorn in Kents side (aparts from maybe Ashford) oh well - everyone is entitled to their own opinons.!! Keep writing

Well, I like Whitsable, so much in fact that I resigned a pretty good job to move down here from a corner of Warwickshire, now part of that awfull boil on the bum of society called the West Midlands. Now if you want to see something hideous, go there.

Canterbury is an evil sadistic place full of brain-dead morons and Grammar School teachers (hang on, aren't they the same?), Having said that, though, I must say the same about Whitstable.

I live in Herne (like Herne bay only not on the bay) and regularly go to Canterbury. Herne Bay and Whitstable for various reasons - trips, arson, that sort of thing. Canterbury is so overrun with tourists it's impossible to breathe when walking down the High Street, while the traffic in Whitstable is so bad that there is a permanent wall of steel into the centre of town. Herne Bay, however, has none of these problems.

Those of you who think that Herne Bay is a retirement Mecca are in for a bit of a shock the next time you go there because:

a) Herne Bay has the biggest youth population,
b) Herne Bay has fewer retirement homes than Whitstable, and
c) all the old people live in Herne and Broomfield.

I will agree that the water is terrible and there is nowhere to park, but otherwise it's just fine around here.

By the way, Whitstabubble is a terrible joke.

Truth is, most of the north Kent coast stinks of the effluent that drifts down the estuary from our glorious capital city. Folkestone is the county's retirement home and Dover, well it's just for passing through on the way to anywhere. The Kentish jewel is Ashford, a town that has dragged itself from the 1930's into the 21st century in about 10 years. Not afraid to embrace industry and new technology, and has more young attractive scenery than any shopping centre anywhere!

I am an American looking to stay in England one day soon. So, can you point out a particularly scented Bed and Breakfast I can stay at?

Been going to Kent on holiday for about 12 years now; have to say that over those 12 years the character of Whitstable has changed a lot. Rather than a quiet village in Kent, it's becoming more and more Islington-On-Sea, as if seriously affluent Londoners used to paying stupid money for property have cottoned onto it as a lovely place near enough to the capital to buy a holiday home in. Property prices have soared to crazy levels (normal for London?)and a lot of rather snotty shops have appeared on the high street: backed out of one deli that did not display its prices when I saw the proprietor was charging the customer in front of me £31 for two rather ordinary-looking pieces of cheese; the customer did not bat an eyelid at this. We got the hell out... the place isn't Kent any more; it's upmarket London on holiday. I feel quite sad about that as I recall what it was even a decade ago.