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Find out how attractions, accommodation providers, transport and hospitality venues are helping visitors and residents to enjoy a Greener and more sustainable experience across Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate

We know that lots of our visitors want to travel and holiday in planet-friendly, more sustainable ways. Around the Isle our accommodation providers, eating and drinking venues, shops, attractions and transport providers are all doing their bit to help with this.

Like lowering food miles by serving delicious local produce, providing more recycling facilities, and highlighting electric vehicle charging points. Providing coastal activities for visitors and communities alike, to help preserve and care for our beautiful beaches and bays. There are lots of ways, big and small, that we are making a difference. Our lovely Isle has a wonderful green network of cycling and walking routes for holidays that tread lightly.

To help you with planning your visit, we’ve brought together some useful tips for sustainable travel, activities and stays.

1. Hop aboard Public Transport

It’s convenient, it’s quick and you can help to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and your carbon footprint by leaving the car at home.

Southeastern trains can whisk you to our Isle from London St Pancras in as little as 70 minutes aboard its high-speed service. Trains also run from London Victoria, Waterloo East and Charing Cross.

Once here, the local bus network is really handy for getting around, including Stagecoach’s Loop service with buses every 8 to 10 minutes, connecting our three seaside resorts, Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate.

Catch a bus to the villages, or explore the wider area with a hop-on, hop-off Dayrider ticket. When you’re not stuck in your car, you can enjoy the freedom of looking at the passing coast and countryside.

2. Friends Electric

If you're helping to keep the air clean by using an electric vehicle, you'll find charging points dotted around the Isle at:

  • Birchington – Albion Road car park, CT7 9DN – 1 bay
  • Margate – Turner Contemporary car park, Rendezvous, CT9 1HG – 2 bays
  • Margate - Market Street car park - CT9 1EU - 2 bays
  • Broadstairs – Westwood Cross Shopping Centre, CT10 2BF – 5 bays (2 multi-charge, 1 Tesla, and 2 Podpoint that require an app)
  • Broadstairs - Canterbury Bell, CT10 2QD - 2 bays
  • Broadstairs - Tesco Extra car park , CT10 2QJ- 4 bays
  • Broadstairs – Sainsbury’s car park, CT12 5FJ – 6 bays
  • Broadstairs - Asda Car Park CT10 2NR - 2 bays 
  • Ramsgate - Asda, CT11 9TT - 2 bays
  • Manston - Holiday Inn Express, CT12 4AU - 2 bays

Find out more at www.carwow.co.uk/electric-cars/charging-points

3. Stretch your legs

What better way of exploring than walking or cycling when there’s 19 miles of award-winning coastline, lovely green spaces and country paths to discover? Treading lightly in tune with the environment also works wonders for your wellbeing as those endorphins begin to flow.

Immerse yourself in the landscape of the 32-mile, circular Viking Coastal Trail around the Isle, taking in scenes of dazzling white chalk cliffs, sandy beaches, historic landmarks, inland villages – and numerous pit stops for you to pause and refuel. Much of the route is along coastal promenades or country lanes, and you can sample small sections or take on the whole challenge. You can hire bikes including electric bikes from a number of outlets. 

We’ve lots of guided and self-guided walks, which are a great way to get under the skin of local history, discover architecture, or wander with Turner and Dickens. Join friendly guides, or pick up maps / download routes and make your own adventures full of fascinating finds and fresh sea air.

Viking Coastal Trail

Guided Walk

4. Eat local

Eateries around the Isle are making the most of the natural larder on their doorstep, keeping down food miles and offering you genuine local flavours. A tasty win-win.

Angela’s seafood restaurant in Margate is a scrumptious example, awarded the accolade of a Michelin Green Star in 2021 and 2022 for its sustainable practices. Daily changing menus feature fish fresh from the morning's catch, and any vegetable food waste is composted for use in local community gardens, which then grows more organic food for the restaurant – a virtuous cycle.

Buy local for your picnics too. Quex Barn is bursting with locally-sourced fruit and veg, and boasts a butcher, baker and fishmonger. There’s also a restaurant serving farm-fresh produce.

Visit on the last Sunday of the month (except December) to pick up seasonal and speciality fare at Cliftonville Farmers’ Market, and make a date at Easter and Autumn for Broadstairs Food Festival,  guaranteed to tickle the tastebuds with artisan goodies from Thanet and wider Kent.

Food and drink is a key part of a visitor’s experience. From cafes and restaurants using locally sourced produce to the beer served in the many micro pubs and bars, the Isle is awash with local produce.

Quex Barn

Cliftonville Farmers Market

Look out for Water Refill venues around the Isle, places happy to refill your drinking water bottles – working together to help reduce single-use plastics. Download the 'City To Sea app' to find cafes, restaurants and other Thanet businesses taking part. Venues include Margate Caves and Thanet Visitor Information Centre. 

5. Veggie choices

Vegetarians and vegans will be happy to know that Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate has a growing number of cafés, restaurants and takeaways offering meat and dairy-free pizza, pasta, cakes and more...tempting for flexitarians too. In fact, if you've been inspired to try ‘Veganuary’ or ‘meat-free Mondays’ as a kinder, more sustainable, planet-friendly and healthy diet choice, you won't be disappointed in Thanet! Browse our Vegetarian & Vegan Eateries...

6. Buy antique and pre-loved items and gifts

Another quick tip is to avoid the habits of the fast-fashion throw-away society, and follow the buzz for recycled, upcycled and pre-loved items and gifts when you indulge in some retail therapy.

Hunt for storied treasures at Petticoat Lane Emporium in Ramsgate where 200 traders sell vintage, collectable and antique goods. Or rummage for old-fashioned and unusual furniture, architectural salvage, artworks, china and every bygone imaginable at ‘restorers’ heaven’ Scott’s Furniture Mart in Margate. To name just two Aladdin’s caves.

Browse the rails of garments at Positive Retail's Margate and Ramsgate's curated resale stores. 

Margate Old Town

7. Coast for all seasons – visiting off-peak

Why not visit us in autumn and winter? By choosing off-peak holidays you avoid the pressures put on local transport and roads at busier times of year. We're a coast for all seasons and plenty of attractions stay open in the quieter months, ideal for leisurely-paced enjoyment.

Try a sustainable eco-experience like seaside foraging with an expert botanist. Or ‘seas’ the day sauntering along golden stretches of sands that are so peaceful as the days grow crispy – perfect for adventures with your four-legged friend.

Dr Forager Experience

8. Caring for our coast – get involved

We love our destination with its Blue Flag and Seaside Award-winning beaches and bays. You can play your part in keeping them pristine by leaving only your footprints behind in the sand – look out for #2minutebeachclean stations all around the main beaches, giving everyone the chance to do a quick clean up.

Keep your eye out for wildlife and conservation volunteering opportunities with Kent Wildlife Trust at Sandwich & Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve, internationally important for its bird populations.

At Monkton Nature Reserve, fun activities combine with learning to nurture children’s (and grown-ups’) understanding of nature and environmental stewardship. The Thanet Coast Project's wealth of fun, family and educational coastal wildlife-related events and activities, from beach cleans to a guide on responsible rockpooling, are another great source of information and ideas for things to do.

Sandwich and Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve

Monkton Nature Reserve

9. Crafted with a conscience

In the mood for some renewably-sourced pampering? Haeckels harvests seaweed by hand in Margate to use in luxuriously nourishing natural skin care products and treatments – spoil yourself, everything is crafted with a conscience. The company’s ethical ‘ocean first’ policy includes organising beach cleans and taking part in marine conservation surveys. Knowing that, you're sure to enjoy the feelgood sensation of a seaweed bath, with sea views from their cliff-top base, even more.

Haeckels Products

10. ‘Green’ Accommodation

Many of our hotels, guest houses, B&Bs and self-catering accommodation providers are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprints with ‘green’ touches to help enhance environmentally friendly aspects of your stay. Some things are hidden behind the scenes while others may be more obvious.

Manston Court Accommodation, three self-catering holiday properties on the edge of Manston village, offers a charging point for electric and hybrid vehicles. It also has bee-friendly plants in the garden and its own beehive. 

Being kind to the environment is a high priority for Quex Livery Glamping on Quex Park Estate at Birchington too. Their site runs on solar energy, quirky bathrooms are made from upcycled horse trailers, toilets are eco-composting, and the on-site farm shop sells locally-sourced fare perfect for rustling up a meal after woodland walk or horse-ride.

Check out our wide range of accommodation, come and explore our wonderful Isle, and help us to keep it sustainably beautiful for future generations.

#Respect, Protect and Enjoy

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Contact Us
Visitor Information Centre
The Droit House
Stone Pier
Margate
Kent CT9 1JD
Te: 01843 577577
Email: visitorinformation@thanet.gov.uk
www.visitthanetbusiness.co.uk
Official website of Visit Thanet, Thanet District Council.