Top things to do in Margate: A great seaside daytrip from London

Margate is an excellent daytrip from London. Once the epitome of a rundown seaside town filled with empty shops, it’s now known as ‘Shoreditch-on-sea’ – a moniker it has received due to the number of hipsters that have descended on the town, and the large number of independent bars, shops and restaurants that have popped up. 

It combines this new, trendier vibe with everything you want from a British seaside town – fish and chips, a sweeping sandy beach, a retro funfair and arcades, as well as a few unusual sights. Especially on a sunny day, it’s well worth a visit.

In this guide you’ll find everything you need to know for an excellent visit – including the top things to do in Margate, how long to visit for, and where to stay.

What’s in this blog:

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Top things to see and do in Margate

Dreamland

What trip to a British seaside town would be complete without a visit to a funfair? And few are as iconic as Dreamland. This retro arcade and funfair opened over a hundred years ago in 1920 (though the first amusement rides were installed on the site even earlier, in 1880). This makes it one of the oldest surviving amusement parks in the country – a living museum of early 20th century hedonism. But don’t worry, it’s a fully functioning funfair too – it was renovated and reopened in 2015.

Don’t miss the Scenic Railway – the oldest roller coaster in the UK, which opened in 1920 (inspired by a visit to Coney Island). Dreamland also hosts a series of gigs and events, so check to make sure it’s open when you’re visiting the town. 

It’s one of the first things you’ll spot when you get off the train, right next to the Main Sands. It’s free to enter – you pay for rides once inside. Visit website.

The Shell Grotto

Undoubtedly Margate’s most intriguing sight is the mysterious Shell Grotto. It was the surprising highlight of our trip.

Discovered in 1835, it’s a Grade I listed underground grotto made with an astonishing 4.6 million shells. It’s made entirely of shells: mosaics in the walls and roof. It’s an eerie but genuinely awesome walk – you feel a little as though you’ve been transported into another underground world. Try to spot patterns in the shells as you walk around.

So when does it come from? What’s it for? That’s the most mysterious part. No one knows. Various theories exist: a rich household’s folly, a pagan temple, a Knights Templar site. Intriguingly, a similar cave has been discovered under the Palatine Hill in Rome – adding a bit of weight to the claims it could date even further back. 

This unknown only adds to the mystery of what is surely Margate’s most interesting landmark. It includes a small museum with more information about the Grotto, its discovery, and subsequent (over) tourism. There’s also an excellent gift shop.
£4.50 entry for adults, £2 children. Visit website.

Walpole Bay Tidal Pool

A short walk (about 15 minutes) from the Main Sands you’ll find Walpole Bay Tidal Pool. This is the largest tidal pool in the UK, and another living relic from Margate’s heyday – it was first opened in 1937. 

It wasn’t warm enough to swim when we visited – but on a sunny day, it looked like one of the  best places to go for a swim in the town. It’s popular with kayakers, too. But note – there are no lifeguards or facilities at the pool, and it’s not recommended to swim at high tide as it can get choppy.

The pool’s age also means that in places it’s worse for wear. As of October 2023, plans were in place to renovate the pool – including providing it with new facilities such as a cafe, and installing lifeguards (it’s currently unmanned). Watch this space! 

Explore the old town

Just off the seafront, you’ll find Margate’s charming old town. We went on a weekend, and it was a buzzing, vibrant place: bars spilled out onto pretty squares; market stalls filled the streets. It’s filled with independent shops, cafes, and restaurants. There are also a number of cool little galleries – if there’s something on, I’d particularly recommend the Pie Factory.

The old town is also a good place to get some food or a drink. On the edge, you’ll find the lovely pub the George & Heart House, which has some nice outdoor seating; while on the other side of the old town, by the sea, you’ll find the ever popular Peter’s Fish Factory. A few doors away is the Margate Coffee Shed, a great little coffee shop.

The other thing we loved about the old town was walking along the quaint residential streets – you’ll find some incredible flint houses, like in the picture below.

Turner Contemporary

Margate has a burgeoning art scene – and nothing underscores this more than its very own blockbuster modern art gallery, the Turner Contemporary. A bright, modern building, standing out on the sea front, the gallery is free to enter and hosts a range of rolling exhibitions – you can check what’s on at the moment on their website. When we visited, as well as a range of international exhibitions, it had a collection of art by local kids of different age groups – for us this was the highlight, and some of it was exceptional.

The gallery is named after (and inspired by) the great JMW Turner, who had a close connection to Margate. In fact, the modern gallery is built on the site where he stayed in Margate – the house of Mrs Booth, who he had a close relationship with. Just a few metres away on the Harbour Arm, you’ll find a statue of a shell lady named after Mrs Booth, looking longingly out to sea.

One of the best things about the gallery is its floor to ceiling windows, giving exceptional views out to sea. From here, you can see the awesome Another Time statue by Sir Antony Gormley, a cast-iron sculpture of a solitary figure, which is swallowed up and then revealed by the coming and going of the tide.

Margate Main Sands

There’s a reason people have been flocking to Margate for hundreds of years – and that reason starts here, with its blockbuster, sweeping main beach. It’s a wide, sandy bay, surrounded by stalls selling fish and chips. When the tide is out, it’s genuinely massive. A quintessential British beach.

At one end you’ll find the Harbour Arm, a 19th century pier with a lighthouse at the end of it. It’s now filled with bars – a great place to sit in the sun and have a drink.

Old Kent Market

If you really want to feel you’re in ‘Shoreditch-on-sea’ head to the Old Kent Market. On the site of a former cinema, this indoor market isn’t massive, but it’s a very cool place. It includes a number of places to get street food and a couple of independent stores (as well as a Cafe literally in a red bus!). It’s well worth a quick look in when you’re on the seafront, even if you’re not going to get any food there.

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Where to stay in Margate

Many people visit Margate as a day trip – but it can be a lovely place to stay for a few nights. This gives you the opportunity to spend a bit more time in the town, see more of its attractions, and also to visit some of the nearby towns.

Margate offers a mix of boutique hotels, seaside B&Bs, and stylish self-catering apartments to suit different budgets. If you want to be close to the beach and main attractions, look for accommodation near Margate Main Sands or the Old Town. For a quieter stay, Cliftonville has a growing creative vibe with independent guesthouses and retro apartments. Explore the interactive map of hotels in Margate below, or read on for a guide to the best hotels in Margate.

Best hotels on Margate’s seafront

• No. 42 by GuestHouse, Margate: A boutique hotel right by the beach, with a rooftop terrace and spa treatments. Book here.
• Walpole Bay Hotel: Historic, homey hotel on Walpole bay. Book here.
• Shenandoah House: A budget-friendly B&B a few minutes from the beach. Book here.
• Crescent Victoria Hotel: Stylish hotel overlooking Walpole Bay. Book here.

Best hotels in and around Margate’s old town

• Old Town House by Ezestays: Top quality accommodation in a renovated historic building in the heart of the old town. Book here
• The Beetroot: A popular hotel in a perfect location, right by the old town and the main beach. Book here.
• The George & the Heart: Stunning rooms in a popular old pub on the edge of town. Book now.
• Fort Road Hotel: Cosy 4-start hotel right by the beach and old town. Book now.

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A brief history of Margate

Once a small fishing village, Margate became a popular resort town in the 1700s when seabathing came into fashion. This makes it one of the oldest and most enduring seaside resorts in the country.

Since then, countless visitors have flocked down from London to the town, which is one of the UK’s quintessential seaside towns. In the early to mid 20th century, it was thriving: in the 1960s it had two million visitors a year. But as air travel became cheaper, numbers drastically declined in the 1970s. This led to a period of decline. 

Investment, and increased interest in the town (such as because of its burgeoning art scene) has led to a bit of a revival in Margate, and parts of the town are now thriving – such as the Old Town. In other parts, though, the decline is evident, and the town is quite polarised with extremes of wealth and deprivation.

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FAQs about a visit to Margate

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