Top tips when you’re visiting Rye
Nicola, owner of the beautiful Old Stout House in the heart of Rye is fanatical about the town and the area. Here she shares some of her own favourite things to do.
Rye town
The medieval town of Rye is stunning and just walking around soaking up the architecture is wonderful, but it’s also stuffed with a growing number of great independent shops, cafes, restaurants and art galleries etc. plus fab interiors shopping in new, retro and vintage stores. There’s lots of old fashioned tea and top notch ice cream parlours. Don’t miss incredible artisan hot chocolate for children and adults alike at the amazing Knoops! There are often food, music and arts festivals in Rye too. Check the link at the end for these and other events around the wider area. There’s also a very lovely boutique digital cinema called Kino in Rye which shows the latest releases with a great bar and courtyard café too.
Rye Harbour
A two minute drive further out of Rye and then left onto a straight road that takes you into a village that’s a little lost in time and home to a huge and beautiful RSPB nature reserve – is also well worth a visit. There’s a large, free car park and you can walk on footpaths through the wild reserve (where there’s also a new architect-designed glass and concrete café with amazing views) and eventually arrive at a secret beach. No facilities and barely visited but very beautiful. It’s safe to swim (we swim there) and there’s several curious seals that often come and say hello! It’s sandy from about half tide. The William the Conqueror pub, back in the village, is by the RNLI station and serves very decent pub food with a Cypriot theme – the small Bosun’s Cafe just opposite does a great cuppa and standard cafe fare plus excellent catch of the day fish roll specials and more.
Where to eat in Rye
For good food in Rye The Landgate is outstanding (but formal) and The Mermaid is highly rated and in a very historic (and reputedly Britain’s most haunted!) building. The Union is a hip and stylish gastro pub with a modern British menu done extremely well. The Fig does wonderful and inventive lunches and now dinners too. The Olde Belle is picture perfect and does gourmet burgers and The Standard is also an outstanding place for excellent, modern British food in a very stylish setting. For a relaxed gastro pub lunch or dinner the quirky Globe Inn Marsh is perfect and for good fish and chips try Marinos or The Kettle O’ Fish. Family-friendly Simply Italian does authentic good value pizza and pasta. There’s many more though and lots of choice.
Dungeness
Of course, Dungeness (with Derek Jarman’s famous Prospect Cottage) is also only 20 mins drive away and if you go you must visit The Dungeness Fish shack for lunch, cooked by a local fishing family every day in a converted shipping container next to their boats (check if they’re open if you’re visiting between October and April). You can’t miss it when you go there and you won’t regret visiting. It’s lunch only and you’ll be sharing on trestles set up on the shingle. Get there for midday to be sure of a seat! A walk to the seafront over the shingle nature reserve is an evocative way to spend a few hours – it’s not advised to swim here however. Greatstone beach, a further five minute drive from Dungeness, is another stunning long dune-backed sandy beach like Camber and fantastic for a paddle, swim or walk
For everyday provisions there is Jempsons supermarket close by or ten minute drive away is Salts Farm Shop and cafe, which is also a lovely place to sit for a proper tea or coffee and a great homemade sandwich or cake. The shop is well stocked with local fruit and veg plus Sussex free range meats, artisan cheeses, Cook ready meals, local vineyard wine and beers and much more. It also sells firewood, artisan charcoal and kindling. Rye Bay Fishery is the local, brilliant fishmonger for the best own-caught seasonal catch.
Camber Sands
Ten minutes drive away is the village of Camber which is really all about the incredible beach – it’s just stunning whatever the season. Camber itself is changing fast from a sleepy beach village of bungalows, with summer bucket and spade visitors, to a cooler destination for Londoners seeking wild open spaces for the weekend or longer. It’s still not a place of architectural beauty but there’s some great, award-winning new architecture/renovations around replacing the not very exciting bungalows etc. There was a fantastic and informative recent article in the Sunday Times travel section singing its praises as the new Montauk (setting for series The Affair) just Google ‘Sunday Times Travel Camber’ and it comes up.
For eating out in Camber the award-winning The Gallivant is almost opposite and offers fine dining with a relaxed bistro atmosphere. They have sadly recently introduced an over 16s policy in the dining room however.
The KitKat cafe, right on the beach at Camber in front of the smaller car park at the end of Old Lydd Rd, does basic jackets and toasties at lunch plus ice cream. It has toilets plus raised deck seating facing out sea. Food is nothing special but it’s an epic place to sit on a blustery day after flying a kite or just for cloud spotting over a coffee.
Hastings
Nearby Hastings (20 -25 mins drive along pretty country roads) is a very up and coming bohemian town filled with artists and creatives who have helped regenerate it. Lots of great antiques hunting, indie shops and a beautiful medieval old town to stroll around. Do walk along the seafront promenade and go to Goat Ledge, the fabulously quirky seafront cafe between Hastings and St Leonard’s, where you can also hire a colourful hut for the day (but book that ahead in high season). Eat at The Crown if you can in the old town, or Michelin starred St Clements in St Leonards. Maybe take the old Victorian furnicular lifts (there’s an East or West Hill one) up the cliff for incredible views and a stroll in the country park. Walk down Rock a Nore to buy the day’s catch direct from one the many historic fisherman-owned black wooden net huts. Top London restaurants buy their fish here from the UK’s last beach-launched (and MSC certified) fishing fleets.
A good beach front tea or lunch stop on the way there or back, if you take the scenic sea front road to Hastings, is the new Winchelsea Beach Cafe. https://www.winchelseabeachcafe.com/menu
Of course you don’t have to travel far to visit award-winning vineyards, impressive castles, stately homes, country parks and ancient woodlands and so much more ,plus there’s unspoilt countryside all around you for walking, cycling (bike hire at Rye Harbour) and more. If you’re seriously sporty there are SUP, dinghy sailing, windsurfing and kite surfing lessons/session at Rye Watersports just around the corner (plus an amazing lakeside café called The Hooley with award-winning homemade cakes!) there’s also a couple of gorgeous wild swimming river spots nearby (ask me for details and at your own risk of course).
Handy resources
Pick up a copy of the beautifully produced RyeZine magazine in town and you’ll find many more new places to discover and explore as well. Most recently they featured Water Lane near Hawkhurst, a new kitchen garden/restaurant/shop with craft workshops opened on the site of an old plant nursery by two relocated Londoners www.waterlane.net
The Visit 1066 Country is also a very handy resource. https://www.visit1066country.com/
