As other reviewers remark, Dover is usually seen as just a ferry terminal. To me this is pretty weird, actually, as it is virtually impossible NOT TO notice the castle and the cliffs which are the main attractions.

*This time I have added overview of the main shopping drag and a note on an Italian resturant.*

Very easy by car (less than an hour from southern M25 in good traffic); Dover is surprisingly hard to get by public transport. Train from Waterloo East or Charing Cross takes about 2 hrs and costs 20 GBP for a day-return; a National Express coach takes over 3 hrs to Victoria at the cost of 11 GBP day return (this makes day return not terribly viable option).

ACCOMODATION

Most of the guest houses are located along Folkestone Road and Maison Dieu Road. Folkestone Road is further from town, but it is less busy traffic wise so if you have a car go there.

Dover goes back to the Romans (in fact you can see remains of Roman lighthouses in the castle and at Western Hights as well as some ruins of Roman foundations and a Roman painted house in town).

What is interesting about Dover for me is that it is NOT like the other costal towns - it has nothing seasidy-resorty about it. It is shabbier, yes, it doesn't have the Regency or Victorian seaside promenade, no pier as such, no rock sold on the seaside; and it doesn't seem half as dead even in the middle of winter as a lot of the resort towns do. It does, however, get substantially livelier in the summer, with the double-decker city-tour and many foreigners strolling along the hight street and visiting attractions.

The principal attraction of Dover proper is its castle, dominating the town from its position on the top of the eastern cliffs. There had been a manned garrison here since the Norman times until the 50’s and the whole site is a maze of buildings, walls, battlements, tunnels and towers well worth a half-day visit and the £8.50 entrance fee. The grounds used to be free for the residents to walk on but now the Castle is under English Heritage management (they don’t seem to be doing much to advertise it considering how fascinating it is) and everybody has to pay the fee, the same for all attractions.

Currently (untill spring 2005) there is an exhibition entitled 'Romans and Britons' in the museum, full of wax-figure displays showing how the ancient inhabitants might have looked and lived; and with informative written panels on the history of Romans in Southern England.

*Crabble Corn Mill* is apparently the oldest working mill in England, one of the many that were bulit along the banks of River Dour. There is a cafe, free educational exhibition in the basement and a guided tour of the mill itself (charge applies, we have not been). The mill is located in what is really a village of River (now more of a Dover suburb) and not far from here further up the river are lovely parks of Kearnsey Abbey, Russel Gardens and Bushy Ruff.

The best sight of Dover is not really in Dover tough and it's the famous, famous

Pictures of Dover (England)

Langdon Cliffs

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Less famous and perhaps unknown to anybody but the locals and specialists in military history is area of *Western Hights*. It is also located on the cliff, and as the name suggests, located to the west towards the Shakespeare Cliff but virtually in town. It is a vast expanse of headland hiding massive military fortifications from Napoleonic era - very impressive in a grim way but now almost totally overrun by wildlife, with sycamores, ivy, vervain, and other wild flowers, as well as what seems like millions of bramble bushes now (September) covered in beautiful, shiny blackberries and dewberries or whatever other kind of bramble there is. It is a mystery to me why nobody comes and picks the fruit but I am coming back tomorrow with a bucket to make a vat of jam! Leaving fruit-picking aside, the area is now a nature reserve and a historic attraction and there is several marked trials and a number of interesting information boards (on both history and wild-life) dotted around. You can walk along the bottom of the giant, brick-lined ditch and see where the gun batteries were located. The Citadel is now a Immigration Removal facility but the fate of the rest of the fortification is a welcome reminder of how fragile and insignificant human efforts are when faced by the natural power of the bramble…

The 'Dover proper' - in other words the long street stretching from the Market Square up the Dour river valley and called variously Cannon Street, Bigging Street, High Street and Londong Road - is, to be honest, a bit of a dump. A few meadieval and turn-of-the century buildings are mixed with modern 60's and 70's abominations in the usual UK mixture of chain-stores, charity shops and pound-savers. It's largely pedestrianised, but overall distinctly unimpressive.

The best in my opinion fish-and-chip shop is the one run by an Italian in Castle street.

Italian 'La Scala' up the Hight Street is small and resonably priced, with decent Italian food and proper Italian owner and stuff (there is a Pole there as well).

Shopping in Dover isn't very exciting (c'mon: there is mile after square mile of shopping on the other side of the Channel if you are after shopping); there is a basic selection of your usual supermarkets (a slightly hidden Somerfield in the centre of town off Castle street is a good option for supplies if self-catering) and a few high-street shops (Boots, M&S, Mothercare, Evans etc); large Tesco in Whitfield (10 minutes drive) open 24 hrs.