Broadstairs

Broadstairs calls itself the jewel in Thanet's crown, which is the sort of thing you only say when Margate and Ramsgate can hear you. Margate got the galleries and the weekenders with tote bags, Ramsgate kept the Royal Harbour, and Broadstairs held on to Dickens, seven sandy bays and an ice-cream parlour that hasn't touched its interior since 1957. The town is named after a flight of steps cut into a chalk cliff, and it has been politely refusing to become anything more exciting ever since. People move here for the quiet, then spend August complaining about the day-trippers who came for the same thing.