The Gallivant

The Gallivant sits directly opposite the dunes at Camber, where the sand runs for miles and the light does strange, flat, luminous things at low tide. The building is unassuming from the road — a low timber-and-render sprawl — and that is deliberate. Everything inside is turned towards the beach a two-minute walk away.

Rooms are pared back in a New England register, with wood, linen and a lot of white, and the whole place runs on a quietly wellness-minded footing: daily yoga in the studio, a Bamford spa, afternoon cake, filtered water in every room and a policy of no televisions in some categories. Dogs are welcome, and plenty come.

Harry's, the restaurant, leans French and coastal and takes fish from the Rye and Hastings boats. Rye itself is four miles away and worth a whole day, Dungeness and its lighthouse are a short drive east, and London St Pancras is around seventy minutes by train from Rye — which is why the place fills at weekends.