Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop and the reason a great many school parties know the name Becket. The cathedral is the reason to come. The town around it is small, partly walled, and easy to like if you step off the main pedestrian street.
It is the right day-trip when Dover’s cliffs are the morning and you want stone and a choir in the afternoon, or when London has been enough city and you want a change of scale without a long ride.
See
The cathedral
Pay to enter. The precinct is the calm part. Evensong, when it is sung, is the best-value hour in the building.
The city wall
A stretch near the Dane John gardens. Short, and enough to see the town as a town rather than a shopping street.
St Augustine’s and St Martin’s
Outside the centre, and the older Christian story. Worth it if the cathedral queue has already taught you patience.
The river
A loop behind the Weavers’ houses. Ten minutes, and quieter than the Buttermarket.