Rye, GB

Rye's most famous old inn, with cellars from 1156 and a current building from 1420, packed with timbers, priest holes and a giant inglenook. The restaurant runs a two-rosette modern British menu using Romney Marsh lamb and Rye Bay fish. Atmosphere is the main event; book a window table.

A 15th-century beam-and-fireplace pub on The Mint, doing seriously good gastro food from Sussex farms and Rye Bay boats. Locals rate it as the best proper pub dinner in the citadel. Real fires in winter, sun-trap garden in summer.

Chef Paul Webbe's long-running Tower Street fish restaurant, with day-boat catch from Rye Bay and Hastings on a daily-changing menu. Think rock oysters, Sussex crab, gurnard, fish stews. Lighter and brighter than the citadel pubs, with a buzzy ground-floor cafe and a calmer upstairs dining room.

A tiny neighbourhood bistro just outside the old Landgate, doing classic French-leaning British cooking with Romney Marsh lamb and just-landed fish. Long admired by the Good Food Guide for unfussy, well-priced cooking and an honest short menu. Feels like someone's front room, in a good way.

Family-friendly Italian set in a 17th-century mill building on Strand Quay, with two floors and a garden for warmer days. Big menu of pizza, pasta and weekly specials at fair prices, which is why it is always busy with locals as well as visitors. The reliable pick when you have kids or a hungry crowd.

A quirky, eclectically decorated free house on Military Road where Rye starts to give way to marsh, with mismatched chairs, oddball collectibles and a serious gin list. Kitchen leans into Romney Marsh lamb, Rye Bay fish and the occasional soft-shell crab. Dog-friendly and a proper local feel away from the citadel crowds.

The only proper pub inside the citadel walls, tucked behind Ypres Tower with a walled beer garden looking out over Romney Marsh to the sea. Local-only cask ales and ciders that rotate constantly, and a small bar-snacks menu of cheese, pies and cured meats. It is a drinking pub, not a restaurant; come for the view and the beer.

An environmentally minded family-run cafe and B&B on the High Street, doing weekend brunch, organic breakfasts, cream teas and homemade cakes. Big window-front tables, friendly service, and a small back terrace. The local pick for a long, slow Saturday breakfast.

The original branch of the now-famous hot-chocolate bar, in a tiny shop next to the Landgate. You pick a cocoa percentage from 28 to 100, milk choice and a herb or spice from a long list, and they build it like a cocktail. The mug ahead of you may be cardamom, the one behind chili. Sounds gimmicky, tastes serious.

A tearoom in a timber-framed house next to St Mary's, with a sunny garden and a kitchen that turns out properly nice scones, savoury lunches and a full luxury high tea. Vegan and gluten-free options handled well, which is rare in town. Quieter than the High Street cafes.

Opened in 1953 and still running off Hylands Yard, this is the old-school Rye tearoom: loose-leaf teas, ground coffees, homemade cakes and a proper cream tea. Small, low-beamed, full of regulars. The cure for a wet afternoon between sightseeing.

A flat, well-marked circular walk from the Discovery Centre out past the lagoons to the sea wall and back, about four miles in total with shorter cuts possible. Bird hides at intervals, plenty of benches, and big-sky views over the shingle to Dungeness. Pushchair- and wheelchair-friendly on the main tracks.

A flat point-to-point along the eastern bank of the Rother out to the harbour mouth, then across the dunes onto Camber's huge sand beach. About seven miles one-way from Rye, or a shorter version from the Rye Harbour car park. Big skies, working boats and a proper beach finale.

The only proper sand dunes in Sussex, with miles of flat beach you can walk for as long as your legs hold out. The sweet spot is heading east from the main car park toward Broomhill and the lighthouse skyline of Dungeness in the distance. Beautiful on a quiet weekday out of season.

A classic 6-mile loop from the hilltop village of Winchelsea down to the Royal Military Canal, along the towpath through reed beds and back up over the marsh. Built as Napoleonic defence, the canal is now a slow ribbon of water full of swans and herons. Mostly flat with one climb back to the village.

A flat shingle-and-seawall walk westward from Winchelsea Beach toward Pett Level, with the cliffs of Fairlight ahead and Dungeness behind. At very low tides a petrified forest of black tree stumps appears at Pett, well worth timing. Quieter than Camber and good for a long blow.

An independent cinema in a converted Victorian library at the top of Lion Street, with two screens, a third function-space screen, and a generous cafe-bar with a sunny terrace. Programming mixes new releases, art-house and live opera and theatre broadcasts. Won a RIBA Award for the renovation.

The smaller, lesser-known site of Rye Castle Museum, on East Street, with the local history collection: smuggling kit, fire engines, Rye Pottery, town silver. Pairs with Ypres Tower on a single combined ticket. Quieter than the Tower and a good wet-weather hour.

The browsable run of antique, vintage and salvage shops along The Mint and down to Strand Quay, a Rye habit for generations. Strand Quay's converted warehouses are stuffed with reclaimed timber, ironwork, prints and china; The Mint runs to smaller dealers and curiosities. Easy hour or two of wandering.

The half-timbered 16th-century house that was the home of Victorian stage star Ellen Terry, now a National Trust theatre museum just over the Kent border. Period rooms full of her costumes, including the famous beetle-wing Lady Macbeth dress, plus a working Barn Theatre, rose garden and small cafe. A peaceful counterweight to busy Rye.

A roofless Henry VIII artillery fort marooned on grazing marsh between Rye and Winchelsea, reached only on foot across the nature reserve. The exterior is free to wander any time; the interior opens only on guided tours by arrangement. A good destination walk of about a mile each way from Rye Harbour.

The cobbled street everyone photographs in Rye, dropping steeply from the citadel toward Strand Quay between leaning timber-framed houses with names like The House Opposite and The House with Two Front Doors. The Mermaid Inn anchors it halfway down. Quietest first thing in the morning before the day-trippers arrive.

A squat 13th-century stone tower on the citadel's southern edge, built to defend Rye when the sea still reached the walls. It has done time as fort, private house, prison and mortuary, and now houses half of Rye Castle Museum, with views across Romney Marsh from the roof. Small but dense, and the volunteers know their stuff.

The big church on the citadel summit, dominating Rye for nine centuries, with the oldest functioning church turret clock in the country still visibly swinging its quarter boys. The real reason to come is the tower climb up wooden ladders and through the bells to a rooftop walk with a 360-degree view of Rye, the marsh and the sea.

A handsome Georgian townhouse just off Church Square, home for years to Henry James, then E F Benson of the Mapp and Lucia novels, and later Rumer Godden. National Trust now runs it as a small writers' house museum with a surprisingly peaceful walled garden out the back. Quick visit, but the garden alone is worth the entry on a sunny day.

Down on Strand Quay in an old sail loft, this is where to get oriented before exploring. The draw is the Story of Rye sound-and-light show projected onto a detailed scale model of the town, narrating Rye's pirate, smuggling and fire-and-French-raid past in about 20 minutes. There is also a small gift shop and audio walking-tour rentals.

A 1,000-acre coastal reserve a couple of miles south of town, with reed beds, shingle, old gravel-pit lagoons and hides full of birders most weekends. The Discovery Centre at the entrance has maps, a cafe and good loos. You can stitch together short loops out to Camber Castle or the sea wall, all of it flat and pushchair-friendly.