15 Best Things to Do in Folkestone
Folkestone packs more into a compact seafront town than almost anywhere on the Kent coast: a rebuilt harbour pier full of street food and live music, a hillside Creative Quarter of galleries and independents, an award-winning coastal park, sandy and shingle beaches, and one of the UK's most ambitious public art collections threaded through the streets. These are the 15 best things to do in Folkestone right now — most of them free — with what's on this week one tap away.
1. Eat, drink and catch the sunset on the Harbour Arm
The old ferry pier is now Folkestone's living room: a wide promenade stretching into the Channel, lined with street-food kitchens, bars and coffee hatches, with the lighthouse — and its champagne bar — at the far end. Walk out along the restored boardwalk past the old Folkestone Harbour railway station, grab whatever smells best, and find a spot on the edge as the sun drops behind the town. Weekends bring markets and live sets; on a clear evening you can see the French coast.
View Eat, drink and catch the sunset on the Harbour Arm
2. Browse the Creative Quarter and the Old High Street
The cobbled Old High Street and Tontine Street climb from the harbour through the Creative Quarter — a deliberately artist-led district of studios, galleries, record shops, vintage clothes and independent everything. It's the engine of Folkestone's reinvention and the best window-shopping mile in East Kent. Come during the day for the shops and open studios, and come back after dark: several of the town's best small venues and bars hide in the same few streets.
View Browse the Creative Quarter and the Old High Street
3. Hunt the Folkestone Artworks around town
Folkestone keeps the pieces from its Triennial art festival, so the town has quietly accumulated what Creative Folkestone bills as the UK's largest urban outdoor exhibition of contemporary art — over seventy works scattered along the seafront, harbour and streets. Look for Cornelia Parker's mermaid gazing out from Sunny Sands, an Antony Gormley figure standing in the tidal shallows of the harbour, and pieces by Tracey Emin, Yoko Ono and Mark Wallinger hiding in plain sight. It's completely free, always open, and turns any walk into a treasure hunt.
4. Spend an afternoon in Lower Leas Coastal Park
Tucked between the clifftop and the beach, the Lower Leas Coastal Park is one of the south coast's best free days out: pine-shaded winding paths, wildflower terraces, a huge free adventure playground that ranks among the biggest in the region, and a natural amphitheatre that hosts open-air gigs and theatre in summer. It links the town beach to Sandgate along the flat seafront path, so you can walk or scoot the whole shoreline without touching a road.
View Spend an afternoon in Lower Leas Coastal Park
5. Stroll The Leas and take the Zig Zag Path down
The Leas is Folkestone's grand Victorian promenade — a clifftop mile of lawns, sea views and bandstand concerts, laid out in the town's resort heyday. Descend by the Zig Zag Path, a 1920s folly of caves, arches and hairpins built from sprayed concrete that feels carved from the cliff itself. At the eastern end sits the Leas Lift, one of the UK's last water-balanced funiculars (1885), currently in the final stretch of a £6.6 million restoration ahead of reopening — the wooden carriages are worth a look even mid-works.
View Stroll The Leas and take the Zig Zag Path down
6. Take the kids to Sunny Sands
Folkestone's sandy beach sits right beside the harbour — a proper golden cove that fills with buckets and spades on summer days, watched over by The Folkestone Mermaid, Cornelia Parker's life-cast answer to Copenhagen's statue. It's minutes on foot from the Harbour Arm's food stalls, so lunch is sorted, and the rock pools at the eastern end keep younger kids busy for hours. Arrive early on hot weekends; it's popular for a reason.
View Take the kids to Sunny Sands
7. Catch a gig — any night of the week
For a town its size, Folkestone's live music scene punches ridiculously hard. The 1,500-capacity art-deco Leas Cliff Hall pulls national touring acts, while the Harbour Arm stages, pubs and Creative Quarter venues keep free live music running all week — from ska nights to open jams to festival takeovers. FolkAir tracks every Folkestone gig daily, so the what's-on page below is always current.
See what's on in Folkestone this week
8. See a show at the Quarterhouse
Creative Folkestone's Quarterhouse on Tontine Street is the town's performing-arts hub — a modern auditorium hosting theatre, comedy tours, contemporary dance, spoken word and gigs year-round, plus the town's book and music festivals. Its glowing perforated facade is a landmark of the Creative Quarter in its own right. Check the programme alongside the town's gig listings and you'll rarely find an empty weekend.
View See a show at the Quarterhouse
9. Ride the bowls at F51, the world’s first multi-storey skatepark
F51 is genuinely one of a kind: the world's first purpose-built multi-storey skatepark, opened in 2022, stacking flow bowls, street courses and a deep concrete bowl across suspended floors, with a climbing wall and boxing gym below. Sessions are bookable by discipline and level, beginners get dedicated slots and coaching, and spectators can watch from the mezzanines. Even if you never touch a board, the architecture is worth seeing.
10. Do the town and fishing museums
Folkestone Museum in the town hall tells the whole story — smugglers, Victorian boom, wartime front line, artistic rebirth — with genuinely good local collections. Down on The Stade, the volunteer-run Fishing History and Heritage Museum keeps the working harbour's memory alive among the boats that still land catch daily. Pair the latter with a crab sandwich or a plate of whelks from the harbour stalls for the full effect.
View Do the town and fishing museums
11. Walk the East Cliff to the Warren
Climb past the Martello towers on the East Cliff and drop into Folkestone Warren — a wild, landslip-formed undercliff of chalk faces, scrub and hidden beaches that feels a world away from town. It's one of Kent's best fossil-hunting spots (look after winter storms), the views run to Dover's white cliffs, and on the way back you can descend to the near-empty shingle at Warren Beach. Sturdy shoes; take water.
View Walk the East Cliff to the Warren
12. Visit the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge
Ten minutes inland at the former RAF Hawkinge — the closest fighter station to France in 1940 — sits the world's largest collection of Battle of Britain artefacts, gathered since 1971 in the airfield's surviving huts and hangars. Relics from hundreds of crashed aircraft, full-size replica Spitfires and Hurricanes, and rooms of pilots' personal effects make it a genuinely moving few hours, not a dry display. Check opening days before travelling.
View Visit the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge
13. Play the harbourside adventure golf
On the seafront boardwalk by the harbour, the adventure golf course is the reliable crowd-pleaser for mixed-age groups — 18 landscaped holes with the beach on one side and the Harbour Arm on the other, so the loser buys ice creams thirty seconds after the last putt. Folkestone's escape rooms and a laser-tag arena sit within a few minutes' walk when the weather turns.
View Play the harbourside adventure golf
14. Eat properly: from harbour fish to Michelin-listed dining
Folkestone eats far above its weight. Rocksalt hangs over the harbour with a Michelin-listed menu built on the morning's catch; Steep Street Coffee House stacks books to the ceiling on the Old High Street; and the town runs deep on Nepalese, Turkish and Vietnamese kitchens, chip shops that still fry in view of the boats, and craft-beer taprooms. Start with the food-and-drink guide and work outward.
Browse food & drink in Folkestone
15. Time your visit for a festival
Folkestone's calendar is stacked: a month of gigs across town every May, free summer music weekends on the Harbour Arm, Charivari carnival day in July, Pride on The Leas, a songwriting festival and book festival in autumn, and the Triennial every three years transforming the whole town into a gallery. Whenever you're coming, check the live what's-on listings first — there's a decent chance your weekend already has a headline.
Check Folkestone's live events calendar
Folkestone FAQs
What is Folkestone famous for?
Folkestone is best known for its regeneration story: the Harbour Arm pier reborn as a street-food and music destination, the artist-led Creative Quarter on the Old High Street, and the Folkestone Artworks — over seventy contemporary artworks permanently installed around town. Historically it was one of England's grand Victorian seaside resorts and the country's front line in both world wars.
What can you do in Folkestone for free?
A lot of the best of Folkestone costs nothing: walking the Harbour Arm, the Folkestone Artworks trail, the Creative Quarter streets, The Leas promenade and Zig Zag Path, Lower Leas Coastal Park and its huge adventure playground, Sunny Sands beach, and the clifftop walk to the Warren. Much of the summer live music on the Harbour Arm is free too.
Is Folkestone worth visiting?
Yes — it's one of the most interesting towns on the south coast right now. Within a mile you get a working harbour, a sandy beach, a national-scale public art collection, an independent shopping street, a coastal park and a live music scene that runs seven nights a week. It's an hour from London by high-speed train, which makes it an easy day trip.
Is Folkestone good for families?
Very. Sunny Sands is a proper sandy beach next to the harbour food stalls, Lower Leas Coastal Park has one of the region's biggest free adventure playgrounds, and the seafront adds adventure golf, rock pools and traffic-free walking. F51 runs beginner skate and climb sessions for kids, and the museums are small enough to hold short attention spans.
What's on in Folkestone this week?
FolkAir tracks Folkestone's gigs, festivals and events daily — the what's-on guide lists everything happening today, this weekend and beyond, from Harbour Arm sessions to Leas Cliff Hall tours.