Are they finding great days out while staying at St Andrews apartments or elsewhere in Maidstone? As Kent’s bustling county town, Maidstone serves as a prime gateway to some of Southeast England’s top attractions within a short 10-mile radius. From ornate castles and gardens to family-friendly animal parks and historical sites, memorable adventures await discovery on days out near Maidstone and St Andrews apartments.
With scenic Kentish countryside surrounding the town, options for day trips abound. Follow winding lanes to find fairy tale castles, traipse through woodland gardens filled with rare plants from distant lands, get hands-on during living history lessons with costumed re-enactors, and more. It’s easy to uncover new sights near Maidstone and St Andrews apartments as each season reveals fresh activities, from lambing weekends to country fairs.
Here are top-rated attractions and day trips beckoning exploration within an easy drive from St Andrews apartments in Maidstone.
Leeds Castle
Resting majestically amid a 500-acre park just 6 miles outside central Maidstone, Leeds Castle has welcomed royalty and visitors for over 900 years of history since its origins in the 12th century. Surrounded by Kent’s lush countryside, this jewel often claims the crown as the world’s loveliest castle. Today, Leeds Castle delights guests with opportunities to explore winding rooms adorned with historical treasures, traverse themed gardens dotted with curiosities and brave, unique mazes, including an aerial treetop walkway, and discover birds of prey at the castle’s aviary.
Special events, from summer rock concerts and Medieval-style jousting tournaments to Guy Fawkes fireworks displays, occur regularly. Kids especially adore themed playgrounds like the Knights Realm Adventure with zip lines and climbing walls. Don’t miss Leeds Castle during your stay at St Andrew’s apartments for a favourite day out near Maidstone.
Ightham Mote
Preserved by natural beauty and careful restoration, Ightham Mote remains one of England’s most exquisite medieval manor houses just 9 miles south of Maidstone and St Andrews apartments near Sevenoaks. Stone walls surrounded by an ancient moat protect this 14th-century estate, where self-guided tours reveal the Great Hall’s timbered ceiling adorned with dramatic angels, a winding staircase up the crypt-like base of the house, Gothic arched windows framing garden views, and the 19th-century chapel onsite.
Parts of Ightham Mote’s magical design date from the 1300s, with renovations added in later Tudor and Victorian eras. The house also starred in iconic films and television like Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Downton Abbey. Wander the mansion before exploring quartyards, orchards, woodland, and water features spanning 224 acres for a top day out near Maidstone and St Andrews apartments.
Riverhill Himalayan Gardens
Located under 8 miles southeast of Maidstone and St Andrews apartments, Riverhill Himalayan Gardens immerses visitors in authentic Asian landscape design across 26 acres of Kent countryside. Opened in 1990 near Sevenoaks, Riverhill safeguards over 2,500 rare and vibrant plants that prefer cooler climates like the Himalayan mountains. Follow the Gardens’ curving pathways over bridges past burbling ponds and streams to appreciate how texture, colour, and scale transport you halfway around the world.
Towering rhododendrons and magnolias filtered with blue Himalayan poppies, fragrant daphnes, and even yaks in paddocks further the otherworldly ambience. Explore England’s first authentic Himalayan garden during your stay at St Andrew’s apartments for a getaway day out near Maidstone.
Lullingstone Castle World Garden
A visual history lesson awaits at Lullingstone Castle World Garden just 10 miles north of Maidstone and St Andrews apartments. Dating to the 15th century, Lullingstone Castle has remained the family estate of the Harts, spanning more than 500 years alongside the River Darent. Make time during your stay at St Andrew’s apartments to wander castle grounds, tracing the evolution of English gardening from medieval knot gardens to Victorian conservatories to the World Garden created in the 1780s as a homage to global exploration by the era’s great plant hunters.
Today, visitors are encouraged to explore Lullingstone’s gatehouse, intriguing Gothic Revival Chapel, and 15 acres of grounds and woodlands. Don’t miss the estate’s Tom Hart Dyke Lime Avenue originating from the 1700s, flanked by Britain’s oldest cultivated olive trees.
Old Soar Manor
Found in the picturesque village of Plaxtol just 9 miles west of Maidstone and St Andrews apartments, Old Soar Manor transports visitors back over half a millennium to Medieval times within Kent. From the outside, this historic stone homestead looks nearly identical to when it was first built in the 1460s. Step inside for a vivid day near Maidstone as costumed guides explain warming pans for beds, uneven floors that throw off balance, ornate oak chests passed through generations, and columns recycled from earlier structures.
Follow the guide through the great hall, solars, kitchen, dairy, and buttery to glimpse how society’s elite and their servants once dwelled. Check out resident rabbits and hens in wicker cages outside, just like Old Soar would have featured centuries past. Next door lies the flint-walled St. Nicholas Church, parts of which date from the 1200s with floor memorial brasses remembering the owners of Old Soar Manor.
Kent Life
Experience hundreds of years of agricultural practices and rural craftsmanship at Kent Life Heritage Farm, 8 miles southwest of Maidstone town center and St Andrews apartments outside Sandling. Spread over 28 acres, this outdoor museum features heritage breeds of British pigs, sheep, cattle, goats, and poultry, plus gardens and orchards you’ll recognize from the countryside surrounding St Andrews apartments.
Yet the skilled craftspeople make Kent Life’s history alive through interactive demonstrations of everything from stone masonry, rag rug making, and bee-keeping to bread baking inside a working watermill. While staying at St Andrew’s apartments, kids delight in bottle-feeding springtime lambs, goat kids, and piglets. With special seasonal events from lambing weekends to summer fetes, Kent Life promises an engaging day near Maidstone.
Western Heights, Dover
History buffs staying at St Andrews apartments in Maidstone or anywhere in Kent shouldn’t miss a day exploring the coastal citadel of Dover’s Western Heights, which is 20 miles southeast. Dramatically perched along iconic White Cliffs with sweeping channel views, these conserved fortifications formed frontline protection for Dover and southern England during the Napoleonic Wars and World Wars due to the area’s proximity to continental Europe.
Today, Western Heights allows visitors to walk along 1.2 miles of ramparts to drop deep into the cliffs down the Grand Shaft triple staircase, which later served as an officer’s shelter. Inside extensive tunnels lay abandoned relics like Machine Gun posts, infantry barracks, and secret WWI Underground Hospital Quarters within the Western Heights complex for you to discover.
Howletts Wild Animal Park
For an exciting family day out near Maidstone during your stay at St Andrew’s apartments, visit wildlife conservancy Howletts and its 90 acres of rare endangered species. Located 20 miles east outside Canterbury, Howletts forms part of the broader Aspinall Foundation, breeding critical mammals like African elephants, western lowland gorillas, clouded leopards, and Amur tigers.
Get eye level with the world’s largest gorilla kingdom from the park’s aerial forest canopy walkway before witnessing England’s most giant elephant herd with the latest bubbly calf. Howletts’ lemur woodlands offer face-to-face monkey madness. Unique hands-on experiences like animal feeding sessions, becoming a junior zoo keeper, or glamping overnight frequently sell out months ahead. Plan when staying at St Andrew’s apartments.
Hever Castle
Found 23 miles west of Maidstone near Edenbridge, Hever Castle served as the childhood home to Queen Anne Boleyn in the 15th century before becoming a backdrop for some of England’s most dramatic history. Cross the wooden bridge over the River Eden to explore Hever’s double-moated 13-acre grounds and Medieval stone fortifications, which later transformed into an elegant Tudor palace visited by royalty like Henry VIII.
Today, kids rule at Hever as they dress up for Knight & Princess School lessons and operate toy cannons atop the playground’s Towers & Battlements. Wander through Hever Castle’s iconic Italianate gardens to discover its award-winning 2,500-rose Garden or the yew maze inspired by Hampton Court’s trapezoid design. Staying at St Andrews apartments near Maidstone allows easy access to the surrounding heritage.
Penshurst Place
Found midway between Maidstone and Royal Tunbridge Wells, Penshurst Place embodies one of England’s finest surviving examples of a 14th-century manor house. So storied that it hosted royal hunting parties for King Henry VIII in the 1500s amid undulating parklands, Penshurst Place has remained the family seat of the Sidneys for over 460 years. The handsome sandstone house is just as captivating today with bright 60-foot high chestnut beams lining the Baron’s Hall ceiling and suits of armor like guards of honor.
Beyond the mansion lies 60 acres of formal Italianate gardens and vineyard, along with rolling pastures and ancient woodlands that unfold over thousands more acres. Other highlights include Kent’s famed fruit and hop-growing farmlands, the onsite Toy Museum spanning generations of childhoods, and costumed interpreters recreating Tudor cooking or 1880s servants’ duties. It was an easy day out near St Andrews apartments in Maidstone while based in Kent.
With excellent road and rail links crisscrossing the Garden of England, it’s simple to explore top attractions on days out without a car while staying at St Andrews apartments or anywhere nearby in Maidstone. Follow well-signed footpaths around town or hop local buses towards cottage castles, gardens, and family-friendly adventures. Maidstone’s proximity to London and mainland Europe via the Port of Dover makes it an ideal basecamp for discovering Kent’s treasures on days out.
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