facttime

When planning  my recent day trip  to the Kent Coast, I had earmarked two new-to-me speciality coffee spots to visit: Forts in Margate...and its sister location in Broadstairs. Better still, I could walk from one Forts to the other by following the Viking Coastal Trail along the beach. And because good things come in threes, I was also excited to pay a visit to Curve Coffee Roasters , an old favourite of mine , which had moved to a new location since I was last in Margate. Forts Cafe I arrived in Broadstairs on the train from St Pancras and it was a pleasant 10-minute stroll along the High Street to get to my first Forts of the day. Owner Will Pitts opened the Margate original in June 2020 — an even more challenging time to open a speciality coffee shop than usual, for obvious reasons, but the Broadstairs cafe made its début just a year later, in summer 2021. Both cafes have a very relaxed vibe and welcoming and knowledgeable staff. I spotted the Broadstairs Forts' excess sea...

I made the most of the sunshine on Saturday by heading to the coast — more specifically, to the Kentish towns of Margate and Broadstairs. I was much too late to find any available accommodation in Margate ( Fort Road Hotel  would have been my top choice) but thanks to the high-speed trains, you can pack in a lot on a day trip. Read on for my one-day Margate and Broadstairs itinerary, including a walk along the Viking Coastal Trail and other things to do and places to eat, drink and shop. 10:00 Coffee stop and quick shop in Broadstairs I booked a return train ticket to Margate but hopped off one stop early in Broadstairs, arriving just before 10:00 am. My first priority was coffee and I made a beeline for  Forts Cafe , which is a stone's throw from the beach. As well as the house Tastyboi espresso, roasted by Origin , Will Pitts' colourful cafe and its sister location in Margate serve some excellent coffees from a range of guest roasters. I opted for a piccolo with a natural Rw...

For the second year running , rather than picking my top five leaps  of the year, I've picked five stories that sum up my travel highlights of the year. It has, of course, been a year with very little foreign travel. It's also the first year in 15 years where I haven't been to New York a single time. I miss the city so much and can't wait to return. But I'm grateful that I was able to travel to one new country ( Malta ) and one new European city ( Porto ), as well as taking short trips to  Edinburgh and Canterbury . I've also spent time with family in Oxford and Walsall, and spent a little more time in Birmingham , usually on the way to Wolves matches. My motto for the second half of the year was carpe diem — if a trip or event was possible, I would try to do it as soon as I could, before the situation changed again. 1. Leaping into Malta's Blue Lagoon Like many people, I had to cancel a lot of travel plans last year, including seven international trips, a...

Welcome to the 11th edition of my annual speciality coffee and food awards , where I am highlighting some of my favourites from the coffee shops and eateries that I visited for the first time this year. For obvious reasons, I travelled much less than normal this year, although I did manage a holiday in Malta  in September, as well as city breaks in Porto , Edinburgh and Canterbury , and regular visits to Oxford, Wolverhampton and Birmingham. As such, just like last year, I've rejigged the regions covered in each category so that I can showcase as many of the places I've loved closer to home and further afield. As the pandemic continues to disrupt life as we knew it, it's more important than ever to support the hospitality industry — respecting all local guidelines that may be in place, of course. If you're keen to read more of my speciality coffee recommendations, you may find my London coffee guide  to be a useful starting point; there are currently more than 150 coff...

I wrote last week about my recent long weekend trip to Canterbury, with several side trips to the Kent coast. I brought my Aeropress with me, as I wasn't sure how much the bank holiday and COVID would combine to affect coffee shop opening hours, but I found several great coffee spots in Canterbury and Whitstable, all but one of which roast their own coffee. Read on to find out more and for a handy map. CANTERBURY Fond Coffee I don't always follow the instructions on A-boards , but something about Fond Coffee's sign on the High Street sent me heading down White Horse Lane, even though I had a date with a cathedral . I'm glad I did because at the end of the alley, round on Jewry Lane, I found a delightful coffee shop inside the Fruitworks co-working space . It's a community hub as well as a coffee spot: the calendar on the wall highlighted events of national importance (lockdown easing) and local importance ('Charlie's birthday — bring cake') and, well, o...