East Sussex, United Kingdom

The Gallivant

Price per night from$227.87

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP179.17), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Summering on the south coast

Setting

Sand dunes and salty air

Down by the dunes of Camber Sands, The Gallivant hotel is a motel conversion turned sophisticated seaside stay, with a Hamptons air and touch of Shaker style. Guests can get cosy in a cabin (of sorts) or step out into the hotel's manicured garden from their room. Climb aboard for superlative south-coast dining and a prime location steps away from the shore.

Smith Extra

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A cocktail of your choice from the Drinks on the Dunes menu

Facilities

Photos The Gallivant facilities

Need to know

Rooms

20, including four Luxury Garden Rooms.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £215.00, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates include breakfast. The Essential Gallivant rate also includes a two-course dinner and morning yoga; Complete Gallivant bookings get a three-course dinner, tea time, wine at 5pm, and yoga.

Also

If you like what you see, most of what you see in the hotel is for sale – and if you purchase one of artist Karl Terry's paintings, the proceeds go towards partner charity Blood Cancer UK.

At the hotel

Coastal garden, spa, library, daily yoga classes, Peloton bike and free WiFi throughout. In rooms, smart TV, digital radio, free filtered water and Bamford bath products. Luxury Garden Rooms and Garden Rooms have direct access to the coastal garden, and a secluded alfresco dining area.

Our favourite rooms

Check into one of the uniquely decorated Luxury Garden Rooms, for doors that open out onto a quiet coastal garden and a small private seating area. Generously sized, these rooms have oak floors, a rolltop bath tub big enough for two and a large selection of books and individual touches – we love the vintage swimsuits displayed on the walls. The Garden Rooms are Hamptons-esque spaces with a very private terrace and stylish, shore-inspired decor.

Spa

You’ll find the one-room Bamford Cabin in the corner of the coastal garden; book in advance to indulge in treatments in the cosy treatment room of this pampering hideaway. Choose from a range of therapeutic facials and de-stressing massages using luxurious products by Bamford.

Packing tips

Blue, white and taupe to blend in with your coastal surrounds; beach-proof shoes suited to a hilly ramble, or borrow a pair of the hotel's wellies. If you're up for a morning yoga session, then be sure to bring your gym kit.

Also

A minimum stay of two nights is required for weekend stays from April to September; you can book one night on Fridays from October to March.

Pet‐friendly

There are four pet-friendly bedrooms, available on request and subject to availability. There's a £25 a night fee for small and medium dogs. Big dogs like Dobermans aren't allowed (even if they ask nicely). See more pet-friendly hotels in East Sussex.

Children

The hotel only accepts ages 16 and older.

Sustainability efforts

Almost all kitchen ingredients are sourced within 10 miles of the hotel, making its food miles pretty negligible; and some of the furniture was made with upcycled wood from Hastings pier. There's also two electric car chargers available for guests (subject to availability).

Food and Drink

Photos The Gallivant food and drink

Top Table

The beach may be obscured by grassy dunes, but by the window is best.

Dress Code

Breton stripes beneath your windbreaker.

Hotel restaurant

The dune-facing restaurant is kitted out in cool coastal style, and there's a healthy helping of Scandi design too. Chef Nico Fitzgerald heads up the kitchen of this renowned beachy outpost, where fresh catches are cooked to perfection, and  ingredients are locally sourced. Try the John Dory or – if you're staying from mid-May onwards – the Romney Salt Marsh lamb. For breakfast, they have fresh coffee, smoothies, yoghurt, fresh sourdough with South Downs butter, and the selection of hot dishes.

Hotel bar

The hotel's wine list is so abundant it has its own legend to help you navigate the selection of English cuvées, and international reds and whites. In winter months you can sip your libations by a roaring fire or in the library. When the weather's fine, there are a handful of tables on the outdoor terrace, or wander around the coastal garden.

Last orders

Breakfast is served everyday between 8am and 11am; lunch is on offer every day (except Tuesday) from 12.30pm to 2pm (2.30pm on weekends); and dinner starts every day at 6pm and runs until 8pm (9pm on Friday and Saturday).

Room service

Room service is available on request.

Location

Photos The Gallivant location
Address
The Gallivant
New Lydd Road, Camber
Rye
TN31 7RB
United Kingdom

The Gallivant is by the dune-covered beach at Camber Sands, a 10-minute drive out of Rye and close to all the action of 1066 Country.

Planes

The closest major airport is London Gatwick, an hour and a half away by car. There’s also the smaller Lydd, which is five miles away. Private planes can land at Lydd.

Trains

Rye station is three miles away. From here, Southeastern (www.southeasternrailway.co.uk) trains go to Ashford, where you can pick up either the high-speed service to London or the Eurostar (www.eurostar.com).

Automobiles

You need a car to be able to get into Rye easily. From Ashford, it’s a half-hour drive along the A2070; from London, the M20 should come in handy. There’s free parking.

Other

Reach Rye Harbour by boat and you’ll be about 10 minutes from the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Strand Quay has plenty of antique shops to keep bargain-browsers busy. The hotel hosts a weekly wine tasting, where you can sample some English favourites, or head to Gusbourne, for a tour through the verdant vines. Across the street from the Gallivant is Camber Sands beach, a dune-studded shore with long grass and golden sand. Learn to kite-surf, windsurf, horse ride and fish; the hotel can help with equipment hire. Ramblers can ramble along the High Weald Landscape Trail and 1066 walk, which both start at Rye. Take a brisk walk through Romney Marsh (around an hour's drive away) and Dungeness Nature Reserve, which has bird-watching shelters and leads to a pebbly beach. Rye is a great spot to pick up antiques, tuck into fine Sussex dining and down a pint of local ale.

Local restaurants

A good gastropub is never far away in these parts: try pot-roast pheasant at The Globe Inn on Military Road, or rack of Romney Marsh lamb at Ypres Castle Inn on Gun Gardens. Head up to the restaurant at The George In Rye for a cosy afternoon tea by the fire or Mediterranean-inspired dishes in the brasserie. The Linen Fold at the Mermaid Inn dates from the 12th century, and is where to go for some olde-world charm. To sample the spoils of the surrounding countryside and sea, try the Standard, whose menu stars Romney Marsh lamb and Dungeness crab, and you should take your fish-finger sarnie up a notch at Tatner's Kitchen – the scampi sub is a local favourite.

Local cafés

Calorie-packed cream cakes and great coffee await at Fletcher's House on Lion Street and Apothecary on East Street. The Fig has a chic modern look with industrial lighting and black walls; the enticing menu has Peruvian corn-cakes, beetroot and goat's cheese loaf with smoked salmon and other healthily indulgent dishes.

Local bars

Rye's twisty-turny streets hide some friendly traditional boozers – we like the Globe Inn Marsh, a vision of rustic cosiness which is renowned for its generous ploughman's lunch and long list of Sussex wines, artisanal gins and craft ales.

Reviews

Photos The Gallivant reviews
Hazel Sheffield

Anonymous review

By Hazel Sheffield, Travelling scribe

The Gallivant Hotel has just had its busiest weekend on the Monday we arrive, thanks to a quirk of the weather. It’s suddenly sunny: the first breaths of spring after the seemingly never-ending winter. People blink at each other behind scarves as they pass on the adjacent three-mile stretch of golden beach, shaking off the winter torpor.

Camber, home of said sands, is tiny: a Pontins holiday resort, some caravan parks, and a few rows of modest houses all facing out towards the sea. The Gallivant is tucked around the bend as you approach from Rye. If it looks like a motel, that’s because it use to be one. This squat cluster of low-rise rooms – wooden exterior bleached by the sea – sit around some cacti and a carpark. But step through the front doors and the motel vibes are quickly dispelled.

All the action at the Gallivant takes place in its elegant lounge. A roaring fireplace in a central chimney is surrounded by velvet armchairs and sheepskin throws. The light filters through linen blinds in an adjacent games room, with quizzes and chess boards, and big bookcases filled with faded cookery and travel books.

Bring your furry friends: the dog treats are plentiful and dog beds are on hand. We may be only aspiring dog-owners, but Mr Smith and I enjoyed the dog-watching in the lounge, not least the Jack Russell who was a wicked hand at chequers.

By this time it’s early evening and we’re thirsty from the drive. A passing barman seems overjoyed to take a break from restocking bottles at the bar to make us martinis. He tells stories about the gin, made by Chapel Down distillery in nearby Kent, while misting the glass with a twist, and seems genuinely sad to go back to the bottles. The rest of the drinks menu is local and seasonal, featuring gin and tonics, pear bellinis, and English fizz in champagne saucers, but I bet they’d find a way to make you anything you wanted.

Dinner is served in a restaurant with only a handful of tables, surrounded by lush indoor plants. The Gallivant has won awards for its local sourcing and the presentation is unfussy; a starter of smoked salmon is accompanied by a wedge of lemon and a little homemade horseradish, while the pan-roasted cod sits on a toasted almonds and purple broccoli, with soft buttered potatoes on the side.

Dessert is simple and satisfying. The salted caramel tart comes with a scoop of yoghurt sorbet from nearby Northiam dairy and the poached rhubarb comes from Kent. Our fellow diners are couples escaping from the city, babymooners and relaxed country types. We catch drifts of their chatter over the eternal muzak: a single track of inoffensive dinner party jazz that morphs into Balearic chillout by breakfast.

After dinner we crave entertainment. Luckily there are no rules against taking your booze away from the bar. In summer the Gallivant makes up picnic hampers on request, or supplies a chilled bottle for sundowners in the dunes. The days might be brighter, but it’s still winter outside, so we take our beers to the room and make use of the bathtub, with its Bramley bath wash, and stretch out on the bed across oceans of duvet. You can’t see the beach from the hotel – a mountain of sand is in the way – but crack a window and you can hear the waves crashing at night.

The Gallivant has a menu of spa treatments available, but the staff don’t always respond to emails, so call ahead if you want to indulge as the slots do get booked up. We spend our days exploring the area, including nearby Dungeness: Britain’s only desert. It’s where the film director Derek Jarman saw out his last days in a black wooden cottage surrounded by a garden of poppies, valerian and plants native to the shingle. The Dungeness estate traditionally restricts building on the pebble dunes to the size of previous houses. Architects, revelling in these limitations, have furnished the landscape with rubber-covered residences and glass fronted huts. One, ‘the experimental station’, has been refurbished from old government buildings into little dwellings. It looks like it belongs on the moon.

Returning to the Gallivant, we’re encouraged to come to the lounge for complimentary tea and cake – a daily event. Cafetieres, a handsome ceramic teapot and plates of fudgy brownies and pale almond cakes weigh down a trestle table. For an hour, we warm up after a day exploring the windswept countryside, before retreating to the room to relax before dinner. Teatime seems to epitomise this place: homely and understated, bringing guests together for a moment in the day to smile at one another in agreement. This must surely be one of the best hideouts on the Sussex coast.

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Price per night from $227.87