Canterbury, United Kingdom

The Falstaff

Price per night from$102.99

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP81.65), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Re-inn-vented rest

Setting

A canter from the Cathedral

Revamped from a 15th-century coaching inn, the Falstaff have traded in stuffy stables and rickety rooms for boldly-toned textiles, cloud-soft beds, bespoke furnishings, and abstract artwork. Since stage-coaches no longer pitch up at this Stourside stay for those looking to dismount, dine and dream, the central courtyard now houses three separate buildings (the main house, the Tap and the Windmill) and a beer garden. The main house has been spruced up with a lengthy steel-cast bar (where cocktail masterclasses are hosted), a cosy lounge for afternoons spent sipping, and a pastel-panelled pub where locally-brewed pints are poured. The perfect retreat for present-day Chaucerian pilgrims. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome cocktail each

Facilities

Photos The Falstaff facilities

Need to know

Rooms

50, including seven suites.

Check–Out

11am; check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible for £20 a room, subject to availability.

More details

Rates don't include breakfast but a full-English or Continental breakfasts are available for an extra charge.

Also

Some of the rooms have been adapted for those with limited mobility, and hotel staff are happy to assist guests where needed.

At the hotel

Lounge, beer garden and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV with Freeview, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, and Verdon Spas bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Each of the rooms are individually designed with brightly-hued panelling and abstract artwork, so you’re bound to bag a characterful hideaway whichever you choose. Some of the Classic rooms are set in the eaves of the Tap, and you’ll find others in the beamed main building. Junior Suites will suit those seeking some extra space, and have been kitted out with super-king-size beds and comfy sofas.

Packing tips

A craving for Kentish wine and a copy of The Canterbury Tales.

Children

Welcome, but the hotel is geared towards adults so there’s little to keep them entertained. An extra bed can be added to some Junior suites for £20 a night; please contact our Smith travel team to arrange.

Food and Drink

Photos The Falstaff food and drink

Top Table

For that cosy countryside feel, ask for a table in the pastel-hued lounge. In the summer, if the weather abides, take your pints porchside.

Dress Code

Cashmere and cords will blend best with Canterbury’s traditional touch.

Hotel restaurant

Breakfast is a full-English (literally) affair at the Falstaff, where bright blue banquettes are set by reclaimed wood tables and exposed brick walls. A little beyond the bar, you’ll find the beamed lounge set up for afternoon tea, where you can enjoy a selection of homemade cakes, sandwiches and scones. 

Hotel bar

Follow the exposed brick walls and you’ll stumble on cocktail-making masterclasses and spirit-shaking mixologists at the reception’s steel bar. Themed drinks are dreamt up, classic cocktails are taken with a twist in the lounge and pints are poured where you please.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7am to 10.30am (8am to noon on weekends) and reception will book you in for a slot on arrival. Afternoon tea is from 12.30pm to 2pm and 2.30pm to 4pm.

Location

Photos The Falstaff location
Address
The Falstaff
8-10 Saint Dunstans Street
Canterbury
CT2 8AF
United Kingdom

The Falstaff is set opposite the Westgate Towers in Canterbury, a 10-minute walk from the Cathedral. It’s also just an hour inland from the Kentish riviera.

Planes

Most international flights will arrive into Gatwick, which is just over an hour’s drive away; otherwise, Heathrow and Stansted are both a 90-minute drive. Private transfers can be arranged from Gatwick for £100 each way.

Trains

Trains go straight from London’s St Pancras to Canterbury West, a four-minute walk from the hotel, on the line to Ramsgate.

Automobiles

If you’re bringing your own set of wheels, the hotel has a small car park that costs £12 a night and is filled on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Worth getting out of bed for

In a town whose birth predates the Romans, you’re unlikely to struggle finding historic hotspots. Start strong at the famed Canterbury Cathedral, whose tall golden turrets poke through the town centre, and be sure to wander its surrounding gardens. If you’d rather a quick rundown of Canterbury’s past, hop aboard a guided boat tour along the River Stour that floats under the Eastbridge Hospital – or, there’s a walking tour. The Beaney House Art & Knowledge centre has a little bit of everything (exhibitions dedicated to 19th-century artist Thomas Sidney Cooper, wildlife tableaux, traditional Asian art collections, a contemporary gallery, a workshop-fuelled learning lab, library, and the original Bagpuss). Greyfriars Gardens and Westgate Gardens make for scenic strolls, and Sir John Boys House is a must for book buffs.

Local restaurants

Set the 14th-century Westgate Towers that formerly housed Canterbury’s prison, the Pound Bar & Kitchen usually serves tapas-style dishes (crispy patatas bravas, pork belly with ‘nduja sausage and saffron-salted squid are a few favourites), but things take a traditional turn on Sundays (between October and April), when tables are topped with all the trimmings of a family roast. Just down the road, Café du Soleil dishes up wood-fired fare along the canal.

Local cafés

Brunchers will find full fry-ups, breakfast burgers, homemade waffles, buttermilk pancakes, and eggs any which way at Refectory Kitchen on Dunstans Street. And, the Moat Tea Rooms serve scones and sandwiches for those keeping things quintessentially British.

 

Local bars

Canterbury’s oldest pub, the Parrot, has been pouring traditional tipples and locally-brewed beers since 1370. Or, if you’re searching for something with a bit of a beat, the Lady Luck pairs pints with live music and barside bites.

 

Reviews

Photos The Falstaff reviews
Tori Dance

Anonymous review

By Tori Dance, Culture hound

Christmas is all about family and togetherness, they say. I agree, I do I really do — though I also struggle to contain my elation (and slight smugness) as we hit peak Twixmas mayhem and Mr Smith and I escape both the city and our children for 48 hours of desperately longed for R ’n’ R. 

Two podcasts and a packet of Wine Gums later and our modern-day pilgrimage to Canterbury is in full swing. Tucked just inside Westgate, the city’s mediaeval gatehouse, sits The Falstaff Hotel, a former coaching inn where travellers have been resting their weary heads for more than 600 years. 

The historic hotel is now sister property to coastal bolthole The George in Rye and has had an equally stylish glow up. Bedrooms are spread across three buildings; an adjacent Wood Mill and neighbouring pub, The Tap, having been brought into the fold over time.

We're sleeping in the main building. Up one higgledy-piggledy staircase and another for good measure, we find a room as snug and inviting as we could have hoped for. Ancient coaching inns aren’t known for their spaciousness, but the beamed ceiling and colourful textiles make our relatively wee room feel airy as well as cosy. Yet it’s the copper bath that steals the show and has me stripping off in seconds. This is no ordinary tub and the sublime-smelling Verden products are the icing on this deliciously deep cake. 

Having bathed away the tensions of the festive season, Mr Smith and I dress for dinner before venturing downstairs for an aperitif. The public spaces at The Falstaff are plentiful and convivial throughout the day and night, with tourists tucking into afternoon tea, locals propping the bar up… and us striking up a game of Scrabble. We feel right at home settling down to battle at a fireside table for two. We begin with gin and graduate to cocktails before our tummies start to rumble and we step out for supper. While The Falstaff serves up pizzas over the weekend and afternoon tea all week long, there are no options for lunch or dinner during the week. 

We stroll about the city, admiring the cobbled streets and timber-framed houses, before settling in at The Parrot, Canterbury's oldest pub, steeped in history and serving up all the classics. We dine on Whitstable Bay battered haddock and house chips, finishing with a honeycomb-sprinkled chocolate mousse to share.

Ambling out onto the historic streets for a spot of late-night sightseeing, we find Canterbury Cathedral’s Romanesque and Gothic architecture looking beyond stately by night. As the cold kicks in, we retreat to the hotel for a nightcap but the siren call of the super-king bed and super-soft sheets is too loud to ignore.

Without a rude awakening from small people clambering into our bed, we rock up to breakfast fashionably late. In the wood-panelled dining room, Mr Smith takes on the 'Full Falstaff' and I tuck into the Continental-style buffet, while we browse the morning’s papers.

Blessed with blue skies and sunshine, we drive out to explore the ‘Garden of England’ for the afternoon. Canterbury is a brilliant base for touring the nearby towns of Whitstable, Margate, Deal and Sandwich, but we end up at The Pig at Bridge Place for what turns out to be a long windswept walk and an even longer late lunch. Our well-earned feast ends with a short fall into a pair of wingback chairs in the sumptuous drawing room, where we luxuriate by the log fire, books in hand, in the rare blissful state of having no pressure to be anywhere or do anything.

After pigging out at The Pig, we eschew a second night out on the town in favour of donning our waffle robes and indulging in a second soak in our glorious tub. That’s before we settle in to watch the divisive yet sumptuous satire of the season, Saltburn, which I’m then very glad we did post rather than pre bath (IYKYK). 

Our recharge continues into the next day. With the sun shining once again and the city bustling beneath our bedroom window, we head out for a morning of vintage-treasure hunting and secondhand-book shopping. The famous Crooked House, now a shrine to the latter, is said to have inspired Charles Dickens — a quote from David Copperfield above the door reads: 'A very old house bulging out over the road… leaning forward, trying to see who was passing on the narrow pavement below.' 

We pick up velvety flat whites at Fringe & Ginge, the pinnacle of the city’s caffeine scene, and wander on to The Goods Shed. Housed within the dramatic surrounds of a listed Victorian railway shed is a farmer’s market, food hall and restaurant overflowing with local and seasonal delights. Stocked up on all sorts, from Kentish cheese to tart English cherry juice, we delay our impending departure with a glass of Gusbourne Brut Reserve, toast our good fortune and vow to make a Twixmas getaway an annual tradition.

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Price per night from $102.99