My family will be visiting southeast England (Kent) for several days in April -- basing ourselves in Maidstone -- and we are renting a car so we can travel to as many historic castles/gardens as practical/possible. There is so much we want to see, but it's impossible to see everything! Visiting some places is further complicated (for us) by the fact that a few of them are closed certain days of the week (mostly Mondays, some also on Tuesdays ...) We love history, especially the York and Tudor periods, and I would really like to see some beautiful spring gardens. I would appreciate suggestions in helping to finalize our list! We only have five days, but I have packed six days with things to do.

Our current itinerary, which I know is ambitious, is as follows:

Day 1 - Penhurst Place & Gardens, Hever Castle: We plan to spend a half day at each

Day 2 - Dover Castle: Full day

Day 3 - Tonbridge Castle, All Saints Church (Tudeley), Scotney Castle, and Bayham Old Abbey: I think the Church will be pretty quick (about an hour?) and it is close to Tonbridge Castle.
The same is true of the Abbey, with its proximity to Scotney Castle -- and Scotney Castle won't be open yet when we visit, so we'll just see the gardens.

Day 4 - Canterbury Cathedral, St. Martin’s Church , St. Augustine’s Abbey: I think we need to spend a full day in Canterbury??? Or can do something else in the morning, driving here in the afternoon???
We don't mind long drives, especially since we expect to see some beautiful countryside.

Day 5 - Bodiam Castle, Sissinghurst Garden: While I think Bodiam Castle is a "must see", I'm wondering we should drop Sissinghurst Garden -- even though I've heard it's really pretty! But we will have seen other gardens!

Day 6 - Rochester Castle, Upnor Castle: I feel like we could eliminate these, but I'm really drawn to the history of these castles, as well as for something different from the other castles.

With only FIVE days in Kent, what do we eliminate? We definitely want to spend one full day in Dover, and I also think definitely a full day for Penhurst Place & Hever Castle. I'm wondering about going to Rochester Castle in the morning (maybe Upnor, since it's close by), and driving to Canterbury afterward. I don't think we'd spend a whole lot of time at Rochester and Upnor, but a great deal of time in Canterbury. Also ... SIssinghurst?

I've done quite a bit of homework on what to see on this trip, and I feel I've made a lot of progress in cutting back on some things (you should have seen the original list!!) I would definitely appreciate feedback on whether/what I should remove from the list.

THANK YOU!!

Who is travelling in the family group? If it's kids they might be bored with some of this. I'd love it, except Dover which we couldn't leave fast enough, but I'm oldish.

Just very quick for now -- its 1AM and I need to crash

Just a couple of things (after you tell us more about who/ages/etc I'll have more)

But - while I absolutely LOVE Penshurst Place, half a day there would be a lot. Hever takes quite a bit of time simply because the grounds are huge. But even there, half a day would probably be my max. I've very easily done Penshurst Place, Chartwell, and Hever in one day. The total driving distance between all three is only about 10 miles/20 minutes.

Sissinghurst is the absolutely LAST place I'd drop.

Also Bodiam, Scotney Castle and Bayham Abbey are very (VERY) easily done on the same day - with just 15 miles between all three.

The family consists of two adults in their 60's, so no kids will get bored!

I would never drop Sissinghurst !!!