Dears,

we will visit West Sussex and Kent in the upcoming weeks and planning to visit following places. What do you think about it? Would you recommend other sights?
We are travelling as a family, with our 8 year old daughter.

1) Arundel Castle
2) Paultons Park (Peppa Pig is still a favourite of our daughter)
3) Highclere Castle
4) Osborne House
5) Petworth House
6) Knole House
7) Canterbury
8) Dover
9) Leeds Castle
10) Scotney Castle
11) Rochester

We stay some days in Worthing and in the Romney Marsh area. So we want to visit this places around.

Thanks and best regards

Welcome to Fodors. We moved your thread to the Europe Forum and tagged it for the UK

Welcome. "What do you think about it?" I think its a list. All are worthwhile -- just depends how many weeks you have in the area?

Leeds Castle isn't one of my favorites. Lovely grounds/exterior but the rest it primarily a wedding and conference venue.

There are several places I'd add and rank ahead of Leeds Castle and some of the others: Hever Castle, Penshurst Place, Chartwell, Sissinghurst, Bodiam Castle, Rye, Bayham Abbey, Walmer Castle, Deal Castle, and others. Again -- mostly depends on how long you are there.

. . . Especially because you have a child with you . . . I'd also add Port Lympne Animal Park

Paultons and Highclere are both in Hampshire. Too far for daytrips from Kent or even the western part of East Sussex. And Osborne is on the Isle of Wight.

Can you add another base for a few nights (you'll need four to allow for three full days for these trips)? Maybe Romsey, very close to Paultons, prob an hour or so's drive from Highclere and you can get the ferry to the IoW from nearby Southampton?

For sure - I should have mentioned that but not having any idea how long they have in the area, nor where they are staying figured I'd wait until we had more information than just their basic list. As it is the initial list would take a couple of weeks and at least two different bases (which they could have since they listed two counties that the far eastern edge of one is 3+ hours from the western edge of the other).

They will have had to book Highclere some time ago since the entire month of July is sold out.

OH -- jeeze -- I completely missed the last bit about Worthing/Romney Marsh !!! 🙄

So those will be the two bases I assume??

What time of year?
It is not clear, are there three of you?

I'd start by dropping Osborne House, the ferry is expensive, the place is interesting but of little architectural merit.

Then knock out those parts in Hampshire.

Then look at the advice above, print out a map and stick pins in it as destinations. Choose max 2 sites a day. Make them as close as possible.

I missed the two places they are staying but think I did get the when . . . "we will visit West Sussex and Kent in the upcoming weeks" which I 'assumed' means soon. But who knows??

Yes, we will stay in Worthing (6 nights) and in Romney Marsh near Eastbridge (6 nights).
The accommodation are booked, so are the tickets for Highclere Castle.

We are three persons and would like to enjoy some traditional rural english flair and we really like to visit the stately homes. We have visited Blenheim Palace, Alnwick, Windsor, Buckingham Palace, Salisbury, Bath, Durham, etc etc before, but are now the first time in the south east.

It is acceptable for us to have a around one hour, max 1,5 hours of drive per direction and day. But we always try to make most of the time and collect many impressions.

We also love it to have a look in some small independent shops and antique stores, even farm shops.

Is our travel plan a good idea our would you recommend a change?

Thanks and best regards

I would still drop Osborne House. Getting to the Isle of Wight is expensive and unless you want to spend more time there say a few nights it really isn't worth the trip.

Thanks for filling in some of the blanks.

"Is our travel plan a good idea our would you recommend a change?"

What you have is not a 'plan' so much as a 'list' of places.

You may have to be flexible on your drive times. For example driving from Worthing to Highclere would take about 90 minutes IF there is no traffic at all. But more likely it will tale 2 to 2.5 hours. And even just Worthing to Paulton's Park will likely take 1.5 hours. or more.

I did enjoy Osborne House but I'd probably drop it from your itinerary. Including the ferry that will be a 2.5 to 3 hour journey each way - so 6 hours in the car just to see a semi-interesting house.

Unfortunately the two places you are staying will automatically build in some long drives. Being more central in Kent or East Sussex instead of near Romney Marsh would help a bit.

I'd try to fit in riding on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch railway (or one of the other heritage trains in the region) https://www.rhdr.org.uk

Places I'd skip are Leeds Castle, Osborne House, Rochester, and maybe Petworth House. I'd include the Port Lympne Animal park, Sissinghurst (which can easily be done the same day as Scotney Castle), And he Weald and Downland open air living museum (only about a 40 minute drive from Worthing)