Visit: Royal Harbour Hotel, Empire Room & Little Ships, Ramsgate, Kent

A couple of weekends ago we spent 24 hours exploring Ramsgate in Kent. We were invited to stay at the Royal Harbour Hotel in Nelson Crescent, overlooking the famous harbour in Ramsgate. The location was perfect – views amazing, and a short downhill walk to the town centre.

A Walkthrough of the Hotel

The hotel is situated in the middle of a crescent that sits back from the main Royal Parade, with well maintained lawns between the two. Parking is available on the road, but you need to be lucky to grab a space. We were, as a space directly outside the hotel was free when we arrived. The Royal Harbour Hotel is made up of several townhouses, reached by a few steps up to the main entrance. Although Jack and Izzy stayed at home for the weekend, the hotel is dog-friendly; in fact when we came to check in there was a very waggy tailed large dog just off out for a walk.

Social Areas

What is lovely about the Royal Harbour Hotel is that there are lots of snugs and social areas … you really don’t need to stay in your room like you tend to do in most hotels. Just off the main entrance is a large bright room filled with leather sofas, a writing bureau, coffee tables and reading lamps, nautical maps on the walls – all very comfortable and homely, and all with a Victorian theme. Here there is also an honesty bar where you can have a tipple once the children are asleep

Opposite this seating area was a smaller library/music room, again with comfy high-backed chairs, side tables, table lamps, well-stocked book shelves, a traditional radio, and lots of music vinyl! There’s also a stack of daily newspapers. Another very homely room.

Beyond these rooms you reach the bright and airy dining room.

You then reach a snug – a room with a large flat-screen TV above a real fireplace. Lovely comfy chairs dominate the room, which looks out over the courtyard.

Unfortunately the weather during our stay was ‘not good’ so we didn’t get the chance to venture to the outside seating areas.

Our Room

Our room for the night was a family room that sleeps 4. It was directly at the top of the first staircase and it overlooked the rear of the hotel. The room was spacious, with a double bed and bunk beds, along with a desk and side table laden with teas, coffee and biscuits (quickly devoured by the children). A quirky bookshelf was over the desk, full of child-friendly reading. On a different part of the same wall was a flat-screen TV with more channels than you’ll ever need.

The room also has an ensuite shower room. Here’s an image gallery of our room …

The Empire Room Restaurant

That evening, we had a reservation at the hotel’s Award winning Empire Room Restaurant. This is still part of the hotel group, and was accessed via a secret stairway. The restaurant is in the basement and walking in you felt like members of a private gentleman’s club! All the walls were festooned in front covers of ‘The British Empire‘ magazine, with room-dividing nooks and bookcases.

We were seated at a dark teak oval table, by the window, and offered drinks while we perused the very high-end menu. We chose the house red wine, which was very pleasant. The restaurant was busy, and the waiting staff were polite and attentive. The food was excellent. Here’s a sample of what we ordered …

It was a lovely enjoyable evening, made even better by the short climb up two staircases to our room!

The Little Ships Restaurant and Café

If you book breakfast with your room, you’ll dine in the dining area on the ground floor of the hotel (as shown above). However, on our visit we had a table reserved just down the hill at the Little Ships Restaurant and Café, overlooking the harbour. This is another part of the hotel group, and this one was most definitely a favourite with our wartime history-loving son Toby.

The Little Ships Restaurant and Cafe overlooks the Royal Harbour where, in 1940, 850 small vessels left to sail over to Dunkirk to help rescue stranded Allied soldiers from the beaches. Operation Dynamo saved 336,000 soldiers – and this is documented throughout the cafe. Even the reverse side of the menu was a history lesson!

The decor was very coastal contemporary modern – think driftwood, naval blues, ship teak – my kind of place! The seating was comfortable and the tables well spaced out.

Towards the rear of the restaurant was the kitchen, semi-open so you can watch them cook. It had a really nice atmosphere – and lovely friendly staff.

Now, what did we order? Eyes too big for bellies comes to mind, but with a full day of exploring ahead we ordered an amazing Eggs Benedict with smashed avocado …

… and Full-English breakfasts for the rest …

How she managed a hot chocolate too I’ll never know, but Millie-Mae had this to wash down her feast …

The sane among us kept to coffee and fruit juices

The photos speak for themselves really – the food was excellent. And very filling.

Having filled up on the finest food, we bid our farewell and headed across the road to see the Sundowner ‘Little Ship’ still moored in the harbour.

Disclaimer

Our stay at the Royal Harbour Hotel, along with the restaurant bookings, were complimentary. There was no obligation to write this review, and our opinions within it have not been influenced in any way.