I hope this is ok to post here-this is not a commission or anything of the sort, I just had a great experience with a private tour out of Canterbury last week and wanted to share!
My mom and I were in Canterbury from last Sunday-Tuesday and knew we wanted to get out into the countryside for a bit. We'd done a Go Cotswalds tour of that area back in 2022 and Mom still raves about it. We weren't renting a car on this trip, so I went in search of some sort of a group tour. There were plenty of group day trips leaving from London, but very little directly from Canterbury or nearby. And most private guides charge by the carload, so you're paying a much higher price for two than for six-eight.
Eventually I stumbled upon Kent and Country Tours. It seemed to fit the bill-Cambridge educated local guide, charged by the head rather than the carload, and got us out of the city and into the countryside. He was very friendly and responded promptly to my query, and we got on his schedule!
We had a fabulous three hours with Anthony, walking a bit around the city, then going off into the Kent countryside to see some local villages and the White Cliffs of Dover. He was incredibly knowledgeable and personable about the local area. I'm a WWII history buff so we had a great conversation on the role Kent played in the defense of Britain in 1940. And he took us up into the hills overlooking the English Channel where he had explored in caves with his mates as a boy (before many of them were more heavily blocked off).
This was definitely a highlight of our trip! It's a new-ish venture for him-sort of a retirement project :-). If you have a few days in the area, I definitely recommend!