Gatwick to Canterbury, England

Train, Gatwick to London Victoria, an London Victoria to Canterbury.
Look up times on the National Rail site: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
There are two stations in Canterbury (East and West) on different lines. Just enter "Canterbury" and it will show you trains on both. For example, next Wednesday leaving Gatwick at 10:00

10:15 Gatwick Airport, London Victoria 10:45
11:07 London Victoria, Canterbury East 12:37

I have researched this question for a future trip, but I haven't actually made the journey. What I came up with was that the direct route is to take the Southern train towards Victoria, stopping at Redhill. In Redhill change to the Southern train to Tonbridge, changing again to another southern train to Canterbury.
I did a dummy search on national rail, see here http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/details?outboundJourneyId=3&outboundFareId=16&outboundResponseId=4&isOutboundJourneySelected=true
A lot of the search results will have you going into central London, but personally I would prefer to avoid that.

We travelled from Gatwick to Canterbury last May using the Aiport Pickups London car service. It was only a little more expensive compared to two walk up train tickets. We arrived at Gatwick from Dublin. Our purpose for going to Canterbury was to join the RS Villages of South England tour. The driver picked us up at the Gatwick arrivals area and dropped us off at our hotel in Canterbury. The trip only took an hour because we could go on a straight route instead of going through London.

Travelling via Victoria may be quicker and more convenient, as the route via Redhill involves multiple stops and slower trains. No need to worry about changing in London in this case - you'll arrive and leave from Victoria and all you'll have to do is walk 200 metres or so from one side of the station to the other.

Thanks for all the quick response. I, too, will be joining the RS Villages S. England tour in Canterbury and adding an extra day on front end. Victoria station not a bother for me but will definitely look into the Airport Pickups London car.

Since you are going to look at the private car service someone suggested, here is information on the Canterbury based service we took from Heathrow to Canterbury. The web site (if my notes are correct) is taxicanterbury.co.uk/contact The email is [email protected] We were very pleased with the car -- clean, roomy, well maintained. The driver drove quite safely, was most helpful loading our luggage, and commenting on various things along the way. We would not hesitate to use them again.

Hope you enjoy the Villages of South England tour. The following link will take you to my trip report:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/tour-report-villages-of-south-england-may-8-may-20-2017