Near Dover: tea room you MUST visit

High Tea and CAKE,  my favorite 

    How fortunate to have 6 days here to sample Tea in a number of places.  And tea must come with cake.

    I have to admire a people who take the time to sit, relax and sip their national hot beverage while EATING CAKE!  It has been perfected to an art of "temperature, origin of the tea leaves and presentation". 

Coffee in Italy is a staple but una café is bolted not sipped.   The idea of sitting at a table drinking coffee for an hour is somewhat foreign to the Italians.

Discovering The Lavender Tea House in the south of the UK

          When i asked a greeter at the Dover dock where I was catching a ship,  "Is there a famous cake baked in this area" I had no idea she would suggest a new tea room in the next town that her daughter just opened and I would have an opportunity to visit the Lavender Tea House the following week.

           I had just been in Canterbury and found their 'special cake' (unfortunately they were sold out) and thought this would be an interesting theme.   Tea and cake throughout the UK, a perfect topic for my blog or a great excuse to eat cake several times a day!

A motto I can follow

The opportunity to visit the Lavender Tea Room in Folkestone, UK was too good to pass.     A call from her mother and a few emails had me taking the train the following week to Folkestone, a short distance from Dover, UK.     

Natalie Chessman is the owner of this charming tea room on a pedestrian street not far from the sea.   Visiting on a Saturday, the busiest day of the week, limited my time with Natalie but she was very generous to share her ideas about enjoying tea.   See the video interview below 

On a pedestrian street not far from the sea (and the train station)  the Lavender Tea Room has an outdoor patio

Your cake selection is served on English china  

How to choose what cake to try?   I selected 3 to take with me 'so that my story would be from a personal viewpoint".     What an enjoyable task I had in front of me....

Some of the amazing cakes, baked that morning, are on display.  

1.

2

3

The  three cakes that are most popular.    I could have sampled any of the selection.  The scones were incredible and they even had a glutton free cake!

The LTR was busy when I arrived about 11 am just before the midday rush.  The pedestrian street was busy with Saturday shoppers and a small festival in one of the streets.     As soon as I entered the shop I was greeted by one of the staff members who knew I was coming and sat me down with a pot of tea!.    A lovely welcome while I waited for Natale to finish in the kitchen.

Natalie had arrived very early to mix and bake all the wonderful cakes I saw in front of me but still she gave me some time to explain the philosophy behind opening the Lavender Tea room.   

Some of topics we covered in our chat:  (If I have omitted any facts, I shall ask the owner to correct me and correct the post)

Q.   How did your interest in baking, get started, did you bake as a child?

A.  I have always enjoyed being in the kitchen and  have always cooked.                                                   My father is a very good chef and I have grown up around ‘food’

Q.   How did you decide to open a tea room

a.      A.         There was a gap in the market, I picked Folkstone because  there are a

lack of tea rooms, lots of coffee bars.... 

(A tea room) harps back to the days, I think we have forgotten , what having tea is all about.

about the ritual of having tea, spending the

time,  sharing it with friends, having a chat,

I wanted to create an atmosphere

Q.  Did you grow up with the ritual of tea in the afternoon?

a.       A.   I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and she would always have tea around 4 o’clock with a piece of cake, buttered toast and a nice pot of tea   

The shop attracts many locals for tea, lunch and even parties.  While I was there several 'regulars' stopped in and were greeted by first names and a cheery hello.

  Q.  Do you bake all the cakes by hand or are they done 'commercially?

   A.  Natalie bakes all the cakes very early in the mornings….  home made cakes have no preservatives and           do not have the same texture as a 'box mix".   This feature makes her cakes like a treat you would have at a friends home.    

And she bakes with a Kitchen aid mixer the same one we would use in the USA.

The variety of cakes will change during the week but she told me her most popular treats are: 

Scones

Carrot cake

Lemon drizzle cake

 What might be in the future for The Lavender Tea Room?

  A signature cake for the area?   Currently they make Lavender cupcakes but were sold out this morning

  Lessons to teach others how to bake these marvelous cakes?   I would sign up for a class

  Shipping cakes as special orders?

  A cook book?

Natalie reminded me they have only been open a year, and many options are open for the future. 

 A British tour group may have some interest in adding  a stop at the Lavender Tea Room to a future tour schedule.

Today most of her customers are locals and myself the sole tourist.  If I lived in the area I would also become a regular, trying a different treat on each visit.

                   When you visit the Lavender Tea House in Kent, be sure to tell Natalie you saw her article on

                                                           MatureSoloTravel



 Click below to see their web site.
http://www.thelavenderteahouse.com/

The Lavender Tea House

Homemade Cakes, Fine Teas, Freshly Ground Coffee and Light Lunches in the Heart of Folkestone's Old Town.

Now Open in Church Street, Folkestone . . . 
The Lavender Tea House is the destination in Kent for fine teas, home made cakes and light lunches. The perfect place to relax after a shopping trip, during your lunch break or just to treat yourself to some calm, indulgent ‘me’ time!
Sit back, relax and enjoy a pot of fine tea served with a delicious slice of home made cake. Perfect!
 
Natalie Cheeseman
The Lavender Tea House
5, Church Street, Folkestone
01303 2545215

Do Solo Travelers pay Double the cost on Cruises?

If you prefer to travel solo, should you be charged double?           



         Although cruise lines do not avidly search for solo travelers, they will 'allow' solo travelers to join the ARK at up to 200% more than other passengers are paying.      Cunard has recently and in the past few years offered attractive rates for solo travelers and after taking one of their Atlantic crossings, I can say they are everything you imagine an elegant British ship to be.
The pricing policy for solo travelers has become a ‘movement’ in the ever growing solo traveler market.
If you choose to travel solo or because of circumstances you are traveling solo, why should solo travelers be further restricted by price?    There are wonderful trips advertised every day and if they are listed as ‘packages  or vacations’ the price is always higher when you select your travel dates and hotels.  If you double the price of even the discounted cruises they often are $300 a day and the dream of an around the world cruise equals the price of a high end automobile!
Air travel, although increasingly  uncomfortable and expensive, still charges passengers by the seat.  Even the airlines offer promotions for your ‘companion to fly free’ or the dreaded 2 for 1 pricing.      Travel providers should be challenged on their misleading 2 for 1 advertising…..  try to buy this promotion for a cruise as a solo and you are told you will be denied travel if you arrive solo. 

What other travel services charge solo travelers more:
As far as I know rental cars do not charge solo travelers any ‘supplements’.    Hotels in the USA charge by the room but often do NOT offer single room rates.    Some hotels in Europe offer single rooms that are usually very small and not always the best the hotel has to offer.   At other times I have received a standard double room, there does not seem to be any standard.   When I travel off season I can often book 4 star hotels in Italy for the price of a single room at other times during the year.  

The cruise industry continues to charge solo travelers for enjoying the special pleasure of traveling solo. 
Alan Fox, the president of Vacations to Go, has one of the few web sites that lists cruises with low or no solo supplement. www.vacationstogo.com/    Recently he posted an answer to this question on his web page.    With his earlier permission to share solo cruise information, I am posting his response here.
on line question:
Q: When a cruise ship has less than a full capacity of passengers, why do they not permit someone to travel solo and not pay double occupancy? I would think that since they have to keep a full crew, even one person in a room makes more sense than having the cabin empty for the cruise.
A: Except for 6-star ships, cruise ships generally sail full year-round because cruise lines drop the rate to whatever it takes to sell out. They prefer to fill those empty cabins with two people to maximize their onboard sales and gratuities. However, lines sometimes slash the single supplement for a limited time, and we list every one of these opportunities on our site.
Alan Fox,   Chairman & CEO, Vacations To Go,  5851 San Felipe Street, Suite 500, Houston, TX 77057

Why don’t cruise lines charge solo clients double the mandatory gratuities fees and allow solo’s to travel?    The staff would not suffer financially.   And there are no guarantees two passengers in a room will spend more money on drinks, tours, the casino, alternative restaurants or shopping, other profit areas of the ship.  

I troll the cruise web sites months before I begin to plan a trip.   Vacationstogo.com will list solo supplement trips but this list does NOT include every sailing.    I have tried 4 cruise ‘agents’ with varying results.   I have never found any cruise or travel agent who is excited about working with solo travelers.   Or perhaps it is just how I travel.  I was told off by one specialty agent when I mentioned I would be traveling throughout Italy for a month before the trip and would not be able to bring ‘dress’ clothes with me. Her response was something to “Well you can’t go around the ship in sloppy pants”.       A new division of an established cruise booking site opened a ‘solo travel division’ but found the sales after I did!

So now I search any sailing to a location on my ‘bucket list’ with a posted price of $100 a day or less.   This may insure a solo price of under $200.00 a day……beyond that price you  may be able to fly business class!      If you see a great price on a solo cruise let me know at www.maturesolotravel.com

What is your philosophy on travel?

    Travel Philosophy, what is yours?  

When travel is no longer the 1 or 2 weeks your don’t work every year but part of your life just as integral as the need that may come over you to see the sea or the view from a mountain………one that expands your    viewpoint.                                                                                
                                                                                         
  I didn’t think I had a philosophy about travel until I finally decided to have adventures not vacations.

When I travel I try to keep this mantra in mind: Be a Traveler not a Tourist Learn Something New find a New Adventure Experience the Local Life  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Last night I read on Budget Travel Adventures the following:   To be a better traveler, you can't just visit a place.
You have to experience it with your emotions and soul.
Only when we go beyond what we see can we tell a travel story (through words or photos) that's worth sharing.

I love it when a simple sentence or statement will arrest my thinking or stop the project I am working on.  
Too often we don’t take time to think.  Until I stopped working a 24/7 job I had no idea there was such an exciting ‘box of chocolates’ (from Forest Gump) out there and I will keep sampling….…..

I asked the author of Budget Travel Adventue, if I could use his motto for his blog:
http://www.budgettraveladventures.com/
Travel passionately, budget wisely, and experience more - that's the motto of the new blog, Budget Travel Adventures.

Budget Travel Adventures wants to help you experience more when you travel and inspire you to be a better person.
read more about JereBranham on the above web site.                                                                                                                                                      
What is your Philosophy?