PERHAPS your time is limited, but air fares are oh so tempting. With both British Airways and Zoom Airlines making flights to London’s Gatwick Airport more of a bargain, travellers may be wondering if there’s enough in that area to make a quick trip there worthwhile.Is there ever! With a map of Britain spread out across my desk, the list of possibilities is so appealing, one could spend a wonderful week, two, or definitely more in that region without ever even approaching London. We’ve often done that and not yet exhausted the possibilities.

Here are a few of this traveller’s favourites, all easily accessible from Gatwick. Just pick up a rental car and you’re off. Will it be Dover with its wondrous castle and perfectly preserved D-Day planning centre . . . or perhaps Brighton, the fantasy creation of George IV?

Stately Knole Castle at Sevenoaks in Kent’s lovely garden district is just down the road from Gatwick. Canterbury, with its famous cathedral, is easily accessible, and Portsmouth beckons from the other direction.

There’s no way to cover all this region offers on just one trip. Unless, of course, you’re anxious to come away with nothing more than a blur of memories.

This is the place to settle into one property for a few days and get a sense of place, then move on to another and do the same. The area abounds in country inns, bed and breakfasts and stately homes accepting guests.

Our experiences there have ranged from one of the reported haunted rooms of the 15th-century smugglers Mermaid Inn at Rye, to a mansion where we enjoyed pre-dinner sherry with Burke’s Pege <$>publishers.

Also memorable near Gatwick is the Copthorne Hotel which started as a 16th-century farmhouse and evolved into a charmer with its own lake and garden. Ask for one of the vintage beamed-ceiling rooms.

Be warned . . . those charming rural lanes weaving across the countryside and through local villages have undergone dramatic changes. Just as Bermuda’s roads have become more crowded, so have these once quiet lanes.

Chief challenges are ever-larger aggressive lorries, many multinational disembarking from Channel ferries and funnelling down narrow track roads all over the countryside with an ultra-size making them invincible. But those used to Bermuda traffic should be able to cope and seek out the best routes.

Yes, Britain’s exchange rate at nearly two pounds to the dollar does deplete one’s billfold more than in the past, but concentrating on this one region, headquartering in only a couple of locations and day-tripping makes it more feasible.

There will be less gas-guzzling, more relaxation, time to linger over lunch at a quiet inn, yet a remarkable variety of attractions. Here are a few and we’ll encore more another time.

Admittedly, this traveller is incapable of bypassing historic sites and this area will have you applying brakes frequently. All Britain is famous for gardens and stately homes, but this region in many ways is the Mother LodBK>Knole<$> is among Kent’s most impressive stately Tudor homes. Begun in the mid-15th century by the Archbishop of Canterbury, it’s considered one of England’s largest private homes.Its 365 rooms, confiscated by Henry VIII, were granted to Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, by Queen Elizabeth I. His descendants ceded it to the National Trust.

During my visit, the brocaded fabric woven of gold and silver threads still hung on the elaborate canopied bed made especially for King James II when he was Duke of York.

Definitely not to be missed is Hever Castle, one of the area’s surprisingly liveable-sized residences. On a first visit there, for some reason the gate had been closed early. Determined not to miss it, we’d crawled under the fence and rushed across the lawn to see if we could still enter for a quick look. Ah, the enthusiasm of students.

On subsequent visits, we’ve continued to be impressed with restoration and preservation of Anne Boleyn’s birthplace. When William Waldorf Astor restored the moated beauty, built in the late 13th century, he put considerable emphasis on the gardens where Henry VIII courted his second wife for six years before their marriage.

Henry later granted Hever Castle to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, who lived there for 17 years.

You’re just down the road from Chartwell where Winston Churchill lived from 1924 until his death in 1965. It, too, is a not-to-be-missed site, left exactly as it was during his lifetime, with everything from the garden studio where he painted to his uniforms, documents, maps and memorabi.If <$>retracing the paths of history intrigues you, this is the perfect area, one worthy of repeat visits. Marvellously Gothic Penshurst Place on the Tunbridge Wells Road has a Great Hall the visitor will never forget. Edward VI presented the mansion to Sir William Sidney in 1554 and its list of visitors included Queen Elizabeth I.Although Tunbridge Wells has suffered from sprawl, its centre still warrants attention. A stroll along the colonnaded Pentiles of this famous 18th-century spa town still has Beau Nash Regency memories.All these grand sites, and you’ve barely moved out of a very small area close to Gatwick. Along the way are all sorts of delightful places to linger over lunch, tea and dinner while planning your next day’s itinerary — such as Thackery House in Tunbridge Wells, famed author William Makepeace Thackery’s home. Imagine a chocolate Armagnac dessert with walnut liqueur sauce served there.

But you haven’t even scratched the surface. Leeds Castle to the east near Maidstone has an idyllic island setting. Started in the ninth century, the wood structure was reconstructed with stone in 1119 and became one of Henry VIII’s royal castles.

Now that you’re heading in that direction, both Canterbury, with its famous cathedral, and Dover, acclaimed for its castle and D-Day headquarters, are very easily reached.

Be on the lookout for express roads in that direction, because by now you’re probably getting tired of encountering lorries along narrow lanes.

You’ll have come close to Sissenhurst Castle Gardens, and had an opportunity to view all sorts of unexpected village greens and private gardens that make you want to stop and take pictures.

There’s nothing like a trip to England to inspire one’s gardening enthusiasm. Does anyone ever come home from there without ideas for enhancing their own landscape?

And, of course, Bermudians surrounded by maritime history will find it hard to bypass Portsmouth. A major naval base since the 12th century, its dockyard is a fascinating attraction.

Touring Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory is a special experience. So is viewing the remains of Henry VIII’s ble ship Mary Rose <$>and the first iron-hulled warship HMS Warrior. We followed all that excitement with lunch at a local pub oozing maritime atmosphere.

The Royal Navy Museum here will keep you intrigued retracing Britain’s naval history. Allow time for a side trip to tour the Royal Submarine Museum and the D-Day Museum at SouthsYou’re also deep in the heart of Charles Dickens country (he was born in Portsmouth in 1812) with many museums and points of interest in this region involving his life.Down the coast is Brighton, often in the news as a locale for political conferences. Its old town Lanes district is interesting and the Royal Pavilion, created by George IV, was a sort of flamboyantly colourful Disneyland folly centuries ahead of such attractions.

It will forever stand out in my memory as the place where we rushed off in a great hurry driving north, and left behind a garment bag with three newly- purchased Harris tweed jackets and my evening jacket, draped over a railing behind the Old Ship Hotel.

It wasn’t until near Polesdon Lacey that we pulled off the road in a sudden panic and realised we’d left it behind. Happily, back at the hotel, we discovered some honest local person walking across the parking lot in the back of the hotel had discovered it and taken it to the front desk.

Our rush to Polesdon Lacey was to write about the stately home’s use as a local for the film Bequest The Nation <$>covering Lord Nelson’s relationship with Lady Hamilton.

You certainly wouldn’t want to miss baronial Arundel Castle, restored ancestral home of the Dukes of Norfolk for more than 700 years. On a much earlier trip, I’d interviewed the previous Duke, who later died without a male heir.

He’d told me he hoped rules could be changed so one of his daughters might inherit the title, but after his sudden, unexpected death, a distant male relative received the title.

There was a time we enjoyed driving along the coast from Hastings to Rye and Hythe, but it’s become so overbuilt, little is recognisable.

This is just a hint of what Kent, Hampshire, East and West Sussex have to offer. Spread out a map of Britain, buy a good local guide book, and it’s easy to see it will take more than one short trip to uncover its varied sights.

We’ll be back another time to take readers to nearby Isle of Wight, another intriguing destination.

I don’t know about you, but to this traveller, it all sounds a lot more exciting than a long weekend in New York!

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