Ramsgate and elegance are two words rarely found together. To many it is a place inextricably linked with squat ferries called Sally and pronounced Raaamsgate, in the manner of Mike Reid. With a little effort, however, it is possible to discover something altogether more genteel.

As we walked from the station to our hotel on a late-February evening, we stumbled across Regency squares where townhouses with Juliet balconies looked over well-tended tennis courts. We wandered through Victorian crescents with manicured lawns, and came upon grand Georgian villas with views across the ferry port and the grey Channel beyond.

The town is crammed with beautiful buildings and squares. According to the council there are more than 900 listed buildings here. Augustus Pugin, the man who gave the Houses of Parliament their Gothic flourish, lived in Ramsgate and used it as a showcase for his talents. His first son, Edward, designed The Granville.

Built in the 1870s as a hotel, it still looms over the town as a luxury flat development. The building's Gothic grandeur remains, however, and it's easy to see how it transformed Ramsgate from a small summer resort in the early 1800s to a glamorous year-round holiday destination for the rich and royal.

The Granville had “twenty-five baths, all fitted with luxuries and improvements, including Turkish, electric, vapour, douche, shower, medicated, ozone and other baths. Trained assistants are here in waiting, and a medical gentleman is ready to give advice or superintend.” The Turkish baths were said to be “the most perfect in the Kingdom, attended by a professional shampooer of longstanding”.

When not being shampooed, hotel guests used the resort's natural features - all of which are available today - to improve health. Large doses of sea air can be inhaled on Ramsgate's blue-flag beach, one of nine locally. The sandy shore is ideal for buckets and spades, and a 1950s Italian ice-cream parlour near by means that the only thing missing from the traditional British holiday experience is a knotted handkerchief.

Then there's the sunshine. Turner, the artist famous for his sunsets and seascapes, said that “the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”. He fell in love with the views and his Margate landlady, and spent the last 20 years of his life visiting and painting the area.

It doesn't take long to see why. The sunlight performs a kind of alchemy - a faded seaside resort turns to gold. Even a plasticky parade of coffee shops on Royal Harbour is lent a flattering impressionistic haze - the elegant Regency setting is highlighted and the chalky turquoise of the water glints below. Squint and you could be in Honfleur.

Need to know

Bed down at ...

Built in 1799, the Royal Harbour Hotel (01843 591514, www.royalharbourhotel.co.uk) is made from adjoining Georgian townhouses and has views over the Channel. Open fires, four-poster beds, a snug and an honesty bar. What more could you want of an evening? Oh, yes, a record player and stash of LPs to listen to while downing the bar's Dubonnet. From £78 per room per night.

Chow down at ...

Age & Sons (01843 851515, www.ageand sons.co.uk). Housed in a former wine warehouse, this three-storey restaurant and bar serves oysters the size of your hand alongside other locally sourced fare.

Make the most of being in the garden of England by tucking into beautifully prepared local ingredients at reasonable prices. We spared no expense with oysters, a starter and a main course each - the bill came to £25 a head.

Secret spot ...

Walk from Ramsgate towards Dumpton into the King George VI Memorial Park and discover the Italianate greenhouse, a curved glass building hidden behind castellated turrets. It still contains the vines it was built to house 200 years ago (www.visitthanet.co.uk).

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