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An hour’s drive north of the wonderfully historic city of Barcelona you begin to climb into the foothills of the fiercely independent and stunningly beautiful region of Catalunya. Its northernmost coastal area, called the Costa Brava, boasts a rugged 40-mile stretch of sandy beaches that sweep from the Spanish capital up to the border with France. But, if you aren’t interested in the beaches, fear not, as here you will discover the world’s top-rated restaurant and the best golf course Spain has to offer.

When you live in a seaside holiday location it’s all too easy to take the views, facilities and ambiance of your own town for granted. I guess it's a minor case of familiarity breeding contempt.

Take my home town of Whitstable for instance; it’s a small, pretty seaside town with a working fishing harbour and a population of 30,000 that nestles into a small, pebbly cove on the Northeast coast of Kent.

Barely five miles north of the historic cathedral city of Canterbury, 20-odd miles from the ports of Dover and Folkestone and a 60-mile commute to London, it is the place I call home.

Our compact former railway workers’ cottage lies just 300 yards from the beach, yet I’ll admit, I’d become a little blasé about the place until a recent readers’ poll in The Times newspaper voted our little town into the top 20 places to live in the United Kingdom.

It stunned me that people all over Britain aspired to live here! So why is it that Londoners buy weekender homes here and holidaymakers flock here, snubbing seemingly more exotic destinations all over the world, to take in the sights of Whitstable?

Allow me, a relative newcomer to the town, to tell you.

Though Scotland and, more specifically, the Old Course at St Andrew’s lay claim to being the ‘home of links golf’ there are some who argue that the county of Kent, in the south east tip of England, boasts the widest variety of links golf to be found on the planet, let alone the British Isles.

The Kent region is known throughout Europe as the Garden of England for its rich history for growing fruit, vegetables and hops (for beer), but is now marketed to golfers as Kent’s Regal Golf Coast – and a right royal time you’ll have playing here.

Royal St George’s in Sandwich is, of course, world-famous for hosting The Open Championship on 14 occasions and lies immediately next to Prince’s Golf Club, another coastal gem of Kent.

Connoisseurs of links golf might contend, however, that the finest links of them all lies just two miles away in Deal where, even on a sunny day, Royal Cinque Ports offers one of the sternest tests of golf you are ever likely to find.