Folkestone and Hythe District, England, United Kingdom
Ten to fifteen minutes on foot from Folkestone Central station, cut into the cliff below The Leas, is a switchback path that drops you at the seafront in a couple more minutes of walking. That's the zig-zag path, and most guides to it stop there: nice views, built into old grottoes, steep on the way back up. What they don't cover is what's actually waiting once you reach the bottom, or where to go afterward if you want a coffee or dinner without hunting around. Five TravelFeed accounts — all from the same regular Folkestone visitor — cover the walk down, the beach it leads to, and three specific stops in the town centre. Put together, they make a loop you can actually follow.
Down the zig-zag path, from The Leas to the shore
The path starts near The Leas, the clifftop promenade above Folkestone's seafront, roughly a 10 to 15 minute walk from Folkestone Central station. As @sergiomendes lays it out, once you're at the top of the path itself, the beach is only a couple of minutes further. Going down is the easy direction. The walk back up is the one that will leave you out of breath, so it's worth clocking the sitting areas built into the route on the way down, in case you're planning to return the same way rather than along the seafront.
The path winds through small caves and man-made passages cut into the cliff, a detail that's easy to miss if you're focused on the steps. There's no fee and no gate; it's simply a public route down, open whenever The Leas itself is accessible.
The caves aren't just decoration. According to Wikipedia's history of Lower Leas Coastal Park, the path was built in 1921 specifically to give work to unemployed men after the First World War, and the artificial cliff face and grottoes were coated in Pulhamite, a cement developed by James Pulham that was used across Britain for ornamental rockwork. It's now a listed structure, one reason the caves and rock-faced walls have survived largely intact a century on rather than being smoothed over in some later renovation. None of that changes the climb, but it explains why a path built purely to get people to the beach has this much detail carved into it.
What's actually at the bottom: Mermaid Beach
The path lands you on the promenade that runs along Folkestone's Lower Leas Coastal Park, with Mermaid Beach itself just off it: a pebble beach, not sand, so don't expect to dig your toes into anything soft. In one visit, @sergiomendes found it almost empty on a cold day and called out something specific worth knowing before you go: this is a shingle beach, and travelers used to sand elsewhere in Europe may find it underwhelming by comparison, even if the emptiness itself is part of the appeal outside summer.
The same visit turned up a stranger detail. Walking the pebbles at low tide, @sergiomendes came across a scatter of dead fish well back from the water — later identified, after some research, as small-spotted catsharks, apparently a known if unexplained cold-season occurrence on this stretch of the Kent coast. It's not something you'll see in summer, by the same account, so treat it as a winter-visit curiosity rather than a reason to avoid the beach.
The promenade running past the beach is lined with small private beach cabins, which @sergiomendes describes as colourful and well kept, some of them available to rent. Most stay shuttered outside the warmer months, then fill up with people during spring and summer, which is as good a signal as any for when this stretch of coast is at its liveliest versus when you'll mostly have it to yourself.
Officially, Folkestone & Hythe District Council lists toilets at the beach and flags that Mermaid Beach isn't one of the sites tested by the Environment Agency for designated bathing water, so it's not the spot to check for an official water-quality rating the way you would for the district's main beaches. Dog access is seasonally restricted, so check before bringing one along in summer. The council's page also notes that the Harbour Arm, with its own run of food and drink stalls, is within walking distance if you'd rather eat right at the seafront instead of heading back into town.
Back in town: two places to get a coffee
If you climb back up rather than eating at the Harbour Arm, central Folkestone has two coffee stops on record from the same visitor, a few minutes apart. Django's Cafe Bar is central enough that @sergiomendes calls its location the first thing worth mentioning — indoor and outdoor seating, a white americano described as solid without being remarkable, and a staff that stayed friendly through a steady trickle of other customers. It's not billed as the best coffee in town, but as a stop that's easy to find and easy to like.
The stronger recommendation from the same author is Picklebacks, on a quiet street with big front windows and, by @sergiomendes's account, repeat enough visits that staff know the regular order without asking. It's small, doubles as a gallery selling local artists' work, and keeps a piano in the corner that anyone is welcome to play. There's a cocktail menu for evenings, too, if coffee isn't what you're after by the time you're back in town.
Neither review names the other as competition, but read together they suggest a simple split: Django's for the more central, easier-to-stumble-into stop, Picklebacks for the one worth deliberately walking a bit further for. Both are within a few minutes of each other in central Folkestone, so on a slower day there's nothing stopping you from doing both — coffee at one, a browse or a second drink at the other.
If you'd rather eat: Luben's Pizza
One visit to Luben's Pizza happened almost by accident — most other places nearby had already closed for the evening around 7pm, and Luben's, on the way toward Folkestone's pier, was still open. The pizzas come out of a wood-fired oven, the interior leans rustic, and two waiters kept things moving without the place feeling rushed. Prices came in at what @sergiomendes called average for a sit-down meal, nothing cheap but nothing steep either. Worth knowing if you're timing a visit for a weekday evening: plan to eat before 7pm, or confirm hours first, since several nearby spots wind down early outside the busier spring and summer months.
Getting there, and when to go
Folkestone Central is the station to aim for. From London, Southeastern's own route page lists around 23 direct trains a day from St Pancras International, with journeys of roughly 52 to 55 minutes and the first departure at 06:37 on weekdays. From Folkestone Central, the walk to The Leas and the top of the zig-zag path takes roughly 10 to 15 minutes. From there, the beach is a couple of minutes further down, and the coffee and food stops above are all back in the town centre, a similar walk in the other direction. There's no cost to any part of this route beyond what you spend on food or drink.
Season matters more here than the distances do. According to the Folkestone & Hythe District Council's beaches page, Mermaid Beach's dog restrictions apply seasonally, and the general pattern across the accounts here is a quieter, colder beach outside spring and summer, versus the beach cabins along the promenade opening up and getting used once the weather turns. If a sand beach matters more to you than the walk itself, it's worth knowing upfront that this one is pebble throughout, not a seasonal quirk.
For more on the area, see TravelFeed's England destination page.
FAQ
Where does the zig-zag path in Folkestone lead?
From The Leas clifftop down to the seafront promenade and Mermaid Beach, a walk of a few minutes each way once you're at the top of the path, built through small caves and passages cut into the cliff.
Is Mermaid Beach in Folkestone a sand or pebble beach?
Pebble. It's a shingle beach along Folkestone's Lower Leas Coastal Park, not sand, and that doesn't change with the season.
How do you get to the zig-zag path from Folkestone Central station?
It's about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the station to The Leas and the top of the path; the beach itself is a couple of minutes further down from there.
Where can you get coffee near the zig-zag path in Folkestone?
Django's Cafe Bar and Picklebacks are both a short walk back into central Folkestone from the top of the path, and Luben's Pizza is nearby toward the pier if you want a meal instead.
