Kent is an affluent county with a large coastline and has a series of ridges and valleys running east-west across the county. Areas where it adjoins London are part of the urban sprawl, such as Dartford; areas along the coast are dominated by several large coastal towns, such as Folkestone and Dover, and the mid-part of Kent has urban areas and a fair few rural ones.

Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Ashford, and Folkestone are built on greensand while Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells are built on sandstone. Dartford, Gravesend, the Medway towns, Sittingbourne, Faversham, Canterbury, Deal, and Dover are built on chalk.

Canterbury Cathedral is the United Kingdom's metropolitan cathedral; it was founded in AD 598 and displays architecture from all periods. There are nine Anglo-Saxon churches in Kent. Rochester Cathedral is England's second oldest cathedral, the present building built in the Early English Style.

Kent has three unique vernacular architecture forms: the Oast house, the Wealden hall house, and Kentish peg-tiles.

Kent has many port towns including Dover, Folkestone and Margate. Adjacent counties include East Sussex, Surrey, Essex (across the River Thames) and, as stated earlier, Greater London. Curiously, Kent used to contain an enclave north of the River Thames until 1965 which equates now to the E16 postcode area and which has now been reclassified as part of the London Borough of Newham. JMW Turner, the great impressionist painter, spent part of his childhood in Margate and regularly returned there in later life. The coastline of East Kent is regarded as the inspiration for many of his works, particularly his fantastic seascapes.