The district also includes the towns of Fordwich, Herne Bay and Whitstable, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.

Parts of the district lie within the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty of the Kent Downs.

The neighbouring districts (clockwise from east) are Thanet, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, Ashford and Swale, all of which are also in Kent.

[16] The more rural parts of the district are covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government for their areas.

[32] During 2024 the council plans to vacate Military Road and move its offices to converted parts of the Whitefriars Shopping Centre.

The district is largely rural, with a coastal strip taken up by the almost unbroken spread of seaside towns and beaches from Seasalter, west of Whitstable, to Herne Bay.

Between them and the city the hills rise into the wooded area of Blean, south of which the Great Stour flows from its source beyond Ashford.

The district participates in the Sister Cities programme, with links[38] to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, and Vladimir, Russia.

The Three Towns Association was founded in 1985 on the initiative of three local clergymen to promote person-to-person contact between ordinary people in the UK, the U.S. and Russia.