Situated only 12 miles from the Eurotunnel car shuttle terminal, Ashford is served from the huge modern international station by direct Eurostar links to Brussels (1hour 40mins) and Paris (2hours) as well as extensive domestic rail links (London Bridge is just 1hour 10mins away). The town is also linked to the M20 London-Folkestone motorway.
Ashford itself is largely based on service and light manufacturing industry while the borough as a whole is Kent's most rural, with a sizeable farming industry (especially in arable and fruit) and was synonymous with the TV series, The Darling Buds of May. The nearby village of Wye at the base of the North Downs is home to the University of London's Agricultural College.
Ashford has an ever-increasing amount of leisure facilities, most notably the Stour Leisure Centre, Cales nightclub and in the last couple of years, a ten-pin bowling alley and a multiplex cinema.
The town's shopping area has traditionally been squeezed by the larger centres of Canterbury (14 miles away) and Maidstone (18 miles) but this is now changing and the opening of a Designer Outlet village near the station in 2000 is evidence of this.
The town is keen to retain some of its rural traditions however and there are regular farmers markets as well as occasional French markets in the High Street, building on the ever-increasing links with the nearby continent.