Somerset refuses easy summary. It is Georgian crescents and cider orchards, limestone gorges and occult hilltops, painted coast and soft, cow-dotted country. It is Bath in all its golden symmetry; Bruton with its galleries, farm-to-table restaurants and expensive wellies; Glastonbury, still half in this world and half in another; and Exmoor, where the land grows wilder and darker.
In recent years, Somerset has acquired a new kind of glamour, with its excellent food, serious art, converted farm buildings, gardens with ambition, and pubs with proper cooking. The county is scattered, and that is part of the appeal. You do not come here for one neat centre of gravity; instead, you choose your corner.
Read on for our complete guide to where to stay in Somerset, from city breaks in Bath and food weekends in Bruton to hot-tub hideaways, dog-friendly cottages and country houses made for a full house.
How to Choose Where to Stay in Somerset
Choosing where to stay in Somerset begins with deciding which version of the county you want. For culture, restaurants and easy rail links, Bath and the north of Somerset make the most elegant starting point. Look to Bruton, Frome and the south for food, art and a more contemporary country mood. For caves, gorges and big outdoor days, the Mendips and Cheddar are the draw. Further west, Somerset becomes rougher-edged and more elemental, with Taunton, Exmoor, Dunster and the coast opening up a landscape of moorland and cliffs.
Then there is the matter of the stay itself. For families, dogs, celebrations and weekends that involve a little more sprawl, a private holiday home gives Somerset its proper shape, with enough room for breakfast in the kitchen, boots at the door, children in the garden, and someone making tea while someone else opens wine too early.
For instance, for a weekend, choose one base and be faithful to it. Bath for architecture and restaurants, Bruton for art and food, Exmoor for wild country. For a week, you can afford to roam: the Roman city one day, a gorge the next, a market town after that, then a long drive west.
The Best Places to Stay in Somerset
Somerset is not one destination so much as a set of moods stitched together: Georgian city, mystic town, food country, limestone hills, cider farmland, sea-facing west. The best place to stay depends on the sort of holiday you are hoping for.
Bath: Best for Georgian Grandeur and City Breaks
With honeyed stone, formal crescents, steaming water and poetically symmetrical streets, Bath is Somerset at its most composed. It is one of England’s great city breaks, but small enough to feel immediately knowable.
The Roman Baths remain the obvious beginning, followed by the Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge, the Circus and a dip at Thermae Bath Spa, where the city’s ancient obsession with water becomes something altogether more modern. There are excellent restaurants, good shops and enough Jane Austen heritage to satisfy anyone with a bonnet-shaped inclination, though Bath is far more than a period-drama backdrop.
It is the best Somerset base for couples, first-timers, culture lovers and anyone who wants the ease of a city without giving up countryside altogether.
Where to stay: Royal George Townhouse, Bath – an elegant city base for stepping straight into Bath’s Georgian world.
Bruton: Best for Food, Art and the “New Somerset”
If Bath is Somerset in costume drama and polished stone, Bruton is Somerset in linen, gallery glass and very good shoes. Small yet magnetic, it has become the emblem of the county’s newer appeal, with serious food, serious art and beautifully kept countryside all around.
Hauser & Wirth Somerset, the internationally renowned contemporary art gallery set in converted farm buildings, gave the town its cultural headline. But Bruton’s pull goes beyond the gallery. Osip, At The Chapel, Number One Bruton and The Newt nearby have helped make this corner of Somerset feel less like a rural detour and more like a destination in its own right. It suits couples, food people, art lovers and anyone who likes a weekend to contain both a very good dinner and a little self-improvement.
Beyond that, the surrounding countryside is deeply useful: soft lanes, farm shops, handsome villages and easy access towards Castle Cary, Frome and South Somerset.
Where to stay: Seymour House, Somerset – well placed for Bruton, The Newt and the food-and-art side of the county.
Frome: Best for Creatives and Independent Shopping
Frome is not polished in quite the same way as Bruton, and all the better for it. It’s steeper, stranger, more independent, with a pleasing sense that half the town is either making something by hand or selling something carefully chosen.
Catherine Hill is the heart of it, a steep run of independent shops, studios, and galleries. The Frome Independent Market brings the town into full colour, with food, vintage finds, crafts, and clothes. Its Georgian and Victorian streets give it good bones, while its creative scene keeps it from feeling preserved in aspic.
Where to stay: Frome works especially well as a day out from Bath or the surrounding countryside. It is within easy reach of our Bath-area villas, including Featherstone Manor, making it a strong option for guests who want a country base with a more offbeat town close by.
North Somerset and the Bristol Coast: Best for Coast, City and Countryside
North Somerset is for those who like their holiday geography usefully untidy. Here, the Severn Estuary opens wide and silver-grey, Bristol sits close enough for dinner, Bath is within reach, and the Mendips rise inland with their caves and ridges.
Around Clevedon, Portishead, Tickenham, Nailsea and the villages between coast and city, you get a good Somerset compromise, not fully rural, not fully urban, not quite seaside but full of possibility. Clevedon has its pier and melancholy Victorian charm; Portishead brings marina views and coastal walks; inland lanes lead towards Cheddar, the Mendips and Chew Valley.
This is a useful base for families and groups who want choice: Bristol one day, Bath the next, a gorge walk after that, and then home to a house with enough room for everyone to disappear briefly and reappear for dinner.
Where to stay: C17th Castle – a castle base for the North Somerset and Bristol Coast side of the county (though you may just want to stay put).
Glastonbury: Best for Mysticism, Walks and Year-Round Visits
This part of Somerset has always belonged partly to legend: Arthurian rumours, ruined abbeys, holy springs, and the Tor rising above the Levels like something placed there for anyone inclined to believe the old myths. The town’s associations with Avalon, King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea give it a charged, otherworldly atmosphere, but it is not only a place for myth-making. Climb the Tor, wander the abbey ruins, browse the bookshops and independent stores, then look out across the flat, shining Somerset Levels, and you begin to understand why people have been attaching meaning to this landscape for centuries.
Cheddar and the Mendips: Best for Outdoor Adventures
The Mendips are Somerset with its bones showing. At Cheddar Gorge, the hills split into great limestone walls, dramatic enough to make the surrounding countryside feel briefly alpine, if England allowed itself such extravagance for more than a mile or two.
The caves, cliffs and walking routes make Cheddar one of the county’s best outdoor days out, especially for families and walkers. Beyond the gorge, the Mendip Hills offer cycling, viewpoints, village pubs and gentler routes through a landscape of ridges, fields and old stone. The Strawberry Line is a good choice for cyclists.
This area works well from Bath, North Somerset and the Chew Valley, particularly for guests who want countryside and adventure without committing to the wilder west of the county.
Where to stay: Chew Valley View – a strong base for exploring Cheddar, the Mendips and North Somerset’s green, lake-dotted countryside.
South Somerset Countryside: Best for Rural Group Getaways
Around Martock, South Petherton and Ilchester, South Somerset becomes a country of church towers, cider fields, old stone villages and houses large enough to absorb a whole family without complaint.
This is the place for full-fridge holidays: long tables, late breakfasts, pub lunches, market-town errands, children appearing barefoot from the garden, someone always making tea. Bruton, Yeovil, the Somerset Levels and the Dorset border are all within reach, but the real point is less itinerary than occupation — taking over a house properly, filling it with people, food, dogs, books, bottles and the low-level chaos of a good group holiday.
Where to stay: Earnshill House, Somerset – a natural choice for rural group stays in the South Somerset countryside.
Taunton and the South Somerset Countryside: Best for Easy Countryside Escapes
Taunton may not have Bath’s good bones or Bruton’s gallery sheen, but it is one of Somerset’s most useful bases – and usefulness becomes rather glamorous when half the group wants hills, someone needs a train station, and someone else has already started looking up lunch.
Set between the Quantock Hills and the Blackdown Hills, with Exmoor and the West Somerset coast within reach, Taunton gives you room to manoeuvre. The town has rail links, shops and all the practical things a group holiday depends on, while the surrounding countryside turns green and hilly with pleasing speed. Wellington gives you another anchor nearby; South Petherton brings a more village-led food note, with Holm adding a little culinary heat to this part of the county.
Where to stay: Aspall House, Somerset – well placed for Taunton, Wellington, the Blackdown Hills and longer days out towards West Somerset.
Exmoor, Dunster and the West Somerset Coast: Best for Wild Days Out
The west of Somerset is where the county starts to misbehave. The lanes narrow, the moor rises, the sea appears in hard little flashes, with varying degrees of wildness. Exmoor is the great pull here with its heather, valleys, ponies, wooded combes and skies so dark they feel almost pre-modern.
Dunster is the pretty counterpoint, all medieval streets and castle drama, while Porlock and Minehead open the door to the coast. Minehead brings sand, sea air and the West Somerset Railway; Porlock gives you cliffs, steep lanes and a more weather-beaten romance. For walkers, this is some of Somerset’s richest country, with moorland, coast and village pubs all nearby.
What Type of Stay Is Right for You?
Somerset has places to stay for almost every version of an escape: Georgian townhouses, old farmhouses, country cottages, large celebration homes, houses with gardens, hot tubs and views that make breakfast last longer than planned.
The right choice depends on the company. Couples may want Bath, Bruton, a fire and a very good dinner. Families should look for kitchens, gardens and days out that do not require too much planning. Dog owners gravitate towards good walks, cosy pubs and floors that can forgive a muddy paw. Groups need space, bathrooms, parking and a house that can absorb noise without complaint.
Places to Stay in Somerset for Couples
For couples, Somerset is less about romantic choreography than good conditions. Bath gives you the grand version – steam, stone, symmetry, a dinner reservation, the small theatre of walking home through golden streets after dark. Bruton offers a more contemporary arrangement: art, gardens, good bread and luxurious vegetables, if vegetables can be such. The Mendips are for couples who prefer fewer witnesses, with their climbing limestone, footpaths, wind, and a house somewhere warm at the end of it.
A private villa or cottage is useful here because it removes the small indignities of the hotel weekend: the breakfast slot, the corridor voice, the couple at the next table conducting a disagreement over eggs. Look for a fire, a garden, a hot tub, and a kitchen that gives dinner enough room to become the evening. The best places for couples in Somerset give you space, privacy and enough beauty outside the window to make looking outward feel like part of the intimacy.
Where to stay: Pippin, Somerset
Places to Stay in Somerset with a Hot Tub
After Cheddar Gorge, a Mendip walk, a damp Exmoor afternoon or a day of nosing around market towns, the appeal of a hot tub becomes glaringly obvious.
Hot tub stays work particularly well in the Mendips, South Somerset, the edges of Exmoor and the quieter pockets around Bath and North Somerset. In summer, they give the evening somewhere to go after dinner, when the glasses are still out and no one is ready to go in. By autumn, the pleasure turns earthier: cider, wet leaves, the odd luxury of being warm outdoors. In winter, it becomes pure theatre – steam rising into the dark, the weather recast as atmosphere.
Dog-Friendly Places to Stay in Somerset
Somerset is a fine county for dogs. Out on the Levels, the walks are flat, open and sky-heavy, with reeds, ditches and distant church towers giving even an easy wander a sense of expedition. Elsewhere, the county rises into the Mendips, the Quantocks and Exmoor National Park, with woodland paths, pub walks, the West Mendip Way and beaches such as Minehead and Brean, where the horizon does a great deal of the work.
For dog owners, a dog-friendly holiday home is far easier than a hotel. Enclosed gardens, direct access to walks, space for beds and bowls, no corridors, no awkward breakfast rooms. Choose the base around the walks you want most: Exmoor for proper moorland, the Mendips for hills and gorges, North Somerset for coast and countryside, or South Somerset for gentler village-and-field days.
Places to Stay in Somerset with Kids
Somerset is very useful for family holidays because it has the kind of variety children can get their hands on. Cheddar has caves and cliffs. Minehead has beach days and the West Somerset Railway. Wells is compact and handsome enough for a low-effort wander. Bath brings museums, architecture and reliable rainy-day options. Near Bruton, The Newt gives families gardens, orchards, woodland walks and enough room for children to make the day their own.
A holiday home for the whole family makes things easier. Children need room for all the small states of a day: hungry, muddy, overexcited, tired, suddenly restored. A kitchen, a garden and separate bedrooms can do more for a family holiday than almost any itinerary. There are no fixed sittings, no narrow hotel corridors, and no small children expected to behave like miniature diplomats.
For bigger families or multi-generational groups, look to Bath, South Somerset or the Taunton countryside, where larger homes allow for the delicate family maths of being together without invading each other’s space.
Where to Stay in Somerset for a Weekend
For a weekend in Somerset, resist the urge to do everything. It is too spread out, and you will spend the whole time in the car, which will gradually lose its charm.
Choose Bath if you want a city break with culture. If the weekend is mainly about food, art and countryside, go for Bruton. Choose the Mendips if you want walking, views and a hot tub. Or if you are gathering people from different directions and need somewhere practical that still feels like a proper escape, opt for Taunton or south Somerset.
Rail links help. Bath Spa is fast and straightforward from London. Castle Cary is useful for Bruton and The Newt. Taunton works well for the west and south of the county. Once you are there, a car gives Somerset the freedom it deserves.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Somerset?
By March and April, Somerset begins to reappear in colour. Green comes first in glimmers, then all at once along the hedges, over the Mendips, across fields where lambs wobble into the world and cows make low, soft noise from behind the gates. Blossom gathers in lanes, gardens loosen, the county feels newly rinsed, pastoral in the old sense – alive with small, persuasive signs.
By summer, everything opens. Bath glows pale and warm in the sun; Cheddar Gorge holds its cool limestone drama; pub gardens fill; the coast flashes at the edge of the county; The Newt is all orchards, glasshouses and immaculate abundance. Glastonbury becomes, for a few days, a city of canvas and myth.
Autumn arrives with a deeper colour in its pockets. The orchards come into their own, cider starts appearing on tables with a little more authority, the woods darken at the edges, lanes shine after rain, and Exmoor takes on that rich, animal look of moorland, bracken and weather. It is a beautiful time for food-led weekends, muddy walks and houses where the fire has a job to do.
Winter turns Somerset inward. Bath glows for Christmas, Exmoor keeps its enormous dark skies, and the countryside pares itself back to frost, smoke, and hot tubs. The pleasure is not in seeing everything, but in choosing the right house: somewhere warm, generous and well placed, the outside world held beautifully at the window.
Discover Luxury Stays in Somerset with Oliver’s Travels
Oliver’s Travels offers a collection of characterful homes across the UK, including Georgian townhouses and countryside retreats to dog-friendly stays and family houses in Somerset. Our concierge team can help with the details, from private chefs and special occasions to local recommendations and added extras. Then, browse our luxury villas to find the right base for your next escape.
