Soft sands and cider
Kids can be kids at Crewkerne Aqua Centre or Jungle play area. They can learn a little at the Fleet Air Arm Museum or just enjoy soft sands and ice cream at Lyme Regis. Grown-ups can head back into history at Barrington Court, sample the wares at Perry’s Cider Mills or walk the Jurassic Coast.
Country kids
There’s plenty on site but, for a change of scene, head out to Crewkerne Aqua Centre, with its 25-metre pool, gym and studio classes, or to the Jungle Jungle indoor soft play area in Yeovil. Wookey Hole’s famous for its caves, but it also comes packed with indoor fun, a hall of mirrors and outdoor crazy golf.
Head to the Fleet Air Arm Museum, a major naval aviation museum bursting with aircraft and interactive displays including a replica of HMS Ark Royal and a Concorde. Or try Haynes Motor Museum, with over 400 cars and bikes in the museum from the 1800s through to modern supercars such as the Jaguar XJ220.
There’s soft sands and ice creams galore on offer on Lyme Regis’s Town Beach or Monmouth Beach. Steam along the country’s longest heritage railway through stunning coast and countryside on the West Somerset line. Or meet abandoned animals amid beautiful Somerset scenery at Ferne Animal Sanctuary.
Get your arm nuzzled by the friendly residents of the South West Deer Rescue. Meet armadillo, zebra, lemur or flamingo at the Axe Valley Wildlife Park. Hand-feed the fish at Lyme Regis Marine Aquarium. Or rev up the adrenaline with a Lyme Rib Ride out on the bay or some high-ropes action at the Vivary Adventure Centre.
For the grown ups
Head back in history to Barrington Court, a National Trust Tudor manor house surrounded by farm buildings, flowers and orchards. Stick with the National Trust at Montacute House, a piece of Elizabethan Renaissance architecture with stone walls and stained-glass, stone-mullioned windows.
Dennis Chinaworks is a local pottery creating interesting and innovative vases and tiles from a Victorian Gothic rectory. Pop in to the tearooms when you’re done for a cheese tart and an Earl Grey. Or how about a trip to the Somerset Cider Brandy distillery, home of the Cider Bus, made famous by the Glastonbury Festival?
Continue the cider journey at Perry’s Cider Mills, a cider farm, cellar and tasting shop, and home to Perry’s award-winning farmhouse and premium single-variety ciders. Or up the culture with a trip to Hauser and Wirth, a world-class modern-art gallery with on-site restaurant.
Or maybe get your boots on? Walk the Jurassic coast, taking in the Golden Cap and stopping for fish and chips at the Anchor Inn at Seatown. Explore the cliffs and caves at Cheddar Gorge. Climb Lewesdon Hill, with views over Devon and Somerset. Or wander up Galstonbury Tor, taking in the tea rooms and ruined abbey.
