Bewdley

Bewdley's accommodation is centred on its Georgian riverside, where a handful of historic inns offer rooms with views straight over the Severn — the Mug House Inn on Severn Side is the best known, combining a working pub with comfortable, traditionally styled bedrooms. Around the town centre and along the surrounding lanes, a number of bed and breakfasts occupy period townhouses, giving visitors a chance to stay inside the same Georgian streetscape that makes the town worth visiting in the first place.

For visitors wanting more space, particularly families heading to West Midland Safari Park, self-catering cottages and larger holiday lets are dotted through the villages around Bewdley and the edge of the Wyre Forest. These tend to offer gardens, parking and room to spread out, and are often a short drive rather than a walk from the town centre. Kidderminster, a few miles away, has a broader spread of budget and mid-range chain hotels for those who want more choice or are travelling on to other parts of Worcestershire.

Whichever type of stay you choose, it is worth booking ahead for peak summer weekends and school holidays, when both the safari park and the Severn Valley Railway draw large numbers of day-trippers and rooms in the town itself can fill quickly. Riverside rooms in particular are limited in number, so early booking pays off if a view over the Severn matters to you.

Bewdley rewards a slow visit. Most of what's worth seeing is within walking distance of the river, and a day here can easily mix a steam train ride with a forest walk and a pint by the water.

• Severn Valley Railway — Bewdley station is one of the principal stops on this 16-mile heritage line between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth, with vintage steam and diesel locomotives running through the Severn valley.
• Bewdley Museum — housed in the old Butchers Shambles building, this small local museum covers the town's river trade, crafts and history, with demonstrations from resident craftspeople and a garden behind.
• Wyre Forest — one of England's largest surviving areas of ancient woodland, with waymarked trails for walking and cycling and a visitor centre on the Callow Hill side.
• West Midland Safari Park — a drive-through safari and adventure park a short distance from the town, home to lions, giraffes, rhinos and rides.
• Georgian riverside architecture — the terraces along Severn Side and the elegant town bridge, engineered by Thomas Telford, are worth simply walking and taking in.
• St Anne's Church — the 18th-century parish church that dominates the top of Load Street, the town's main shopping street.
• Go Ape Wyre Forest — treetop rope courses and zip wires set among the forest a short drive from town, popular with families and older children.

Bewdley's riverside makes an obvious setting for its pubs and restaurants. The Mug House Inn, a Georgian riverside inn on Severn Side, serves locally sourced food alongside real ales and rooms looking straight over the water. The Cock & Magpie, also on the riverbank, is known for its live music and gin selection. The Black Boy on Wyre Hill is reckoned to be the town's oldest pub, run as a family free house. Load Street and the surrounding lanes add independent cafés, bakeries and a scattering of restaurants, making the town a pleasant place to eat well without straying far from the water.

Wild camping is not legally permitted in England without the landowner's permission, and that applies as much to the Wyre Forest as anywhere else, however inviting its clearings look. The good news is that the area around Bewdley has a solid choice of proper campsites and glamping sites instead, many of them set up specifically for people visiting West Midland Safari Park, the Severn Valley Railway or the forest itself. Expect a mix of grassy touring pitches, safari tents and wooden pods, several of them on working farms within a fifteen-minute drive of the town.

The terrain here is gentler than the moorland camping found further west in Britain — rolling farmland and mature woodland rather than open hillside — which makes it a comfortable, family-friendly base rather than a wilderness expedition. The Wyre Forest itself, one of the largest ancient woodlands left in England, gives campers miles of waymarked trails for walking and cycling straight from a pitch, while the River Severn running through Bewdley adds an obvious focus for an evening stroll after the tents are up.

Late spring through early autumn is the most comfortable window for camping here, when the forest is in leaf and evenings are long enough for a fire and a walk. Summer school holidays are the busiest period, particularly at sites within easy reach of the safari park, so booking ahead is worthwhile. Sites tend to quieten from October, though a handful stay open through the shoulder seasons for those happy with cooler nights.

Glamping has become a particular strength of the area, with several farms around Bewdley offering safari tents, shepherd's huts and pods complete with hot tubs, log burners and proper beds — a comfortable way to enjoy the forest and the river without giving up creature comforts. It is a good option for families who want the atmosphere of a night under canvas close to Bewdley's attractions, without the logistics of full camping gear.