Hotels in Chard

Chard makes an unhurried, well-placed base for a Somerset stay, sitting at the meeting point of Somerset, Devon and Dorset and giving easy access to the Blackdown Hills, the Jurassic Coast and the countryside around Forde Abbey without the premium prices of the coast itself. As the highest town in Somerset, it has a slightly cooler, breezier feel than the Somerset Levels below, and its wide Georgian high street is lined with independent shops, cafés and traditional inns, several of which offer comfortable rooms above a good bar and restaurant. This is a practical, unpretentious town rather than a chocolate-box tourist stop, which tends to mean better value and a warmer welcome for visitors who want to explore rather than just sightsee.

Hotel and inn accommodation in Chard tends towards small, independently run establishments — think converted coaching inns and Georgian townhouses rather than large chain hotels — along with bed and breakfasts in the surrounding villages. Nearby Hornsbury Mill offers rooms in a converted watermill setting a short drive from the centre, while the Bath House Hotel in town combines comfortable rooms with a well-regarded restaurant using locally sourced ingredients. Further out towards the Blackdown ridge, country inns such as The Windwhistle Inn pair rooms with sweeping views over the Somerset and Devon countryside.

Wherever you base yourself, Chard puts you within easy striking distance of Forde Abbey's gardens, the Iron Age hillfort at Castle Neroche, the East Devon coast around Axminster and Lyme Regis, and the wider Blackdown Hills National Landscape — making it a sensible, central choice for touring this corner of the South West.