Wells, Somerset

Wells offers a small but well-formed range of places to stay, from a fifteenth-century coaching inn facing the cathedral to a Gothic Revival country house set in its own parkland. Because the city itself is so compact, almost everywhere within the centre is walkable to the cathedral, the Bishop's Palace and the Market Place, which makes location less of a compromise here than in larger cities. The choice tends to come down to character and setting instead: a historic inn with cathedral views, a family-friendly hotel near Wookey Hole, or a quieter country house a short drive from the centre.

At the upper end, Wells has a couple of properties that make a genuine occasion of a stay, with landscaped grounds, award-winning breakfasts and, in one case, its own swimming pool. The mid-range is anchored by long-established coaching inns and hotels in and around the city centre, several of them former stopping points on the old road network and now run as contemporary hotels with restaurants that draw diners from beyond Wells itself. For a more personal welcome, the city's bed and breakfasts and the award-winning guest houses in the surrounding villages offer home-cooked breakfasts and a level of local knowledge that larger hotels rarely match.

Families exploring Wookey Hole Caves tend to base themselves close to the caves themselves, while couples and those visiting for the cathedral or the food festival gravitate to the centre. Whichever type of stay you choose, nowhere in Wells is more than a short walk or a five-minute drive from the Market Place, so a booking here rarely means a long commute back to the sights.

Wells rewards slow exploration, but a handful of sights and experiences should anchor any visit.

• Wells Cathedral is the obvious starting point, with its scissor arches, medieval stained glass and the astronomical clock that has told the time since the 1390s.
• Bishop's Palace and Gardens sit behind a moat still patrolled by swans trained to ring a bell for food, with fourteen acres of gardens fed by the springs that give the city its name.
• Vicars' Close, a complete medieval residential street built in the 1300s to house the cathedral's choristers, is one of the oldest purely residential streets in Europe.
• Wells and Mendip Museum, next to the cathedral, covers the geology, archaeology and social history of the city and the surrounding hills in a manageable hour.
• Wookey Hole Caves, two miles outside the city, combine show caves carved by the River Axe with a paper mill and family attractions that have drawn visitors since Victorian times.
• The Wells Market Place hosts an open-air market every Wednesday and Saturday, a tradition dating back over eight centuries, selling local produce, cheese and crafts.
• St Cuthbert's Church, the city's parish church rather than the cathedral, has one of Somerset's finest Perpendicular towers and a restored medieval painted ceiling.
• Cheddar Gorge, roughly nine miles west, makes an easy half-day trip for its show caves, cliff-top walks and views across the Somerset Levels.

Somerset's cider and cheese country begins on Wells' doorstep, and the city's food scene reflects it: local cheddar, Somerset cider brandy and orchard cider appear on menus across the city, often sourced from producers within a few miles. The twice-weekly market on Wednesdays and Saturdays remains the best place to buy direct from local farms, with stalls for cheese, meat, baked goods and seasonal produce trading in the shadow of the cathedral. The Crown at Wells and the Swan Hotel both run well-regarded restaurants serving modern British food built around West Country ingredients, while smaller independents along Sadler Street and the High Street offer everything from cafes and tearooms to a handful of ambitious dinner spots that draw visitors out from Bath and Bristol. Traditional pubs such as the City Arms, tucked into a former prison courtyard just off the Market Place, and the Fountain Inn near the cathedral close, serve local ales and ciders alongside pub food, and both are popular after-dinner options for visitors staying in the city centre.

Wells sits at the edge of the Mendip Hills, and the campsites around the city make the most of that setting, trading city-centre convenience for open countryside, dark skies and easy access to walking routes across the Mendips. None of the sites are more than a few miles from the cathedral, so a short drive or cycle still brings you into the city for the market, the restaurants or an evening at evensong, while the pitches themselves sit in genuinely rural surroundings rather than roadside fields.

The options range from a well-equipped touring park geared towards caravans and motorhomes, through a small farm-based certificated site that suits those wanting a simpler, quieter pitch, to a family-run camping and caravanning site further into the Mendips with cabins as well as tent and touring pitches. Electric hook-ups, showers and dog-friendly fields are available across most of the sites, though facilities are generally simpler than at larger commercial holiday parks, in keeping with their rural, small-scale character.

Wookey Hole Caves, Cheddar Gorge and the Mendip Hills' network of walking and cycling routes are all within easy reach of any of the sites below, making them a practical base for a longer, more active break in Somerset rather than just a stop en route to the coast.