A lovely long weekend in Cheddar, Somerset….

There’s nothing better than sitting by an open fire in a cosy cottage while the weather outside is cold and grey, that was made even better with a glass of champagne on New Years Eve! Matt, Emily and I spent a long weekend in Cheddar over the New Year, Hollies Cottage; our very cosy cottage was our bolthole for a lovely mini break.  Located in the village of Draycott five minutes drive from Cheddar it was in a perfect spot for exploring the area and was well equipped with everything we needed including a travel cot and high chair. Cheddar is famous for Cheddar Cheese and also Cheddar Gorge, the UK’s largest gorge, the chocolate box town is nestled in between a steep valley. The gorge itself is very impressive to drive through, the huge imposing rocky cliffs looked even more impressive on a grey day. The village has some nice coffee shops, cafes and restaurants along with shops selling as you can probably guess, cheese and a handful of touristy type shops. There are also two caves in Cheddar which are open to the public, both are really interesting. For £19 you get entry into Gough’s Cave and Cox’s Cave, The Museum of Prehistory, The Lookout Tower, The Cliff Top Gorge Walk and an open top bus tour during the summer.  If you buy tickets online prior to the day you are going you can get a 15% discount. Gough’s Cave is the larger and my favourite of the two, learn all about the history of the cave with a personal audio guide and see cheese maturing inside. We loved the cliff top gorge walk; the three-mile loop has stunning views of the Mendips and goats grazing on the cliff edges, we bumped into friends here too! After our day in Cheddar we headed back to Draycott and stopped off at the Cider Barn. This quirky ‘pub’ is a must visit, local ciders, homemade pork pies on the bar, a simple menu and log burner made it our venue of choice most afternoons on the way back to our cottage. Not one to be landlocked we also explored the coast; Weston-super-Mare was a 25 minute drive. Huge stretches of sand you can drive on and neat beach huts all lined up in a row was a lovely surprise, it was just a shame about the weather!

I loved Cheddar, the perfect place for a cosy winter getaway and a nice way to see in 2017.