Favourite things to do in Somerset | Guest Post

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last post in my staycation series, Blogtober and Halloween kind of took over. But we’re back this week with the lovely Kelly talking about her home county of Somerset.

Missed a post in my staycation series. Catch up here. 😊

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Hello everyone. My name is Kelly and I run The Kelly Diane Report. I’ve previously run another blog but for various personal reasons, closed it. After a while, I realised that I was missing creating content for a blog so have recently started up my blog again. The idea behind my blog is to give real honest reviews as well as to give my audience an insight into my life. I blog about anything that interests me whether its aviation, beauty, fashion or lifestyle related, anything as long as its relevant to me.

When I saw that Kim was asking for guest bloggers to write a post for her staycation series, I jumped at the chance. I have lived in Somerset all of my life and wouldn’t change it for anything. So I thought why not share some of the places that I love to visit and would recommend.

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My favourite places in Somerset

Guest post by Kelly

For those of you that don’t know, Somerset is situated in the South West of England and is really easy to get to. Its roughly about 45 minutes away from Bristol and has the M5 running through the heart of it, meaning that you can easily travel to different locations in the area. Somerset is a real mixture of lovely beaches, pretty scenic hills, colourful towns and historic cities. If this interests you, keep on reading whilst I share some of my favourite places to visit.

Taunton

So lets start off with the county town – Taunton. A town full of history, it played a huge part in the monmouth rebellion and you can find out all about this during a visit to the Somerset County Museum, which is great value for money because it is free to visit. Exhibitions change at the museum on a regular basis and so, even if you have visited before, I’d still recommend returning.

Another free place to visit is Vivary Park, which is in the centre of the town and is a wide open space that is perfect for a walk. At the entrance you walk through a pair of historic cast iron gates and are confronted straight away by a large war memorial that has sat there since 1922. There are so many other great things to see in Vivary Park, whether it’s the stream that flows through the park, a visit to the golf course or tennis court or if you have children, a visit to the play park or the high ropes centre. Beautiful flowers are planted all over the park and it’s a great green space, the perfect setting for a picnic.

Somerset is extremely spoilt for choice when it comes to beaches.

Weston Super Mare

The large seaside town of Weston Super Mare offers a sandy beach, various independent and national shops, as well as one of the main attractions – The Grand Pier. Originally opened in 1904, it made the news in 2008 when a fire broke out and despite 85 fire fighters trying to tackle the fire, it soon spread and the pier was destroyed. By 2010, it was rebuilt and reopened and I personally think that it is much better now than it ever was.

There are so many things to do on The Grand Pier that you could easily spend most of the day there. Maybe you’d like to have a ride on Britain’s smallest rollercoaster or have a go in the formula one simulator. As well as this there is the arcade, full of a great mix of traditional as well as new machines and you can win tickets to redeem at the shop later on.

Added to this are some amazing places to eat and drink, with my favourite being the ice cream parlour. My top tip for the pier would be to buy ride wristbands if you are planning on thrill-seeking, because it soon works out expensive otherwise. Other places to visit here are SeaQuarium and The Helicopter Museum.

Brean

Another beach that deserves a little mention is actually one of my favourites and that is Brean. It’s situated along the coast from Weston Super Mare and is just a basic sandy beach, where you can park up and enjoy the day. A particular favourite thing I like to do is to walk up Brean Down, which looks really easy to do at the start, but is actually quite a mission to get to the top. You can either choose to walk up the steep steps, or you can take my favourite, which is a path up the side. Whilst the path takes slightly longer, it isn’t such hard work. At the top, not only do you get amazing panoramic views of Weston, Brean and even Wales, but you can also take a walk from one end to the other and visit the Brean Down Fort which is free.

Wells

A place that is close to my heart and is where my Grandad was born is the beautiful city of Wells. Often described as the smallest city, if you like old traditional looking places, this is the place for you. As well as visiting the shops and busy market, I highly recommend you taking the time to visit both Wells Cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace and gardens. Both have outstanding arcutecture and are packed full of history. A particular favourite of mine is watching the swans ring the dinner bell if you time it right.

Walks around Somerset

There are so many different picturesque walks you can go on whilst in Somerset and I have a few of my favourites that I wanted to share with you. The Seven Sisters is a relatively easy walk to do with views looking out over Taunton and beyond. Just down the road is Lydeard Hill which is definitely a much harder walk but is so worth it. It is one of the highest points on the Quantock hills and looks right out over the coast. The views from here are always outstanding, no matter what time of year.

One more that I couldn’t not mention was the walk from Kilve beach, along the coast path to Lilstock and beyond if you wish.

These are just a few of my favourite places to visit but I thought I’d quickly share a few more tourist attractions that I love below.

• Cheddar Gorge
• Haynes International Motor Museum
• West Somerset Railway
• Dunster Castle
• Fleet Air Arm Museum
• The American Museum (Bath)

I hope you have enjoyed this post and would maybe like to visit Somerset yourself one day. I post a lot of photos over on my instagram (kellydiane94) so make sure you’re following me to see more of the places I like to visit. You can also find me on twitter @KellyReportBlog and of course you can follow my blog The Kelly Diane Report.

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I hope you enjoyed reading Kelly’s post. 😊 Somerset is pretty close to me in The Cotswolds and I’ve been to a couple of these places. I’ll definitely be visiting again very soon.