Bruton Meadow

Safari tours, stately home and a sophisticated maze… Longleat (25 minutes’ drive) has it all. Get up close to hippos, monkeys and lions at the drive-through safari or stroll through gardens designed by Capability Brown. You may feel like a fly on the wall in the grand houses and gardens in this area, like the Georgian limestone and green eateries at The Newt in Somerset (10 minutes). Tick off two National Trust properties as you go, including the Palladian landscaped gardens at Stourhead (15 minutes) and the Elizabethan mansion at Montacute House (35 minutes). There are certainly no shortages of tributes to older times around, whether it’s the antique models at Haynes International Motor Museum (15 minutes), the hilltop legends of Glastonbury Tor (half an hour) or the arches of Wells Cathedral (half an hour). Perhaps climb to the top of King Alfred’s Tower (15 minutes) or take an extra-sophisticated sip of English tea at Sherborne Castle & Gardens (40 minutes). Hauser & Wirth Somerset (five minutes) has galleries full of impressive art, too. It's not just history that shows off but the natural world too…underground, forge your way through the caves at Wookey Hole (35 minutes) and the caverns of Cheddar Gorge (40 minutes).