Mr & Mrs Smith

The Swan Wedmore

Somerset, United Kingdom

Popular culture casts swans as calm and unruffled, with a lot going on under the surface. The Swan Wedmore hotel in Somerset is no different. Staff are young and interested, the head chef is fresh from a stint at River Cottage Canteen, the bar has a buzz, and rooms are romantic – graced with neutral hues, French furniture, and beds and baths that will have you disrobing in no time.

Need to know

• Rooms Six.
• Rates Double rooms from AU$110.32 (£71), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (£71) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Rates include breakfast (full English).
• Facilities Gardens, library, stash of DVDs and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD player, iPod dock, coffee-making facilities, minibar and Bramley bath products. All the bathrooms have underfloor heating.
• Check-out 11am, but flexible subject to availability (no charge). Earliest check-in, 11am.
• Children Welcome. Cots are free, extra beds can be added for £20 (including breakfast), and babysitting with a local nanny is £8 an hour (ask at least a week in advance). There’s a kids' menu in the restaurant.

Food and drink at The Swan Wedmore

• Hotel restaurant

  Head chef Tom Blake and sous chef Josie learned their craft at the River Cottage Canteen, famed for its panache with simple, seasonal British ingredients. You’ll find the same culinary integrity at the Swan. Sample dishes include: potted pig on toast with gherkin and mustard salsa, and bubble and squeak cake with a fried duck egg and parsnip puree. Style-wise, the main details are: hefty wooden tables, antique tapestries and a striking chandelier crafted from an abundance of lampshades. The restaurant is closed on Sunday evenings (bar snacks are available), and books up quickly, so make reservations asap.

• Dress code Imagine you’re off to your local – jeans and jumpers won’t be frowned upon.
• Top table Sit tucked away on one of the sofas at the side and admire the flagstone floor and the boxed corkscrew collection, or watch the action at the bustling bar with a perch by the door. If you want first dibs on the freshly baked treats, sit by the cake stand.
• Last orders Breakfast on plump sausages and melt-in-the-mouth black pudding between 8am and 11am on the weekend (7.30am–11.30am during the week); enjoy lazy, boozy lunches between 12pm and 3pm; dine under the striking lampshade chandelier between 6pm and 10pm.
• Room service None, although there are spiced nuts, olives and addictive Japanese rice crackers in big glass jars at the bar, an all-day bar menu, and cakes waiting to be sliced and munched from elevenses onwards. Rest assured, you won’t go hungry here.
• Hotel bar

  Budding barmen (and lovers of fine ale) will fit right in at the Swan, whose heart is definitely in the bar. There’s a weekly signature cocktail, a host of local brews, and enough wine and spirits to keep you carousing ’til sunrise (if it weren’t for that big bed beckoning).

The Swan Wedmore Cheddar Road, Wedmore, Somerset, BS28 4EQ