This charming quintessentially English hotel is situated in the tiny village of Blue Anchor, just off the seafront and a couple of doors away from a station on the West Somerset Railway. If like me you like chintz and steam trains you will love it!
The rooms are all spotlessly clean, beautifully decorated, en-suite and every one has a sea view either from the rear or the front of the building. All rooms have TV, tea tray and alarm clock radio. In the rooms at the front you can see as far as Minehead in the distance and have an excellent view of the steam railway as it heads towards Dunster.
The couple who run the place (Nigel and Paula) make guests extremely welcome, like a home from home, without intruding on your privacy. On arrival they provide tea in the lounge sometimes served with home made cake, otherwise biscuits! Also in the lounge is a bar area where you can serve yourself with drinks in the evening and make a note of what you had, in order to be billed on departure.
Breakfast is served in the impeccably clean dining room overlooking the coast with a sea and railway view. Kippers are always on offer as an alternative to the full English – rest assured that whatever you order it will be of the highest quality, cooked and served perfectly and vegetarians are fully catered for.
During breakfast at some point, Nigel will come into the dining room and read out the weather forecast for the day and provide helpful information about what to do in the locality and find out what guests plans are.
The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant in the evening, but just a short walk along the seafront is a pub called The Smugglers which does fantastic bar food and has a restaurant above called ‘Take 2 Chefs’ (website www.take2chefs.co.uk). This place is well worth a visit, the proprietors, Susie and Simon are fantastic creative chefs and occasionally run gourmet evenings.
The Langbury is well situated for exploring the local area, either by steam train (the line is 20 miles and runs from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead) or by car. Nearby Minehead is worth a visit - its just a small seaside town, with lots of interesting little shops and restaurants along with a few slot machines and kiss me quick type hats! The Quayside is quite pretty and lovely for a walk to enjoy the sea air. Dunster is also worth a visit with its ancient market place, cobbled street and pretty village buildings. A walk up a steep hill takes you to the castle which is well worth a visit and owned by the National Trust.