What? No children? An adults-only Somerset break

An idyllic Somerset venue where the focus is solely on the grown-ups. By Carol Muskoron

Part of the film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' is based in a mythical country where children are banned. The fabulous Cricket St Thomas hotel in Somerset has a similar set-up - a sign outside the hotel declares that it is ‘exclusively for adults' and they mean it!

 

The hotel is run by Warner Leisure Hotels - every break at a Warner Leisure Hotel assures you a full English breakfast, a three-course evening meal, daytime and evening entertainment and... a child-free environment.

 

It sounded like the perfect place to get away from my own kids and have a break with my husband - our first alone together in some years. Warner Leisure run lots of activity breaks where you can do everything from wine appreciation to pottery painting but we knew what we wanted to do - breathe some country air and have a swim. Cricket St Thomas, just a few miles from Yeovil, is set in breathtaking countryside and has an indoor pool - we booked.

 

We arrived by train at the pretty nearby station of Crewkerne and were lucky enough to get a cab through the surrounding farmland to the hotel. Book one to pick you up, if you need one, as there's no rank at the station.

 

At first sight we fell in love with the hotel. It is built around the old manor house, which is well known as the place where the TV series ‘To the Manor Born' was filmed. The house is about 250 years old and has a large Palladian portico - it's stunning.

 

Like an increasing number of hotels, Cricket St Thomas is deliberately targeted at an older market - we only realised this when we came to dinner that night and saw a veritable sea of silver heads in the dining room. Feeling very, very young (I'm 44 and husband Jack is 49, so the sensation was not one we're used to), we sat down and within seconds were chatting away to a retired couple from Yorkshire. The crowd at the hotel was so sociable - everyone talks to everyone. Our Yorkshire couple rattled off a list of Warner Leisure Resorts that they'd visited. They were planning to visit the whole list of hotels on offer eventually.

 

The food was traditional British fare - you could either have waiter service or go to the buffet. After dinner, there was a rush downstairs. One of the attractions of the hotel is that every evening there is a show. The first night we watched a group called Classic Graffiti which consisted of two female violinists, a viola player and a double bassist with a bit of a comic patter. ‘This is for the older people in the audience,' he said. ‘So that's everyone!'

 

The hotel is set in the Cricket St Thomas Wildlife Park, so the next day after breakfast we stepped out of the back door of our room and walked straight out into the park. It's a lovely size - you can walk around it in a morning, have lunch at the pub and take a little train back to the hotel. On board there's a commentary about the amazing endangered animals that live there. We're talking lemurs, zebras, tapirs, camels and even a cheetah (with a bad leg). But my favourite animals of the trip by far were the ones that ran wild all around the hotel grounds: rabbits! Dozens of them, all over the gardens.

 

That afternoon we avoided all of the activities on offer - bingo, walks, snooker - and headed to the swimming pool area. We had a massage booked. It was fab. After that it was straight to the pool for a swim and read. We were feeling very, very relaxed by now.

 

That night we saw two attractive opera singers called the Opera Babes at the hotel show - they specialised in comic songs and romantic arias. We listened to them for a while and then went for a nighttime stroll.

 

It was about 9pm and it still very light so we walked to the back of the house. It was absolutely beautiful. There were manicured lawns with an assortment of huge trees that must have been planted at least a couple of hundred years ago. And there were the rabbits running across the lawns.

 

We walked up to the front door of the house - it was absolutely lovely. There was a huge hallway with sofas and a grand piano and stairs rising up to a gallery, which led to bedrooms. There was a smaller entrance lobby, which was filled with the heads of stuffed animals and there was a library which had wonderful views over the parkland. And it was all completely empty.

 

We were marvelling at being in such surroundings completely alone when we heard a muffled banging noise. It was a barman in a small bar, who was also by himself. ‘Why is it so empty? It's really lovely here,' we said. It turned out that the shows are so popular that the bar is empty most nights. We chatted, drank a couple of gin and tonics sat taking in the wonderful Somerset countryside through the incredible floor-to-ceiling windows.

 

The following day - a Sunday - we had to leave. We spent the morning talking and reading on the lawns. I was sorry to go but you know what? I was looking forward to seeing the children again. I think that means that I had had a very, very good break from them!

 

Click here for more information on Warner Breaks

Trips to Cricket St Thomas start from £197.40 per person for two nights for a two night late deal.