A small travel adventure: The Pig Hotel

A couple of times a year, we want to be able to visit our son at uni in Bristol and not do the 5 hour round trip in one day. The Avon/Somerset area is not one either of us know at all, so it a great excuse to discover the countryside as well as Bristol and Bath. We have wanted to find a special place to spend an evening with our son occasionally, but also have a mini getaway for ourselves that felt like a real treat - as we have found it hard to achieve these times together as a couple in the hurley-burley of bringing up four kids. So as a small adventure of our own, finding that lovely new place has become a mini quest, one that is over almost before it began because we have found a little bit of heaven on earth in the shape of The Pig Hotel. This will be our happy place for spoiling our son for a lunch or dinner, and having some time for ourselves too - it really it a gorgeous place.

a perfect kitchen garden, amazing, locally sourced food and everywhere you look urns, pots and flowerbeds full of herbs and salad leaves. The rooms are the last word in comfort and relaxed style, ours with a delicous view of trees and rolling hills beyond. Pigs and chickens have their own des res areas on site, it really is pretty bucolic!

The staff are young, friendly and helpful. The worst I can say about it is, erm, the toasters are slow - says it all really! Breakfast, (toasters aside!), was properly wonderful. A fabulous breakfast, entirely cooked by someone else, taken at 10 o'clock in the morning, really is one of the most lovely, indulgent things in the world, no?