Fawlty Towers It Isn’t, and That Is a Very Good Thing!

If you are a fan of the comedian John Cleese, you may know about his hilarious series on Brit TV entitled “Fawlty Towers.”  John played the part of Basil Fawlty, the owner of a small hotel in the seaside town of Torquay. Having lived in England, we were well aware of the number of smaller hotels in the country but were not sure about how those hotels provided service compared to the major hotel chains. And Fawlty Towers didn’t inspire a lot of confidence, to be honest.

So then on one trip, when Marsha suggested that we use a smaller hotel she had identified from someplace on the internet, the suggestion was greeted with some reservations (no pun intended). In the end we decided to give it a try, and it was a total success. Octon Lodge was a lovely place to stay and we were very well taken care of during our time there—so much so that we returned a few years later for a second visit to the area.

Octon Lodge is more of a bed and breakfast than a hotel, but it has multiple accommodations available. One the first occasion when we stayed there we were given the Jacobean Four Poster Suite, which we loved, so we asked for it the second time we visited and took these pictures.

As you can see, the suite is in its own building (formerly the stable), and has a full modern ensuite, making it almost a cottage into itself. The gardens are lovely and quiet and we found the entire experience to be very relaxing and pleasant.

Parking is excellent, and the hosts were very accommodating to us as we arrived. On our first visit we needed dinner and asked them for recommendations. They gave us the names of two nearby pubs, one close to the Taunton racetrack and one in Staple Fitzpaine, a village (pop. about 200) a five-minute drive from Octon Lodge. Over two evenings we visited both pubs and found them to be excellent.

Nearby attractions within reasonable travel to Octon Lodge include the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum near Yeovilton, Taunton racetrack, Exmoor, Cheddar Gorge (and the town of Cheddar), and Wells Cathedral. In addition, both the coast of Bristol Channel and the English Channel are easily reached. For the more adventureous, the quaint historic fishing village of Clovelly is 1.5 hours away. And part of the beauty of all those potential trips is that you will be taking in the beautiful countryside of Somerset, Devon and Dorset along the way! Oh, and Torquay is only an hour away, just in case you want to see if there really is a Fawlty Towers there. (Hint: There isn’t, but the Octon Lodge is real, and a great place to stay.)