Best place to live in Somerset

[staycalmanddrinktea]

For family, great schools, good transport links, nice shops, friendly people?

Thanks @LittleOverwhelmed I think I could use your user name atm!

We are looking to rent to start with before we commit to a particular area. Budget to buy will be around £350k. We are happy to be on the outskirts of main areas if need be.

Areas around bath and wells.

Well The Times best place to live survey says Frome, pretty much every year but in my opinion its a bit overpriced and over rated. I like Wells which is very pretty and has the benefit of a Waitrose, if that's important to you. Bruton is where lots of celebs live. Bath is lovely but busy and expensive.

My favourite place is Dunster.

Depends whether you want
Bath andNorthEastSomerset which takes in Bath and Keynsham
North Somerset which is mainly Clevedon, Nailsea and Weston Super Mare.
Somerset Minehead, Taunton, Bridgwater, Wellington.

Wells is lovely. Anywhere in the castle Cary/Bruton/ Wincanton triangle. Lots of nice villages. Castle Cary and Bruton have stations, hence more expensive. All near to the 303 so easy to drive east or west. Villages south of Street are quite nice (Keinton Mandeville area) but no station. I never understand the hype over Frome. IMO it’s largely a shit hole and very rough, apart from a few streets of very posh shops/cafes. The schools always were (and still are) horrendous I believe.

I second Dunster. I love Bath, but it does have its downsides, and it's expensive.

It really depends.
What transport links are you after? The M5 & parts of M4 cut through Somerset, as do two main lines to London (the Penzance-Exeter-Taunton-Paddington line & the Penzance-Exeter-Bristol-London line).
What size house are you looking for?

Thanks all - we love living near the coast but it's not essential. We basically want to move to a nice location for our small family where we can enjoy a nice life. We don't have any extended family so its important that we don't feel isolated and have access to plenty of things to do not too far away. Happy to live outside of larger or more expensive areas if our budget doesn't stretch. We've been stuck in a small village where it's rather insular so really want to make sure we have plenty of shops, friendly locals and access to other areas should we want to go off on trips.

@APurpleSquirrel

It really depends. What transport links are you after? The M5 & parts of M4 cut through Somerset, as do two main lines to London (the Penzance-Exeter-Taunton-Paddington line & the Penzance-Exeter-Bristol-London line). What size house are you looking for?

Which areas are best for transport links? I assume Taunton would be one.

Dunster isn't good for transport links! The closest station is Taunton, which is about 45 mins drive away.

If the coast is what you’re after, maybe Dorset would be preferable?

I was going to suggest Dorset for the coast. North Somerset coast isn’t very beachy and whilst ruggedly beautiful in some parts in my view it just doesn’t compete with the south coast. Bridport is a thriving fairly alternative town with lots going on and some nice shops/cafes, but nearest station would be a drive to Dorchester.

Portishead?
Easy access to Bristol and lovely marina.
Swimming pool (and lido), lots of nice shops.

Or Winscombe
Lovely for families, good schools, mendips, not too far to beaches.

Taunton has a main line train station & easy access to both M5 & A303. It's the county town & quite large with lots of surrounding villages. For your budget you could get a 3 or 4 bed house. It has a theatre, cinema, bowling alley, sports centre etc & all main supermarkets.
Slightly south is Wellington (where I live) - a smaller town on the Somerset/Devon border. There are plans to reopen the train station, it's just off the M5 & the A38 bypasses the town & is very close to the North Devon Link road. It has a theatre/cinema, sports centre, Waitrose, Asda, Coop & plans for a Lidl. Again for your budget you could get 3-4 bed house.
In terms of the coast we can get to a beach in approximately 30mins - either Exmouth or Burnham. In less than an hour we can get to the North Devon beaches, Torbay, south Devon beaches & parts of Dorset (Lyme etc).
We can access easily all the attractions people visit on holiday, for day trips. All the primary schools are good. The secondary isn't as good, but there are others further out that are better. There are lots of private schools if you want that (Wellington, Blundells, Taunton, Kings Hall, Queens, Kings).
Bristol is just over an hour away; Exeter is 30mins; Cardiff is about 1.5hrs; & Plymouth is 1hr away. You can catch a fast train to London from Taunton which takes just under 2hrs.
Somerset benefits from the proximity to Devon & Cornwall but with much less tourist traffic - though the M5 is best avoided in summer.

North Somerset isn’t “beachy”? I love Dorset beaches but it’s rumours like this that have stopped me going to North Somerset until this Easter. This looks quite “beachy” to me. I love the south Somerset villages near the boarder to Dorset so we can visit Sherborne and the coast of somerset or Dorset, Bath, Bristol and Exeter are all an hour away and Weymouth or Lyme Regis 45 mins so we can go after school for fish and chips. We’ve been happy with the schools too.

Thank you so much for all your responses and thank you @APurpleSquirrel for such a detailed message. I really appreciate you all taking the time.