A landscape built for slow travel

The Somerset Levels do not do drama. There are no peaks to conquer, no hairpin passes, no viewpoints you have to earn. What you get instead is around 160,000 acres of flat peat moor and wet grassland between the Mendips and the Quantocks, stitched together by drainage ditches – known locally as rhynes – and narrow lanes that follow the line of medieval droves.

For families, that flatness is the whole point. Children can pedal a bike for three miles without a single hill worth mentioning. Pushchairs roll. You can spot a heron a quarter of a mile away long before a four-year-old does, and nobody has to be carried back to the car.

Two things to know before you go. The lanes are genuinely narrow – single-track with passing places, hedges shoulder-high and mostly blind – so drive them slowly and be ready to reverse. And between October and April, water and mud are simply part of the experience, which means wellingtons live permanently by the front door.

Villages worth building a weekend around

You could string together half a dozen of these in two days without ever driving more than twenty minutes between them.

• Wedmore – the unofficial capital of the area, sitting on a low ridge with a handsome medieval church, a couple of good places to eat and a genuinely useful village shop. It makes the best base for a family weekend.
• Godney – a tiny settlement on the River Sheppey where the road runs along the top of a raised bank. There is a riverside pub garden, moorings and a footpath that follows the water towards Glastonbury.
• Meare and Westhay – neighbours on the old peat workings. Meare has a remarkable surviving abbey fish house, a stone building used for storing catch in the Middle Ages. Westhay is the gateway to the reedbeds.
• Catcott and Burtle – quiet, almost secret-feeling hamlets on the Polden ridge, with wide skies and a nature reserve just outside Catcott that floods spectacularly in winter.
• Burrowbridge – named for the conical hill that rises abruptly from the moor. The climb takes about ten minutes, even with a reluctant six-year-old, and the view from the top is the best in the district.

Churches, towers and small hills with long views

Somerset's church towers are one of the great pleasures of wandering here, and the Levels have some fine examples without an admission charge in sight. North Curry, on its ridge above the moor, is often called the Queen of the Moors and its tower is worth the detour alone. Westonzoyland has a tower that was used to hold prisoners after the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685 – the last pitched battle fought on English soil, and a story that tends to land well with older children.

At Muchelney, a few miles south, the ruins of the abbey stand quietly beside a medieval priest's house. It is a lovely spot for a picnic and a game of hide-and-seek among the arches. Nearby Burrow Mump and the nearby Athelney area carry the Alfred legend – the king is said to have burned the cakes here while hiding from the Danes – which gives a short walk a bit of narrative heft.

Where the wildlife is, and when to go

The Levels are one of Britain's most important wetland landscapes, and the reserves are free, open daily and mercifully flat.

• Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath – extensive reedbeds with boardwalks, hides and easy paths. Winter brings bitterns, great white egrets and marsh harriers; from November to February, starlings gather in huge murmurations at dusk. Arrive an hour before sunset and stand still.
• Westhay Moor – best in late spring and summer, when the dragonflies and damselflies come out in numbers and the paths are dry underfoot.
• Catcott Lows and Greylake – smaller reserves that flood in winter and pull in thousands of ducks, swans and waders. Both have short, pushchair-friendly trails.

Timing matters. December to February is for wildfowl and murmurations, and you will want waterproof boots. May and June are for orchids, hedgerow flowers and long, light evenings. The willow harvest, when the withy beds are cut and sorted, happens in winter – a proper local tradition and oddly fascinating to watch.

Practical notes for a family weekend

• Getting there: junction 22 or 23 off the M5, or the A303 to Ilminster and up through Langport. Trains run to Bridgwater, Taunton and Castle Cary.
• Cycling: a traffic-free path follows the old railway line between Glastonbury and Highbridge, taking in Ashcott and Shapwick. Flat, safe and about eleven miles each way – easily shortened.
• Walking: the River Parrett Trail and the network of droves and footpaths offer short circular routes of two to four miles from most villages.
• Facilities: toilets and food are concentrated in Wedmore, Glastonbury, Street and Langport. Between them, carry water and snacks.
• Weather: the moor holds mist beautifully and persistently. Check flood warnings before driving minor lanes in winter, and never assume a road across the moor is open after heavy rain.
• Footwear and kit: wellingtons, a spare pair of socks, binoculars if you have them, and a torch for dusk on the reserves.

What makes the Levels work for a family weekend is not what you tick off, but how little there is to tick off. Park in one village, walk out along a drove, spot something with wings, eat something warm, and be back before dark. Do that twice in two days and you will have had the sort of break that is strangely hard to find elsewhere.