The single best day trip from Minehead is into Exmoor National Park, which begins immediately to the south and west. Dunster — three miles east on the West Somerset Railway — is the obvious half-day: medieval village, 1,000-year-old castle, yarn market, working watermill. Further afield, Porlock, Lynton and Lynmouth, and the deep wooded valleys of the Doone country are all easy day trips by car or organised minibus.