My husband and I recently returned from two weeks in southern England, dividing our time between Bath, Cornwall and Salisbury. Since it took us a lot of searching to find places to stay that would work well for day-trips in the area, I thought I'd share where we stayed for those who might be going to the same areas. We spent the first two nights and our last night in Bath at Dukes Hotel http://www.dukesbath.co.uk/, a lovely Georgian townhouse just a few minutes walk to restaurants, shops and sites. A sumptuous breakfast was included. We had not yet picked up our rental car, so did not need to occupy any of their limited parking spaces.
We then spent a few nights in Lewis' B&B http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/lewis-bedandbreakfast/ in Tintagel, a 16th century home with sea views and within walking distance to Tintagel Castle, restaurants and shops. Bonus, there's a laundry right next door. We did day trips to Boscastle and Bude (for golf) north along the coast and Port Isaac and Padstow south along the coast. Free, secure parking and wonderful breakfasts. The owner is on site and very friendly and interesting to talk to.
Next we drove to Truro and stayed at the Alverton Hotel https://thealverton.co.uk/, a 19th century former convent. It was about a 10 min. walk to Truro Cathedral, restaurants and shops. It was a good base for day trips to points east and south: Botallack Mines (saw filming of Poldark! including Ross and Dwight), St. Michael's Mount, Falmouth. Again we enjoyed a wide variety of breakfast options and free parking. You may choose to include the breakfast in your room fee or choose not to. Full-service restaurant on site as well.
Leaving Cornwall, we headed to Salisbury where we stayed three nights at the Peartree Serviced Apartments. https://stayatpeartree.com/ It's right across the street from the train station and just a few minutes walk to restaurants and shops and about a 10 minute walk to Salisbury Cathedral. We had a one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen/dining/living room combo and a free laundry downstairs. They provided breakfast for our first morning, but we found it was almost enough for the second day -- just supplemented it with items from the Marks & Spencer bakery. There is also a spacious parking lot on site with free parking.
We would recommend all of these lodging options.
Nov. 10, 2017
An added comment to my original post above -- phone service, and Wi-Fi-access in the car (though it had On Star which was supposed to give us Wi-Fi access) was very spotty down in Cornwall. Be sure to print out good maps or directions to your hotels before you leave home rather than rely on your phone's maps while driving. Or download maps to your phone ahead of time.
We used a Marco Polo Southern England/Wales fold-out map and cut off the large section that we needed. It was very good to have with us!
The two-foot-thick stone walls in the Bath and Tintagel lodgings caused their Wi-Fi to be a bit spotty at times as well.