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Good location for three nights in the Cotswold

Good location for three nights in the Cotswold

Old Feb 27th, 2011, 06:01 AM
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Good location for three nights in the Cotswold

We will be spending ten days in the UK in May. We're flying into LHR and spending two nights in Windsor. Then we'll take the train to Moreton-in Marsh. After three days, we plan to take the train to Conwy.

Where do you suggest we stay in the Cotswold?

I wish we could rent a car, but the others I am traveling with much prefer traveling by train.

Thanks for any lodging suggestions.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 09:17 AM
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Anyone?
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 09:21 AM
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Hi saraho...

Topping for you, and hoping that flanner and janis will see this, and come up with some helpful suggestions.

Moreton-in-Marsh is out of my area, and I am unfamiliar with that part of the Cotswolds (note spelling! It's the Cotswold Hills, but as a region it's The Cotswolds.)

If you really are reliant on trains then you'll have to look at staying in or close to Moreton-in-Marsh, Charlbury, Kemble, Stroud, Cheltenham, Gloucester - the only places in the Cotswolds with stations (I can't think of any other at the moment, aside from those down in the Severn Vale).

Of course there are buses running from each town (except perhaps Kemble, which is a village midway between Cirencester and Tetbury) and also taxis to take you elsewhere.

When you say the Cotswolds, I think you are meaning the traditional Cotswold towns and villages, places like Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper and Lower Slaughter? All these are much more easily accessible from Moreton-in-Marsh than any other place I mentioned.

Others have stayed in this area and got around perfectly well by taxi and public transport, they have posted here, as has flanner with the bus timetable website.

I'd love to offer to help out, and to meet you and Mr O again (yes, I remember our brief breakfast GTG in the Piazza Navona!) but I only have a tiny car now. It has 5 seatbelts, but there's hardly any legroom in the back seat for normal sized adults!

However if I can help in any way, I will gladly do so.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 10:04 AM
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Not being an expert, my suggestion is to stay in Moreton-in-Marsh and do buses. I stayed at the Tree Top B&B and had my meals at the Black Bull pub.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 10:17 AM
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I agree -- it sounds like you have a group so your best bet is to stay in Moreton-in-Marsh. It isn't a bad place at all. Staying in any other towns/villages you'd all have to take buses to/from Moreton to continue your trip to Conwy anyway.

Are the others totally against driving (wimps ) or do they just prefer trains. I ask because - for a group especially, having a car in the Cotswolds would simplify things quite a bit.

You could take the train to Oxford, rent a car (or cars if it is a large group) for the 3 days in the area, then you can turn the car/cars in at Oxford or Birmingham or a few other locations and take the train on to Wales.

Re where to stay - what is your budget?
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 10:19 AM
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Thanks, Julia. We are fine with taking buses, too and a relative has told us about a driver who was very helpful to them when they stayed in the Cotswolds last year.

I will check other Cotswolds posts some more. Thanks for reminding me about flanner mentioning a bus timetable website.

We enjoyed meeting you and your daughter at the Pizza Navona. It would be fun to see you again.

I'll have to give some more thought about whether near the Moreton-in-Marsh area is where we want to stay.

Our basic plan is to spend two nights in Windsor getting over jet lag and seeing the castle, etc. and then take a train to somewhere in the Cotswolds for three nights. Then we plan to take a train to Conwy.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 10:32 AM
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Janis and Roger, thanks- I think we just posted at the same time.

I think my sister-in-law stayed at the Treetop B&B several years ago. Did you like it? I noticed several slightly unfavorable posts about it on at Trip Advisor, along with a number of positive posts.

Janis, our budget is around 60 to 90 pounds for a room.

We are traveling part of the time with another couple and it's their first trip to the UK or Europe, for that matter. They are reluctant to drive and my husband has a problem with one of his hands so most likely we'll settle for public transportation.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 10:44 AM
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Just for boring accuracy:

"the only places in the Cotswolds with stations" also include Charlbury and Kingham.

Depending which fashionable girlie mag you read, the two compete for the title of Most Fashionable and Liveable Microtown in the World (if Harper's votes for Charlbury one year, Tatler backs the other. And vv. Chipping Norton usually trounces both, which is nonsense, but it's got more prime ministers and Nobel and Oscar winners inside its posttown boundaries. But no railway station. Nor has Burford, which usually wins similar titles from non-British rags (like http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/18/eur...e_slide_6.html, but what do they know? Nor has Tetbury, which has more heirs to the British throne.).

Much as I approve juliaT's obvious good taste in eschewing trashy mags, on this the mags are right. But, apart from Burford, only as far living in is concerned.

To visit, the real towns - Chipping Campden, Burford, Tetbury, Northleach, Stow on the Wold and Winchcombe - win hands down. Chipping C and Stow easy on buses from Moreton (honestly: perfectly OK, a real town and very pretty by outside world standards. But really deficient on the "how many thatched cottages does it supply for get Britain's chocolate boxes?" index. Burford needs a taxi from Charlbury, or a twice a day bus from Oxford (but - what really counts - its church is overwhelmingly England's finest, and it's host to my nomination as the world's finest walk.)

The others really need a car.

Getting to Conway (as it's called in English) is easiest from one of the Worcester stations, where a car should be dropped or to which there are hourlyish trains from Moreton. You might find it easiest of all, though, to drop your car at Birmingham International.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 10:51 AM
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Thanks, flanner, I read some of your earlier posts and have been looking at Burford. Now I need to look at maps some more to figure out what would be most practical.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 11:02 AM
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flanner is absolutely 100% right about Burford. I was coming from you being in a larger group and organizing several folks to make limited bus schedules would complicate things. That's why (the only reason really) I suggested M-i-M.

W/ just two couples What I might do is take the train to Oxford and then take a taxi to Burford and stay there. A taxi will be a bit pricey but split 4 ways not bad per person.

Or, of course you might be able to time the train to catch the local bus - but I'd just take a taxi from the station and not sweat things.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 11:14 AM
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Hi I wonder if you could post the name of the driver Saraho as I might need one too. I was looking at much the same itinerary except I thought I would do a day or two in Oxford to get rid of jet lag. Is Windsor accessible to the area? Thanks.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 11:32 AM
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I'm one of those people who has stayed in M-i-M via train to walk in the Cotswolds and posted here, though it has been a few years now. We found we could take the train, pull our carryon bags to the B&B (The one we stayed at was a bit odd, so I wouldn't recommend. The more traditional hotels on the main street looked better.), then start our walking town-to-town and catch a bus back and find sufficient restaurants and a small grocery at the edge of town. My husband and I stayed for 2-3 nights our first visit.

Another time I was staying in Reading a few days, so I caught a train to M-i-M, got on a bus to another town and did a walk from there, catching a bus back at the end of the day.

Both times I noticed several postings for private drivers in the tourist information center window.

The walking/bus combination gets you to fewer towns, but you can also enjoy the countryside on foot. You are at the mercy of the bus schedule. The private driver option is more expensive, but you can see more towns in less time if you are more interesting in just seeing more towns rather than walking and wandering.
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 11:43 AM
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"What I might do is take the train to Oxford and then take a taxi to Burford and stay there"

I'd absolutely take the train to Charlbury and get met by a prebooked cab. Roughly half the fast trains to Oxford from Slough (for Windsor) go on through the Cotswolds to Charlbury, its station is a glorious, almost totally unspoiled, example of IK Brunel at his best (whereas Oxford station is almost the ugliest blot on an otherwise wonderful city) and the drive from Charlbury to Burford shows Burford at its best.

Most important: you get hit at Charlbury station by a wall of Cotswold silence (unless the Tatler readers have come to meet their chums) and sheepdung smell. At Oxford, you just get hit: the station is dangerously overcrowded
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 11:54 AM
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good idea. (used to get my car serviced at a garage in Charlbury but never took the train there)
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Old Feb 27th, 2011, 12:55 PM
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Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions about Charlbury and Burford. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for and why I appreciate Fodors.

Now I'll go look at my map some more. Kelsey, I'll post the information about the driver a little later. I've got to go meet friends.
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