6 days in Cotwolds or split Cotswolds & Wales or Cotswolds & Cornwall?
 

Planning a trip to UK at the end of May 2009 and very excited! We're planning to spend the first couple of days in London and then rent a car and head out of the city. Trying to decide between 6 days in Cotswolds (looking at cottage in Burford or Stowe) or perhaps 3 days Cotswolds and 3 days in Wales or Cornwall/Devon area. We would like to do a little walking each day and be near a pub in the evenings. This may be our only visit to the UK (at least for a very long time) and I'm torn between settling in and savoring the Cotwolds or trying to see another area as well. Any suggestions fellow Fodorites?

It IS a dilemma - you can't really make a wrong choice there. 3 days/3 days is a LOT better than some of the itineraries we see here w/ 1 night, 1 night, 1 night, 1 night trying to see half of the country.

I love all three areas, and each could easily fill your 6 days. My preferred way to travel in rural England/the UK is 5-7 days in one place using it as a base for day trips and coming "home" each night. From a well located Cotswold cottage you could visit everything from Bath/Avebury/Stonehenge to Gloucester to South Wales to Stratford-upon-Avon/Warwick to Oxford and everything in between. A day trip to Cardiff/Chepstow/Tintern Abbey would be a way to see a bit of Wales from a Cotswolds base.

Have you been to London before? My initial thought is 2 days is very hectic for seeing much of London. Of course, if you've been there several times it would just be a quick stop over.

janisj - we have not seen London before but were planning to hit a few highlights: stay at Marriott County Hall and take either Fat Bike Tour or hop on hop off tour, see Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Harrods and possibly the British Museum.

You'll certainly find good walking and pubs in any of the areas you mentioned. The only thing you might want to consider is the driving time.

It takes about 5hrs driving non-stop from Cornwall back to London, partially because you'll be taking local routes once you're off motorways (M4/M5).

Cardiff-London is more manageable, 2.5hrs or so as you can take M4 most of the way.

Also, the last Monday of May (25 May 2009) is a bank holiday, so expect heavier-than-usual traffic, and cottages/B&Bs filling up quickly.

two days is pretty hectic for the H-o-H-o bus, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Harrods and British Museum. Especially since your first may be a jet lagged slog. Assuming you do the H-o-H-o and it's included boat trip the first day, that only gives you one day for all the rest.

What are your exact dates? As W9 says, the last Monday in May is a BIG holiday. It is a Bank Holiday that is really a 4 day weekend and many folks make a week out of it.

If you can be in London over the Holiday period you will have an easier time since the city can swallow up the crowds and many Londoners will have left town.

In parts of the Cotswolds to some degree, and especially in Cornwall, the holiday traffic can be <u>horrid</u> over that weekend. So if you can be in London on the holiday and out of London on the weekdays it will be easier.

How about 4 days in London and 4 days in the Cotswolds . . . . . or 3/5

We're arriving around noon on Friday, May 22 and departing around 230 p.m. on Saturday, May 30. I found a couple of really cute cottages in Burford and one on Stow-on-the-wold that rent for a week but even if we only stayed 6 nights the weekly rental would probably be worthwhile.

luvtravl - would you mind sharing the URL's for the cute cottages you mention? DH and I will be in the UK late next June. Thanks!

We spent 2 nights in St. Ives in Cornwall in May one year as part of our trip to England and it was wonderful! We had brilliant sunshine w/temps in the upper 70s-low 80s. I was so taken aback to see palm trees in England! It is a British tourist destination, but as it was May, it was pre-season and was so lovely.

Socialworker: Parts of May are definitely not &quot;preseason&quot;. Masses of folks head to Cornwall for the May bank holiday. Cottages will rent for 30%+ more that week than the week before and the week after. And the traffic can be miles and miles of bumper to bumper tailbacks.

luvtravl: If you can get one of those Cotswold cottages for that week, that is what I'd do. Eat one night if you need to, to add a bit of time in London. Having a home base and doing some walks and day trip driving tours from either Burford or Stow on the Wold would be a terrific holiday.

If you give us the links we can maybe give advice about the locations. But either town is perfectly fine. I <i>slightly</i> prefer Burford - a wonderful &quot;Wool Church&quot;, some nice shops, pubs, a river w/ resident swans, Minster Lovell old hall just down the road, etc,

I admire the discipline - to only spend 2 days in London. I've been going there for 25 years and still feel guilty if I spend less than 3 days. But I understand the attraction of the Cotswolds.

If I could tear myself away from London, I'd spend it in either the Cotswolds or Wales (or Sussex, Cornwall, Suffolk, etc.). The bottom line, don't dilute the experience.

In the Cotswolds, we love Chipping Campden. It seems to capture all the best of what the area has to offer. Be prepared for crowds in your 'hometown' during the day, but it will quiet down in the evening. Same goes for Bourton on the Water. If you really want to hide out try a hamlet like Sibford Gower.

I'm assuming you mean Stow - not Stowe. It's attractive, but a bit too pretentious for me. Tourists love it. We enjoyed it in November, but May-June - you'll meet a lot of fellow tourists. If you want to shop, try Evesham. I'm fond of Stratford, although it can be insane in tourist season. But if you park at the edges and walk/bus in you can't beat the theatre, shops, the Avon and all the charity shops.

Have fun.

If it were me, I would do the Cotswolds and Wales. Wales is so different and would add to your experience. Maybe consider a train back from the west coast. Our favorite Cotswolds towns are Castlecombe and Bibury.

In London we have enjoyed the Cabinet War Room near Westminster. It's a fascinating peak into the war headquarters. Have a great trip and enjoy the planning.
CraigT

Is rickmav confusing you?

There's a grandiose house called Stowe - well deserving of being called 'pretentious' but if you like that sort of thing it's definitely the sort of thing you'll like - an excruciatingly slow 40 miles from Stow on the Wold. The town of Stow on the Wold is just another Cotswold town: more popular than most with a certain sort of British tourist because it's got shops that are quirkyish AND sell stuff that's close to useful (I think Stow's an entirely Jemima Puddleduck-free zone) - but I can't see how anyone could possibly call it pretentious. To my mind, not as pretty as Chipping Campden or Burford - but probably the best-connected location for daytrips by car to elsewhere in central England.

It's also got a proper fullsize Tesco, discretely hidden away, so you can self-cater without paying the outrageous markup the Coops and Budgenses in most Cotswold towns get away with.

Given how much time travelling around England can soak up, I really wouldn't try to stay in two centres after London and would go along with janisj.

No, I was writing about the town of Stow on the Wold, not the gardens (and I wouldn't call them pretentious, maybe boring. Although, those who attend the school might put it on a bit).

Maybe, it was the tourists in Stow that were pretentious and there were so many of them it kind of rubbed off on the place. As I said, I like Stow off-season, when it doesn't seem to be trying so hard.

Thank goodness we don't all look at the world in the same way.

Thanks for the info janis--re &quot;season&quot; in St. Ives. If I am not mistaken the bank holiday in May more or less coincides w/our Memorial Day in the US---i.e last Monday in May. We were in St Ives ~May 20th so we probably just missed it by about a week. Lucky us! We had the lush weather w/o the hordes. We loved that town.

However, in looking at the OP's post, luv seems to be going right at holiday time.

jenblase - here is the website for several of the cottages we are considering manorcottages.co.uk/

luvtravl: Manor Cottages is a really good (long established) rental agency.

Another good one is www.cottageinthecountry.co.uk

Thanks janisj! I'll take a look at the cottageinthecountry site. One of the properties recommended by Manor Cottages is in Woodstock near Blenheim Palace. I've also found a lovely cottage at Stow-on-the-wold called Broad Oak cottage at a website stowcottages.co.uk

there are wonderful things to do from Burford or Stow-- -- I do agree about the Tesco in Stow-- but, there are farmers markets all around - check Google for Oxfordshire and Gloucesterhire markets-- that is the best way to purchase your food-- visit the Nat'l Trust walk at Sherborne and the Sherborne Lodge, you are an easy drive to Chipping Camden, Hidcote Gardens, Sezincote Gardens,Fairford's church has a magnificant wall of Stained Glass,the Roman ruins in Chedworth. Pubs that are just marvelous are in all these spots- the Swan at Southrop, Fossebrige Inn, Churchill Arms outside Chipping Camden, Kings Head in Bledington,Victoria in Eastleach Turville, Fox in Great Barrington. Buy an Ordnance Map-- OL 45- and stay on the small roads

Thanks for the great feedback. We've narrowed it down to a choice between a cottage in Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold or Winchecombe. I think Burford may win based on everyone's comments. They all look wonderful and can't wait!

If you rely on farmers markets in the Cotswolds, you're guaranteed to starve to death.

Except in Oxford and Gloucester, <b> farmers' markets </b> (markets manned by food producers selling their own distinctive products) are held only once a month. Because there's virtually no fruit or veg farming in the area, these markets sell interesting meat and fish, OKish veg and an extraordinary range of locally-manufactured, messed about with, food - like flavoured goat's cheese, unusual sausages and an interestingish range of venison and mutton products.

A number of mid-size towns have weekly <b> street markets </b>: markets, generally weekly, where itinerant traders sell products they've bought from wholesalers. The one or two fruit and veg stalls at these markets sells OK to mediocre produce cheaper than supermarkets: the one butcher's stall sells mediocre to downright dangerously out of code animal products at rock-bottom prices. They're both surrounded by stalls selling remaindered junk clothing.

The best places in the Cotswolds for decent quality food are the Witney and Cirencester Waitrose. The daily Covered Market in Oxford, though inconvenient, offers a pale but reliable and interesting imitation of the kind of markets similar sized towns in France take for granted. Otherwise, it's Tesco or Sainsbury, with a weekly trip to a street market to buy cheap spuds or wonder whether that cheap steak might poison the rats quicker and cheaper than Warfarin.