We'll be doing a cruise out of Southampton in summer of 2011. Would love to do some sort of tour of Cotswolds for 3-4 days. I know that there are a number of tour companies. Hoping to get some input about which ones are especially good. We're up in years and don't want to do a self-drive (though that's our favorite way to tour). Would like to walk a few hours each day (maybe 4-5 miles, not more), but also have transportation (and baggage transfer) provided to various towns. Appreciate suggestions as to which companies are "best" (whatever that means). Thanks.

I apologize in advance but I do NOT understand the connection between being "up in years" and not wanting to do your FAVORITE way to travel. If you aren't ABLE to do it, that's one thing...and if you can't then say so

The Cotswolds have so MANY little by-ways, off-the-beaten-track WONDERFUL places it is definitely IMO worth it to rent the car and explore on your own.

This'll probably upset Dukey, but I agree with him - almost.

Tour companies, AFAIK (though I'm no expert), offer only:
- Packaged day trips from London, or
- Portage between B&B's/pubs on longer, 5-7 day, 10+ miles/day longish distance walking holidays (http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=walkingholidays and http://www.sherpavan.com/default.asp)

Distances in the Cotswolds are generally quite short. If you just want a few shortish, 2-3 hr walks, it almost certainly makes far more sense to choose one (or, just possibly, two) hotels, drive off from them each day to somewhere nice, park the car, then walk for a couple of hours circularly. We're honeycombed with a thousand or two miles of footpaths, and a copy of the 1:25000 Ordance Survey maps helps you plan this for yourself. There just isn't any reason at all for checking in and out of hotels each day.

Alternatively, there are a couple of Jarrolds/OS books with dozens of such walks on both the Ordnance Survey and Jarrolds websites.

Bear in mind two crucial points:
1. There's no such thing as a "must see" here. It's a bloody silly idea anywhere: spectacularly so here
2. Almost nowhere here's horrid (except bits of central Stroud, and Bloody Blenheim, but fortunately that's not quite in the Cotswolds, and we'd move the boundary if someone tried to make it so)
So, with one exception, there's really no 2-hr walk that's particularly better or worse than any other. Those at www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=downloadablewalks are all fine. They're also all doable by public transport

The exception is http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/user...alks/walk9.pdf This is simply the finest easy short (4 miles) walk in the world.

I really strongly suggest you decide what you want to do and see, then concern yourself with whether yo want a third pasrty (almost certainly at considerable cost) to organise this for you. I really struggle to see the point

Such vitriol merely because I didn't ask my question in the precise way someone thought it should be asked. We might be "able" to self-drive, it's not exactly that we "can't" do it-- it simply seems more prudent to us not to, what with left-side driving, twisty, narrow roads, etc. For decades and decades, renting a car and going off on our own was our favorite way to travel in Europe and elsewhere, no matter what the roads were like, no matter which side one drove on. Even though we feel hale and hearty (most of the time!) it's merely a fact that reflexes are usually less acute as one ages. Simply trying to be kind to us and our fellow-travelers. In short, yes, exploring on one's own is a delightful way to travel. But one doesn't forever get to do things in one's preferred way.

flanneruk: I read your post after I'd posted my reply. Thank you for your details and suggestions. I hope my reply to Dukey enables you to struggle less in understanding the point of my query.

In your shoes, frankly, I'd still follow Dukey's advice. Otherwise:

1. Get a taxi to Southampton Central railway station.
2. Get a train, changing at Oxford, to Charlbury (100 mins in total: every hour).
3. Stay there (only 2 hotels: Bull and Bell), following those of the walks I've referenced that are accessible by train or the bus that goes from outside the Bell. Add to your list of possible walks (though some might strain your upper limit) those in the two train-based self-guided walks books at www.clpg.co.uk/clpgfwtt.htm