I have written in before and asked which town would make a good base for our stay in March. We have narrowed it down to either Chester or Cheltenham.

Anyone have an opinion on either one? The pro's or con's on either would be appreciated. We plan on doing several day trips from our base as well as exploring the area we are staying in. (Trip is for 2 adults, renting a cottage or flat, and we don't mind the cold in early March.)

Thank you.

Cheltenham is surrounded by lovely, undulating, countryside - just hundreds of yards from practically anywhere in the town. Chester's surrounded by boring, flat, cow pastures, though there's impressive stuff 20-30 miles away as Snowdonia starts. I've never found a rental cottage near Chester that's anything other than ugly and unpleasant: for most of the 19th century the city was a commuter suburb of the world's economic engine room, and hardly a single property within 10 miles of the railway lines to Liverpool and Manchester escaped uglification by nouveaux riche Victorians. The opposite applies around Cheltenham.

Cheltenham is seriously, completely, uninhabitable for a few days around St Patrick's Day. The hotels and rental cottages will all be booked up for then already, and you can't afford them anyway. Traffic for 15 miles around gets impossible. Check the precise dates for Cheltenham Races, but it all starts filling up a couple of days beforehand.

Spring will be slightly further advanced in Cheltenham. There will be more, better devloped, lambs gambolling.

If you're looking for quaint, it's a lot easier to find round Cheltenham. Chester's close to lots of stunning industrial archaeology, like Liverpool and Ironbridge, with some spectacular earlier buildings like Speke and Little Moreton Halls. But its own buildings are mostly Victorian fakes and there really are few pretty little villages nearby.

As flanner says - it is REALLY important to know your exact dates. Cheltenham Race week is just about busiest/most expensive time of the whole year for miles around. I know one cottage (not in Cheltenham but maybe 14-15 miles away) that rents for £345 in March - but £545 for race week.

Chester has Roman remains, a medieval cathedral and some of the most complete city walls in Britain.

Cheltenham doesn't.

When we were narrowing down our search to Cheltenham, I did notice that the races were taking place almost the exact week we had planned on being there. Since we are really not into horses (or crowds) for that matter we decided to go earlier than later in March. (We have to work around my husbands work schedule unfortunately). I believe we will be departing 5 days before the race festival takes place. Unfortunately I know that spring will probably not be starting as it is mostly likely still a bit chilly. That is OK with us though!

I appreciate the information. We definitely like the idea of Cheltenham better than Chester. I like flanneruk's comments..... witty poster with a touch of sarcasm. I like that.

Too bad - the racing is a lot of fun