stasch

My husband and I are traveling to London for a conference in mid October and have three days to spend in the Cotswold. We are thinking of renting a car in London and driving. We are interested in where to stay, and how best to use our time. We enjoy walking.m. Should we take in other things as well?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks!

janisj

Head out to heathrow and pick up your car there. Very convenient place to drive from and it is an easy drive to the Cotswolds.

Where to stay is just about limitless. What sort of property do you like and what is your budget?

Other nearby places one can visit from a base in the Cotswolds could include Oxford, Blenheim Palace, Stratford upon Avon and more. But for walkers just 3 days IN the Cotswolds would be nice. Lots of lovely villages that are walkable - and walkable between. Plus gardens, pubs, etc.

traveller1959

We followed the recommendation of a fellow Fodorite - FlannerUK - and chose Chipping Campden as base. It is as charming as other Cotswolds towns but is a littler bigger (with a good choice of hotels and restaurants) and still has a life of itsself and is not as touristy as other places.

We stayed at the Lygon Arms and found it beautiful. However, the recent reviews were not so favourable any more.

Depending on where you stay in London, take either the underground to Heathrow or the train from Paddington to Reading to pick up your rental car out of London. Driving out of London can be a nuisance.

flanneruk

There really isn't a "gosh I've really got to see that" place in the Cotswolds - and in my view, once you've seen one thatched cottage you've seen them all.

The reason the area's popular with some foreign tourists is it's virtually next door to Heathrow and it's jolly pretty.

It's also on the doorstep of Oxford and Stratford (which is little more than alrightish, IMHO, but has one of the world's greatest theatre companies - currently at least as good as they've ever been - performing at least daily and I really can't see how anyone can stay here and not go and see a Stratford play), is outstanding for proper walking and has lots of cuddly microtowns, equally cuddly country pubs, nice gardens, historic houses, even more historic churches and all sorts of other things for pottering around - but that really aren't worth worrying about missing if you decide to do something else.

The best way to visit (and the one, huge, must do) is to spend as much time walking the footpaths if the weather cooperates (if it's dry, October's got close to perfect weather): however pretty the villages and microtowns are when you're in them, they're never as nice as when you're looking down or up into them from a footpath a mile or so away.

There's a sort of list of diversions at http://www.cntraveller.com/guides/eu...ds/what-to-see

The writer - inevitably, since it's one of those semi-literate American travelporn mags - misses most of the point (for example, the medieval paintings in Hailes church are a million times more interesting than the Abbey ruins, which are identical to - and as tedious as - a thousand other ruined English abbeys), but the list's OK for starters.

Its missing out Cirencester museum (one of Europe's most painlessly visited displays about Roman daily life), the Ashmolean museum outstation at Broadway, and Burford and Swinbrook churches (while listing boring Northleach) is so perverse you wonder if the writers have ever been here.

http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/ is far more comprehensive.

Your real choice is between staying in a microtown where there's a range of eating places nearby or in a boutique, self-contained, country house hotel a couple of miles from anywhere.

Two slight exceptions are Barnsley House, Barnsley (a country house within easy walking distance of a decent pub) and Soho Farmhouse, a kind of rural Club Med for "members that have something in common: namely, a creative soul" (I kid you not). In spite of that, it's within a reasonable hike of what's arguably England's prettiest (even if technically it's not in the Cotswolds) village: Great Tew, which would be a typical bit of the Cotswolds if it wasn't built from its local ironstone - possibly the only building material prettier than the honey-coloured oolitic limestone seam that starts about a mile away and that all pretty Cotswold buildings are built from.

The whole point of the Cotswolds is that you decide how to use your time. The absurd delusion that there's one best way is utterly alien to our way of life.

And please remember: "Cotswold" is an adjective, not a noun. Where did you pick this odd usage up from?

MmePerdu

If you decide to stay in Chipping Campden, as suggested, and want to walk, while there are footpaths in every direction all over the country, the Cotswold Way begins there with a not too long walk to Broadway with nice views and Broadway Tower along the way. I took a detour, continued on instead of turning down to Broadway from the tower, to Snowshill and the very interesting & idiosyncratic small manor house there run by the National Trust. They also have a tea room for lunch. Then you can take the road down into Broadway. Return by the path up to Broadway Tower and back to Chipping Campden. Six miles each way.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshill-manor/

Chipping Campden also has the advantage, for garden lovers, of being close to 2 good ones, across the road from one another.

Hidcote: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hidcote/
Kiftsgate Court: http://www.kiftsgate.co.uk

My favorite map site, which shows all footpaths in the UK, is http://www.streetmap.co.uk. Play with the scale and you'll see the dotted/dashed/diamond lines for footpaths and the names for the longer-distance ones. Very easy to print in a nice big scale for walking.

ESW

Don't forget the churches. In the middle ages, this was a very wealthy area. Massive wool churches in places like Chipping Camden,
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...den/index.html
Bloxham,
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ham/index.html
Cirencester,
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ter/index.html
and Burford
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ord/index.html
reflect this wealth.

There are also many smaller churches like the Saxon St Mary's Priory Church in Deerhurst
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ary/index.html
and the delightful small Norman church at Elkstone.
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...one/index.html

Many of the churches still have medieval wall paintings. Some of the best include St Mary's Church in Kempley,
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ley/index.html
St Nicholas Church in Lower Oddington
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ton/index.html
and St Peter ad Vincula Church, South Newington.
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...ton/index.html

There are lots more listed here:
http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/church...lds/index.html

ESW

If you'd bothered to check Havana 128, you would find this is a quote from Soho Farmhouse website.

bellini

We did a delightful walk recently that took in the ancient church at Little Rollright. Very atmospheric.
http://www.britainexpress.com/counti...-Rollright.htm