Hello Forum,

Could you kind folks with expertise in this area kindly make some recommendations with respect to logistics?

We want to leave London and go to the Cotswolds by train. I’ve read that Kemble is closest to Bibury, but there is no car rental.

We have two nights in early July (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday).

To provide a general sense of what we want to see in the Cotswolds, here is a list of villages in the running: Bibury, Bourbon on the Water, Slaughter, Moreton in Marsh, Stow Wold, Stanley, Broadway, Chipping Campden. We haven’t done a deep dive yet to refine this list because the logistics might dictate what we see. Comments are welcome!

Wherever we end, we need to return the car (do they do one-way rentals?) and take a train to York, about midday.

I am seeking advice on where we should rent and return the car, along with a recommended agency, and where we should sleep for our two nights.

Thank you.

A few edits/corrections: Bourbon Bourton-on-the-Water, Lower (and/or Upper) Slaughter - two different villages. Lower Slaughter is the more scenic but both are lovely, Stow-on-the-Wold, Stanley (by any chance, do you mean Stanton?)

Sure one way rentals are available. Since you are planning on renting a car it makes almost no sense to try and arrive by train. To be honest - the easiest place to rent a car is out at LHR and be right on the motorways the eventually get you out towards the Cotswolds. What I would do is collect the car at LHR and drop it in York. From say Chipping Campden to York is about a 3 or 3.5 hour drive.

On a previous visit, we rented at London Heathrow and drove to the Cotswold (based in Chipping Camden) , after breaking journey for a night in Oxford.

I suppose you could take the train from London to a larger town in the proximity like Cheltenham or Oxford (with better availability of car rental), return the car at your pickup location itself (avoiding one way fees) and take the train (with one or more changes) to York.

Meant to add -- only the majors/international/national rental agencies do one-ways. The small local rental agencies found in Cotswold towns keep their cars close to home. That is why you'd want to rent at LHR or possibly in Oxford -- though honestly it is easier to start your journey from LHR rather than near the train station in central Oxford. Oxford is a beee-atch to drive in/through (they don't really like cars in Oxford and make it as difficult as possible)

Was posting the same time as ANUJ.

If you want tor drive the majority of your route then picking up a car from LHR could be the most convenient. On a good day it should take around 2 hours to Chipping Camden , mostly along the M40 which is one of the better motorways for congestion. You could then spend your time in the Cotswolds before driving to York the drop off fee is usually around £40-50. I generally use Budget/Avis or Hertz and pay their zero excess fee son s to avoid "issues" when returning the car especially with a one way or out of hours drop off.

A train to Oxford could have been the best/most convenient option with an easy train , circa 1 hour train ride from Paddington or Marylebone and a nice drive out to the Cotswold but the area around the rail station is still subject to major building works making it difficult to get to teh car hire places on Osney Island. Still ok if you are happy with a 20 min walk with bags to the car hire places.

Another option would be to take a train to Birmingham (90 mins) and pick up a car at the airport and drive 1 hour to the Costwolds from there and then on to York.

I split my time between London and Oxfordshire so do these journeys regularly . I have my own "50% rule" fifty percent of the time it will take fifty percent longer thannaigation apps suggest. Driving anywhere in the UK I use Waze which seems to be best at flagging up traffic problems.

I would propose NOT driving in the Cotswolds unless someone in your party is less mobile. The villages and towns are already very congested with tourist buses and rental cars. And there are lots of ways to visit the villages by bus or tourist buses or charter tours. MUCH less stressful, too, in my opinion. When I was in M-i-M in May of this year, waiting at the bus stop for my bus, it was a Market Day and I could not believe the traffic jams and flood of tourist buses. Tourism has definitely changed the face of the town since I visited a decade earlier.

Assuming you're flying into Heathrow or starting from London...
I'd look at Moreton-in-Marsh as a base. [From Heathrow, you can take a bus (RailAir) from the airport's central bus terminal to Reading and pick up the train to M-i-M, or from London's Paddington station, train to M-i-M.) Below are some links to ways to get around by bus. The Heritage Bus will be operating while you're there, most likely. And there are lots of small group van tours that start from the MiM rail station that allow you a look at a lot of places. May be a good choice on rainy days, too.

You don't have a lot of time so don't try to check off a lot of towns. Each place will have more than enough to charm you. To appreciate the architecture and history, you'll want hours to wander about. I enjoy hiking the countryside, so if you're able, taking a walk a bit from the towns can be very rewarding.

In Moreton-in-Marsh, I'd stayed at the Bell Inn, which has ties to Tolkien. I enjoyed by stay there.
Have fun planning!

https://explorethecotswolds.com/cots...lic-transport/
https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/therobin/
https://www.cotswoldvintagebushire.com/services/

Thank goodness for you peeps who know the area.

Yes, I’m still pretty weak on the villages, but I’ll have it down before we set off. Actually, sooner rather than later because we need to book our accommodations and I have no idea where to stay or what route to take. I can look at a map but driving distances and driving conditions are two different things. Plus, it’s hard to gauge how much time you want to spend in each village. I’m sure I’ll get some advice from others.

Before I posted, I read some old threads from 2011 and 2014 and the prevailing school of thought back then was also “rent at LHR” so I think that’s going to be the way to go. Those threads also heavily stressed how difficult Oxford is to navigate. We wouldn’t dare.

It also makes sense because the Cotswolds are west of London and we have to come right back to London to take a train to York.

Does anybody happen to know what the logistics are like from the car return at LHR to the train to York?

Curious about a “zero excess fee”.

(I’m still wondering that if we have a central location, if I can’t rent a car locally and return it to the same place and then train back to London and then train to York. I agree that a car is essential in the Cotswolds - although the buses sound tempting! - but my husband strongly prefers avoiding any other driving. But people also consistently make the very good point that it’s best to get acquainted on a good road. Maybe we can mix it up! Train in and take a taxi to our accommodation. Do a one day rental on day two to have a full day of touring and then turn it in. Or maybe even do a full day private tour and not even have to worry about parking. We fly economy so we can splurge on the ground!)

Thanks again.

And then you can take the train to York from M-i-M, via a connection through Worcestershire Parkway. Or back to London up to York. Fares may be cheaper from London. I'd driven into York to return a rental car and disliked the experience. But then, I drive in Chicago all the time and dislike driving. I don't do road trips. Driving a car is the last thing I want to do on vacation but others enjoy having a car, and I understand it can be a necessity for many who are less mobile or have a lot of luggage, etc.

Renting a car is really not essential but sounds like your husband wants the control of driving himself. And if you have a checklist of places you want to visit, I understand a car. But prepare for the narrow roads and lack of parking in popular areas. Will take some research as to how/where to park. I've never had to do that.

Getting to York from the Cotswolds is definitely doable by public transport without going back to London, too. Also, please don't drive from LHR after a long flight. Very unsafe for others and very stressful for you.

We posted over each other but I think I’m with you ChgGal.

We definitely do not have a checklist. I copied down the villages from somebody else’s list that seemed like the most popular.

If you look at accommodations on Expedia (look! Not book) it actually pulls up a bunch of reasonable private tour operators - I bet they’ll have great recommendations.

And, I think we would benefit immensely from an actual guide to tell us about the history versus walking around and saying “Oh. Quaint old buildings.”

A private tour is fully flexible in terms of adapting to weather and crowds.

And I don’t have to yell “stay left” at my husband all day who strongly prefers NOT to drive or be in control of anything. Parking at the suburban movie theatre stresses him out. Haha.

You could look for other quaint villages rather than the Cotswolds, the country is full of them, some near York

OK -- I haven't read all the responses and I'm leaving for several hours but just a bit about logistics . . . There is no train from LHR to York. You would have to drop the car at the airport and then take public transport or a car service into north central London at Kings Cross station to catch the train to York. This would take a whole lot longer (and be more expensive and a hassle) than simply driving from the Cotswolds to York and drop the car there (most of the major rental agencies are in York so a one-way drop off wouldn't be a problem). However - what part(s) of Yorkshire were you going to visit? If just the city of York you wouldn't want a car so dropping it when you arrive would be the thing to do. But if you also wanted to tour the Dales and/or Moors then you'd need to have a car for that.

As for which towns/villages to research for accommodations, I'd initially look at Burford, Stow-on-th-Wold, Chipping Campden, maybe Broadway, all of which have lots good options and are large enough to have several pubs/restaurants/shops.

You could catch a train from Cheltenham or Oxford up via Birmingham. These trains do work, I take one of them annually, but travel across the main travel routes, so every delay magnifies the the problems and makes more delays

Normally I recommend trains over cars, but janisj is right (as per norm) on this one

If you seriously want to take a train, then either go first class and take a picnic or go second class and prepare for a lot of delays.

We rented a house in the Cotswolds a year and a half ago. Drove from LHR after spending the night at the Hilton LHR. One reason to rent at LHR is to be able to rent an automatic as most of us no longer drive manuals and in Europe most cars still seem to have manual transmissions. We did not have problems driving in the Cotswolds. Did occasionally have to hunt for a parking spot but always found a reasonable place to park.

We did a similar trip last year. We started in London, took the train to York and then the train to Edinburgh. We then rented a car in Edinburgh and drove back to LHR through the Lake District and the Cotswolds / Bath / Oxford.

We rented through Enterprise (near the Edinburgh train station) and were very happy. We often use Hertz in Europe also. Initially we wanted to drop the car in Bath but 1) the drop charge was around US$1,000 and 2) all the car rental offices in Bath had inconvenient hours for us.

When we were in Bath and Oxford we just parked the car. Walking is the way to see these places. Traffic and parking are tough. (We had a great B&B in Bath with parking included.)

A car in the Cotswolds is the way to go, in spite of parking and traffic. We didn't try to use the local busses because my reading indicated some fussing around unless you already know the routes and schedules. We stayed in Burford, which is quite central but not very exciting on its own.

Dropping the car at LHR was a real experience. Traffic around the airport was intense, as you would expect, so be prepared for that. There are car rentals at the York train station so pick a company that rents there so you can do your drop. The train station is very close to the old town and York Minster.

The comment about small numbers of automatics in the UK is these days greatly out of date. Whilst the percentage of automatics is still small compared to manuals the percentage of new cars is these days over 70% and rising. There is a general trend this way coupled with the rapid rise in electric car sales as well.

So the likelihood is that most hire companies wherever you are will have automatic options.

I really appreciate the comments here. I’ve synthesized all the information I could glean and decided to bump up the budget!

We are going to train from Paddington to Kemble then taxi to a resort in Broadway early enough to tour Broadway on foot and hike around. Weather permitting.

We hired a full day private guide for the next day who can take us to the Slaughters, Stow Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water ending near Bibury/Burford where we will spend the night at a second resort that is a destination onto itself.

The third day we have a hike planned and then we will transfer to the train station and train to York. Our hotel is a three minute walk from that station so I think we are all set without ever dealing with the car.

I fully agree that a car is the best way to go, but, for our length of visit, the hassle of actually getting the car, returning the car and feeling comfortable driving the car, outweighed the cost of a driver. Plus, we are going to very popular destinations and I don’t want to deal with parking or trying to time everything to avoid crowds when we have so little time to work with. Finally, we can benefit from the knowledge of a guide about the history of some of these places rather than just wander around aimlessly and not really garner much understanding.

The guide is pricey, but everything is pricey in the UK so I’d rather spend the extra money to make sure it’s enjoyable instead of stressful. (Note -I could not find an affordable guide on the traditional tour websites. When I was looking at hotels on those major hotel websites, they had pop up advertised tours, and those ones were reasonably priced and we could book directly with the operator.)

So I think we’re set unless somebody wants to recommend actual things to do in Broadway or little tweaks to the full day itinerary in terms of things to see.

We spent six days in the Cotswolds in 2013, with bases in Tetbury and Chipping Campden. Check out Chapters Ten to Sixteen to see our routes (lots of photos), and if they make sense for you. We visited a lot of the places on your list. Great memories.

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/england-2013/

Bibury


Broadway Tower

Always enjoy your trip reports and wonderful sense of humor, maitaitom . Your photos are fantastic. Thank you for all the effort in putting your reports together.
And Jill02 , I'm happy you're leaving the driving to a local. For me, that is the right decision. Which hike are you doing on your last day in the area?