Cotswolds Region Villages
 

Hi,

In our way to Oxford from Bath, we would like to stop by one or two Cotswolds villages. Which ones would you recommend?

Thanks!

Bourton-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold are very picturesque.

We enjoyed Bourton-on-the-Water with it's river Windrush winding through it.
For our lunch we sat along side it and ate some yummy pastries from a bakery. I bought a pair of earrings and some perfume at the perfumery there.

I believe I also liked Burford, and it's St John the Baptist Church.

Thanks for the feedback. It looks like Bourton-on-the-Water is a must do.

Thanks again.

I had trouble deciding on Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water when we visited this past summer. I chose the latter and was not sorry I did. We love water and the Windrush River running through the town is beautiful. There is a lot to do in this small town as well.
On our way to Wells from the Cotswolds we also traveled through Bibury and were so glad that we did. Such a picturesque village ( another small river coming through the town). The Bibury Court hotel and it's grounds are worth a stop.
Have fun!

Bourton-on-the-Water definately with Bibury, Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold & Broadway close runners-up. If I ever come into alot of money I would surely buy a cottage somewhere in the Cotswolds.

Don't plan to visit any one specific place.

Some of the smaller places suggested above, like Bourton and Broadway, can be delightful. But between 1100 and 1700, especially at weekends at especially in the summer, they're tourist-ridden hell holes, whose charm is almost stripped away by the sheer volume of daytrippers and their cars. The larger places - Stow, Chipping Campden and Burford - can handle all this a lot more easily (though finding anywhere to park can still be a real pain).

Any Great Circle route from Oxford to Bath will take you through lots of pretty villages, including lots that aren't quite bright for large groups of visitors: organise your journey so that if you're going through the tourist honey pots you do so before or after the other visitors.

Great Circle? The straight line Oxford-Bath route is pretty dull, and in parts of Swindon simply hideous, unless you've got a fetish for 21st century legoland post-industrial office buildings. Go North as far as Chipping Norton, then follow, with the odd detour, almost any of the roads heading south-west, running parallel with the Cotswold escarpment. The A429, originally built by the Romans, is the most historic, but the side roads running off it are more fun.

Don't worry too much about seeing places others have recommended. You have to try very hard indeed on side roads to avoid wall-to-wall Quaint.

Can I suggest an approximate route from Bath as it seems you are heading north to Oxford?

Leave Bath on the A46, and follow this to Tetbury (passing through the village of Doughton where Highgrove, home of Prince Charles) is situated. From Tetbury you take the A433 and continue to Cirencester; after passing through (although it is an easy town to drive through), or travelling round the ring road, you take the A429 north for a short distance, and then fork off right on to the picturesque B4425 through Bibury - to Burford and thence Oxford. Or after you have visited Bibury you could double back through the lanes via several little villages to the A429 which takes you on to Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh, with Bourton on the Water a short diversion off to the right just before Stow. Also off the A429 to the left are the pretty villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter.
From Moreton the A44 leads you to Chipping Norton, and thence to Oxford via Woodstock (Blenheim Palace).

Correction to above - the A46 doesn't actually go to Tetbury, but at a junction called Dunkirk the road to Tetbury becomes the A433. The A46 continues to Cheltenham. Don't worry, it is all very well signed.

Although I have mentioned several main roads in this suggested route, you would pass through more than a few beautiful villages, and if you took the back lanes from Bibury to Fossebridge on the A429 (it's only 4 or 5 miles) there are about 4 villages full of glorious examples of cotswold architecture to drive through. These lanes are mostly only wide enough for one car, so go slow, but it will give you a feel of what it is really like to live in the depths of Gloucestershire! And this route would take you to and through most of the towns and villages mentioned in other posts.

PS Doughton is pronounced Duffton!

Have a wonderful days' journey.

Thanks everybody!

You should take a quick look at this web site: www.pbase.com
It is a photographers site with tons of travel pictures. With map in hand, do a search of the towns near your destination. Great pictures. Some new ones just showed up of Bibury, Stow-on-the-Wold, Burton-on-the-Water etc. The area is beautiful and full of history. This sight has given us great insight into the surrounds of places we plan to visit on our upcoming trip to France. Have fun!

Flanner--you describe the drive between Swindon and Oxford as having dull scenery. Isn't the Vale of the White Horse in that area and is it worth a look?

The Vale of the White Horse is in the area, and it is worth a look. Or at any rate, the White Horse, and Wayland's Smithy, is (I'm not over-excited about the unwooded hills you can get along the Ridgeway, but that's probably just me.)

But if you just took the straight line route from Oxford to Swindon you'd be going through the adminstrative district called the Vale of the White Horse, without actually coming into contact with the interesting stuff. You need to detour to Uffington to see the prehistoric sites. Otherwise, it can get dangerously close to being one linear Call Centre City.

My wife and I are going to London next week and plan to do a loop that hits Windsor, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Cotswolds and Bath. I really appreciate your posts, especially the routes that julia_t provided.

What are the best ways to find good B&B's in those regions. I am thinking we will be staying by Oxford one night and Stratford-upon-Avon another. Any suggestions for good B&B's in those areas or ideas of how to find a good one?

Hi Cougarblue

Glad you approve of the routes! I hadn't mentioned Stratford, but it is an easy few miles on from Moreton-in-Marsh.

As for B&B's, local Tourist Information Centres are a very good source, try www.information-britain.co.uk, and click on the county you want or www.shakespeare-country.co.uk takes you directly to the Stratford TIC with good links for accommodation of all kinds, including B&B in private house, farms and guest houses - plenty of choice, and the Oxford TIC via the first website would have similar options.

The weather is good here at the moment, and the countryside is looking beautiful, all different shades of green, lots of blossom in the hedgerows, a lovely time to visit. Have a great time.

One village worth a short detour is Shilton, a couple of miles south of Burford. Village green, duck pond, a ford to splash your car through, then turn around and do it again. In fact you could leave Bibury and take the minor roads to Coln St Aldwyns,Hatherop, pop into the Cotswold Woollen Weavers centre at Filkins, head up to Shilton and regain the A40 Oxford road at Burford.

Hello.

We just returned last night from three weeks in England & Paris. We spent only four days (sniff-sniff) in Chipping Campden, at the Eight Bells. The town, and the Eight Bells were both absolutely wonderful. Chipping Campden, in our opinion, was the prettiest Cotswold town we saw, which also offered a great selection of restaurants, pubs, tea houses (two), shops, etc. Second would have been Upper & Lower Slaughter, although there's not a lot there in terms of restaurants, shops, etc. that we saw. Still, *very* pretty. Also, don't miss the "Model Village" in Bourton-on-the-Water! So charming! I could go on forever about the beauty and charm of the Cotswolds. We're already talking about going again, but this time, spending much more time in the Cotswolds. Possibly even, the Eight Bells again. Very nice, clean, great restaurant & pub, and the owners, Neil & Julie, couldn't be nicer or more accommodating.

Sigh.... :)

Bibury. Take the little back roads to it from the Lechlade area

flanneruk what is the best choice bt train?

yeadonite: Not flanner - but, do you mean which Cotswolds villages are best to visit by train? (Is this for Dad/Art or for you - anyway . . . .)

Unfortunately rail connections in the Cotswolds are few and far between. Villages w/ stations are Shipton-under-Wychwood, Kingham (which is about 4 miles from Stow-on-the-Wold), Moreton-in-Marsh, and Evesham.

If you are traveling by train you'd really have to take local buses or taxis to any of the scenic villages mentioned in the posts above . . . . .

Janis,
Thanks so much. I will be joining Art on Friday morning and we are still trying to figure out what to do. I am uncomfortable driving in the UK so I am trying to figure out a couple of day trips. I guess I really need some type of plan.

There are a TON of great places you can do as day trips or overnighters by train - unfortunately the Cotswolds are not the best by train.

Think about Canterbury, or Cambridge, or Bath, or Oxford -- all are VERY easy day trips from London. Or Salisbury - the cathedral is wonderful and then you can catch a local bus to Stonehenge. Back to Salisbury to catch the train and be back in London by dinner time. Or Windsor. Or lots of other places - even York is possible as a day trip - but of course an overnight would be better.

I recently returned from trip to London, Cotswolds, and Paris. You can read my trip report at
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34628959

We stayed at the Olive Branch and the Milestone House in Broadway and enjoyed both, and they both have private car parks. Parking in all the Cotswolds villages was a challenge and we never saw crowds. Parking must be impossible during peak tourist time.

Other than Broadway, I would recommend Bibury, especially if you are able to stay at the Bibury Court Hotel. It was a bit pricey for us but looked lovely. Another place I wanted to stay was the Malt House in Broad Camden. We stopped by and walked through their garden. It looked like another good option. www.malt-house.co.uk

And then there is Chipping Camden. Very lovely, although we are glad we stayed in Broadway. We stayed for four nights and wished we could have stayed longer.

My trip report noted above discusses what it is like to drive there.

I added photos to www.webshots.com. You can locate my photos by my user name: travelswithdiane

yeadonite: Just to clarify - all of the places luvtotravel mentions are wonderful - but none are on rail lines . . . .

Yeadonite:

It IS possible to see quite a lot of the Cotswolds by public transport, if you've a couple of days. I'll be sending you my rough notes on this later this weekend (I hope you mean next Friday), if Hotmail accepts attachments, though since the timetables change tomorrow (June 12) and our garden's a mess, when the updated notes will be ready by rather depends on how loudly other pressures bear down.

There are three tricks to bear in mind, and it will help you to use the map at www.cotswoldsaonb.com/map.htm :

1. There are really two railway lines across the area: the London-Hereford line, which stops in particular at Moreton in Marsh in the north of the map (having previously stopped at Oxford, which is just off the map, to the right, at the top, and goes on to Evesham, just off the map to the left at the top), and the London-Cheltenham line, which stops at Kemble, in the middle. Detailed, updated timetables for these are at http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/t...s.php?item=403 You can use ordinary sites, like www.nationalrail.co.uk, for specific checks, but the FGW sites shows all trains at a glance.
2. There's a perfectly good system of buses, centred especially on Moreton and Kemble, and the timetables for most are at www.cotswoldsaonb.com/bus_timetables. These buses are geared to the daily needs of residents, so they're most frequent on schooldays, and almost non-existent on Sundays.
3. But the Cotswoldaonb site assumes you know which buses go where (which is what my notes try to help you round). The three major routes linking stations and tourist honeypots are (just select them by number on the Cotswoldaonb site:
- The 53 Oxford-Burford-Northleach-Cheltenham. Supplemented for some bits by the X3 and the 233
- Beaumont travel 55 (at www.beaumont-travel.com/routes_55.htm), Moreton-Stow-Bourton on the Water-Northleach-Cirencester-Kemble. There's also the A1, Kemble-Tetbury.
- The 21 and 22 which link Moreton to Chipping Campden, Broadway, Bourton on the Hill (no relation to Bourton on the Water) and Evesham. The 21, BTW, goes on to Stratford (off the map at the top)

You can very easily, at least on weekdays, see a few goodies in a day (eg by getting the 53 between Oxford and Northleach, getting off at Burford and back on again, but looking at the backlanes it takes inbetween). But linking these all up into a two-dayer gets you round a lot. And our hedges mean that you actually see more country from a bus - especially the double-deckers that they run on a few of these routes - than you would on foor or on a bike. Though, given the growing diversity of flora and fauna in our hedges and verges these days (the result of the mediocrity of the local land for arable farming, and some sensible EU subsidies to bring back previously destroyed habitats), you really ought to take a bit of time to see a lot of this at eye level.

Bourton-on-the Water is beautiful, but really would be just a "stop". Stow-on-the-Wold has great restaurants and is a good place to even spend the night.

BTW IMHO Bath is way overrated. The small towns nearby are much nicer.

flanneruk,
Thanks so much for your help, I am leaving on the 16th arriving on the 17th, I can get attachments at hotmail.
My Dad and I really look forward to your comments on my dads inaccurate reports.

flanneruk,
I accidentily deleted all my email in a cafe in London. Due to the heat in London and my Asthma problems I was seriously derailed and unable to do most things. Still it was better than being home. I am saving them for my next trip.

Just want to put a good word in for Bath, which is a World Heritage Site and a great place to visit. Maybe not to mwhill's taste but certainly mine. In fact, I wouldn't mind living there.

Yeadonite:

Forget London. Get to the seaside (Brighton for example) as soon as possible. It's probably not asthma: it's allergic reaction to pollen as the pollen count is exceptionally high right now.

This advice mighht be too late. But remember it next time if you're coming here during the pollen season.

Sadly we are home. We did go to Brighton! You are a mind reader. I loved it it reminded me of Cape May NJ. I took tons of allergy pills so my asthma inhaler got a rest!

OK - so WHERE the heck is the rest of FamousUncleArt's trip report??? I hate being a nag :)

Seriously, it sounds like you guys had a great trip other than the nasty asthma/allergies.

Janis,
Famousuncleart thinks no one loves him anymore! I will get him to post tonight.

The only reason we don't love him is that he's stopped telling us his stories.

Bring them back.

flanneruk,
thanks you made his morning or night since we are post confused. I will post his last writing tonight, since it is on my laptop.