Custom Trip to Cotswold England
 

My husband and I would like to see the Cotswold and surrounding areas. We intend to stay for 2 nights in June 2008.

Do any of you know of a very reliable company in Toronto, Canada or London, England who can customize a land tour?

We need a car & reliable driver/guide to pick us up in London, tour the Cotswold and bring us to Heathrow for our flight home.

Tour companies does not do this type of short stay tours.

Thanks.

Why not rent a car, drive yourself and let us on the board help you plan a series of tours?

dave

You might try contacting Cotswold Heritage Tours.

Yes, and I can't recommend them enough,

www.dragon-tours.com

I found them through the Welsh tourist board and have used them for the past 2 years to tour Wales and England.

We did a English midlands tour this year including the Cotswolds. They will work with any budget and can get some special deals at certain hotels they have contacts with.

The owner is Mike Davies who has a doctorate in British history. The two night only thing, I'm not sure if they'll be able to fit it into their schedule but I'd definitely get a price quote.

Here is my trip review including more info about our tour guide:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35064319

I don't know if budget is an issue -- but you would save a lot if you took the train to Moreton-in-Marsh or even Oxford and had the driver/guide pick you up there. Paying someone to drive into London will cost quite a bit.

Dear Janisj: I was just going to write a question similar to the one you answered about going to the Cotswolds for just 2 days. You suggest going to Moreton-in-Marsh by train and then touring from there. Here's my questions...Would arriving in Moreton on one day and doing a tour around town and surrounding area (staying the night in Moreton) on our own and then getting a driver the next day and going farther out be a good idea? Do you know of a company that might do the 2nd day tour? Is there any bus service to any other town/village that would be an easy trip from Moreton on the first day? Sorry to have so many questions but just starting to figure out what we can and want to do. We'll be there the end of April/first part of May.

Thank you for any suggestions you might have..

Yes - doing one day on your own and another day w/ a driver guide would be feasible and save you quite a bit of money.

www.cotswoldheritagetours.co.uk/index.html has some well thought out day tour itineraries. They aren't cheap - nearly £200 for a day (total, not per person). But probably a good investment if you don't want to drive yourselves. Driving would be my choice if possible. There are other good driver/guides in the Cotswolds but this one will at least get you started planning. The Tourist Information Centers in Moreton, Stow-on-the-Wold and/or Burford can give you other recommendations.

and this site has some info about transport from/to Moreton-in-Marsh http://www.carlberry.co.uk/rfnshowl.asp?L1=MOR001

"Doing a tour round town" in Moreton in Marsh will take you about 0.3 milliseconds. I mean it's reasonably pretty, but there's more or less no there there.

Transport links around the area are now, finally, visible in an intelligent way on the web. Go to www.cotswoldsaonb.com/page.asp?pageID=16

I strongly second getting a train to the North Cotswolds (hourly services: about 90 mins to Moreton: reasonably reliable except when I've got a plane to catch) then geting collected or doing your own thing from there. Getting someone to drive into London and drive back will add about £200 to any other costs.

The Cotswold AONB website has at last turned itself into a useful and comprehensive resource: with its help (and the expertise here), you really can save a lot of money and have a lot of fun organising all this for yourself. A couple of pieces of advice:

- don't try to see too much. One honey-coloured medieval town with thatched cottages is pretty indistinguishable from another. A gentle potter between Chipping Campden and Burford will show you as much as a couple of days dashing from one tourist mini-mecca to another.
- most towns get crowded with tourists between 11 and 4 at weekends from late April to mid September. They're just fine the rest of the time
- if you possibly can, dump cars and walk the footpaths. Most towns and villages look a million times nicer from the top of the hillock half a mile away than from high-hedged, twisty roads where it's difficult to see much more than other cars.
- because of hedges, you also get a better view of the countryside from the train or from buses (even in single-deckers you sit a lot higher than in cars and double-deckes are a revelation) than from a car.

All of which, of course, is why I'd suggest, if you possibly can, not using a car but using a mix of public transport and your two feet.

Thank you all for the wonderful links and suggestions...it really helps get a better feel for what we should try to do and see.

Another question if I might? Is there another town/village that has train service from London that might be better to start at? or that might have more to see for our first day? or some place really special to spend the night?

Sorry if this is a lot to ask, I'm just trying to make our brief time there very special...my friend has wanted to visit this area for a long time. We will take it slow and enjoy the views but do want to see as much as we can in a meaningful way...does that make sense?

Thanks again...I'll start checking those links and it will be fun to plan.

There's the rub. There is very little train service to the Cotswolds. Moreton-in-Marsh is your best bet - but it is a tiny place. That's why I mentioned transport <i>from</i> there since you will just about exhaust Moreton in about an hour.

Some other options might be: Take the Train to Stratford-upon-Avon and spend the day there then hire a driver guide for the 2nd day. There is plenty to fill your time in Stratford if you are the least interested in Shakespeare. Plus Warwick Castle is nearby. Stratford is just north of the Cotswolds, so a convenient starting point.

Or - take the train to Oxford and spend the day in the city. It is an amazing place - and it lies just east of the Cotswolds.

Or - take the train to Bath for the first day and then hire a driver guide from there. Bath is just south of the Cotswolds.

But if the Cotswolds really what you want to see - then go to Moreton in Marsh and get a B&amp;B there or nearny. Explore around a bit by local buses, and on foot, and the next day have your driving tour.

Two other options are:

Get to Oxford, then get a taxi the 8 miles to Woodstock, just outside the &quot;official&quot; AONB boundary, and spend the night there. You can then get picked up from there, or just hire a car from the Hertz place that's about 3 miles south.

Woodstock has a shockingly quiet and - to use a word that irritates us when others use it - quaint atmosphere.

Alternatively, get a bus or taxi (connecting buses meet most trains) from Moreton to Chipping Campden and spend the first night there. Both Chipping Campden and Woodstock have a sort of blanket of tranquillity about them that - in my view, though others may differ - Moreton (though it is reasonably pretty, going on downright handsome in an almost Flemish way) doesn't quite have. They also both have a wider range of restaurants and hotels

Thanks again for the great suggestions...I'll start checking them out...I'm sure I'll have a few more questions before I finalize our plans. Any other suggestions on things to see, places to stay or eat at will be most welcomed...you're help is very much appreciated.

To: daveesl,Rogerktm,travelinwifey and Janisj

Sorry for the delay in responding to your inputs- I've been out of the country.

Thank you all for the feedback. Time is of the essence for us and driving is not an option.

I've contacted Cotswold Heritage tours as well as British Tours (suggested by my friend). The former is will take us on a 7-8 hours/day tour while the latter is 9 hours per day.Heritage's total cost is about 100 pound more than the latter. We have'nt decided yet which one we will hire.

We will be staying in Bourton on the water for the 2 nights. We plan to stay at Meadow View Guest House.

Again thanks,

Bayley

Bourton is a really pretty town. Touristy, but pretty. Mornings, before the tour buses arrive are great.

Just spent the afternoon in Chipping Campden. A new museum devoted to the Arts and Crafts Movement has recently opened. if you're interested look at www.courtbarn.org.uk

We were very impressed and C.Campden is a lovely place to visit anyway. Try a cream tea at the Cotswold House Hotel.

Bayley, we were the Costwolds just this past August. We took the train from London to Moreton and taxied it to our hotel in Stow-on-the-Wold. I took my daughter horseback riding in Stanton one day and the cab ride to and fro cost around $120. The next day we took the local bus from Stow-on-the-Wold to Bourton-on-the-Water and spent the day there. We walked to lower and Upper Slaughter and really enjoyed seeing everything up close. We took time to sit by the river and feed the ducks and enjoyed the day even though it was quite crowded. However, by 5:00pm all the tourist buses leave and you get the town to yourself!

Hope you have a wonderful time.