Getting to the Cotswolds
 

We are off to the Cotswolds in October. Two questions: First, what will the weather be like? We plan on hiking for several weeks along Cotswold Way. Will be get too wet? Second, what is the easiest way to get to the Cotswolds from the Heathrow airport? Is there a train we can take directly from Heathrow?
Thanks a lot.

No direct train - check out buses for best links.

Try the door-to-door journey planner on www.transportdirect.info.

First PalQ has provided you with the best answer, however, you can do it by train. Just as an example-from Heathrow take the new train service, Heathrow Connect to Hayes & Harlington, transfer to the Great Western link to Slough and then on to Kingham. Total time would be 1 1/2 hours.

How on earth can you take "several weeks" to walk along the Cotswold Way?

Or do you mean you're doing the sensible thing, and breaking off from this really rather dull path for serious amounts of time to walk round the Cotswolds?

Kingham is nowhere near the Cotswold Way: where do you plan joining it, since there are a number of different ways of getting to it by public transport?

I love to travel around the UK in October...have done it several times. The weather is very similar to what we have here in New England. Have had the usual rain, but, nothing more then what we've had when we go in the spring. Bring the kind of clothes that you can layer and of course something that is waterproof to wear on the outside if it is damp. Just did a short part of the Cotswold Way in May and I was in the Bodmin Moors last October....very windy, but, it was beautiful!
As for getting there from Heathrow, we take Britrail from London into Bath and rent a car from Hertz, which is at the train station, then drive to our destination in the Cotswolds. Don't know how you feel about driving over there, but, we find it is the best way to get anywhere, especially an area like the Cotswolds. Just a suggestion though!!! :-)

I am also a bit confused by "We plan on hiking for several weeks along Cotswold Way" The entire trail is barely 100 miles long - stretching from Bath in the south to Chipping Campden in the north.

The directions for getting to Kingham aren't of much help since Kingham is on the far opposite side of the cotswolds from where the Way runs.

Will you get too wet? maybe/maybe not. Weather could be absolutely anything. But wearing layers and good footwear will cover for most situations.

Where are you staying? Or are you moving from place to place? The only direct rail connections from LHR are east towards London. But you can take a bus to Reading and a train from there to Bath or Oxford or some other places. Or you can take a coach from LHR. So where are you headed - then we can tell you the best way to get there from LHR.