I’m trying to divine a bit of information concerning Cheltenham and Gloucester, actually I’ve found precious little about either town on ye olde web. Perhaps there is some one in Fodor-land who lives in or near them and could send me a bit of information concerning history, location, and sites of interest. I thank you in advance for your time.

The Cheltenham Spa tourism web-site seems to be full of useful information, http://194.205.243.111/libraries/templates/index.asp

In the same way, http://www.gloucester.gov.uk/ , then click on Historic Gloucester Docks, looks good.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR>

We spent a couple of weeks in Cheltenham. Don't stay at the Queen's hotel in Cheltenham. The rooms are TINY and expensive. Just behind the Cheltenham race track is a little town called Prestwick. Prestwick House is a wonderful place to stay. Just up from that is Wynchcomb which is another nice little town to visit. Be sure you go to Bourton-on-the-Water. That whole area is beautiful.

If you broaden your search to "the Cotswolds" you might find more information. Do visit Gloucester Cathedral and read about the burial of Edward II there.

I just had a go on google for Cheltenham and the thing went off bang. There are loads of sites with loads of info. For tourist stuff, they seemed to know loads more than me!<BR><BR>Nevertheless, as someone who goes there shopping .. Cheltenham is a great little town, compact, clean and tidy, good restaurants and cafes, catering for all tastes, right up to the pretty damn classy. For a shopper, the town is brilliantly organised. Top of the hill is Montpelier, designer dress shops, antiques, B&O audio etc (and Frere Jacques, a french style patisserie quite out of keeping with the normal British tea shoppe and well worth a gander). Walk down to The Promenade, smart chains like Jaeger and Beards, very nice (Hoopers is a pleasant small department store in this area). Get to the bottom of The Promenade and yoy hit the area where the middle of the road, every town should have one shops are (Marks and Spencer, Boots, WH Smith are names to conjure with here). You should turn right for these. As you head away from these shops, prices fall still further, until you reach the bargain basement shops at the far end of the shopping centre. So you just walk along the road until you hit the price/quality that you are happy with, and stay there. Isn't that clever?<BR><BR>Top restaurant is called Le Champignon Sauvage, which is slightly out of town (very walkable) in a nice, eclectic area (wine shops, jewellery boutiques, organic butchers, bric a brac) close to Suffolk Parade (but I've forgotten the street name). It's a very small place, but I think the food is very fairly priced (not cheap, but fair). There was a new designer place in the same area called The Daffodil (a converted cinema), but I think that has hit the buffers. One of England's most famous chefs has a franchise operation called Le Petit Blanc in Montpelier. It's quite nice, a bit trendy cosmopolitan for my tastes, but still worth a shout.<BR><BR>Cheltenham sits right underneath Cleeve Hill, the highest point in the south of England (just over 1000 ft, so we're not talking nosebleeds here). This is the edge of the Cotswolds. The famous racecourse sits underneath the hill, and is considered to be the finest NH course in the country (world?) Unfortunately, the big meeting, aka the best public open air party held annually in Britain, finished yesterday. Ireland is slowly repopulating, should be back to normal by the weekend.<BR><BR>There is a famous landmark in Leckhampton (a suburb) called the Devil's Chimney. The walk around to it is extremely pleasant, well worth a Sunday afternoon. If you get to the Devil's Chimney itself, try not to scoff. This is a nice way to get a feel for the local landscape without leaving town.<BR><BR>I barely know Gloucester at all. I am ashamed to say that I've never been to the Cathedral.

Thanks one and all. I too tried GOOGLE, which is my favorite S.E., but the sites themselves didn't turn out to be too much help, including the city pages. I've tried a couple of cdrom type encyclopedia's with little info...You, however, have helped a lot. Is it possible, that for quiet beauty, that these two towns are among the best in England?

I went to Gloscester last year the cathedral is just beautifull dont miss it. as the other poster said also also the docks are very nice. dont forget to go to some of the little towns like burton on the water near there have fun

Spent three nights in Chentelham as our base for exploring the Cotswolds. Stayed at the Hotel on the Park, very nice. Much larger town than the Cotswolds villages and a little hard to navigate in a rental car. Would recommend the countryside more than the city, even though it's pleasant.

"quiet beauty" - well, Cheltenham is quite smart, similar to Bath but without all the sights/tourists. Gloucester isn't so smart, but has more "important" tourist venues. Like all towns, Cheltenham has its rough bits too. I think Kathy has it about right. Cheltenham is a very pleasant town with good facilities, in the middle of super countryside. It isn't as picturesque as Chester, York or Bath, but it is nowhere near as crowded either.

Actually there are two excellent web sites, one for Cheltenham and one for Gloucester. <BR><BR>(A trick when searching the web: put a plus sign directly in front of the words you want and you'll get better results, such as +Gloucester +England. Also Yahoo often categorizes the most comprehensive travel guides for a city under Travel and Transportation - Local Guides).<BR><BR>Cheltenham Spa<BR>http://www.visitcheltenham.com/libraries/templates/index.asp<BR><BR>Gloucester<BR>http://www.glos-city.gov.uk/<BR><BR>These sites are both very good. We went to Gloucester last week, and really enjoyed our visit. I would not characterize it as a place of "quiet beauty" but a lively and historic small city. <BR><BR>The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous, especially the cloisters, one of my favorite places from our recent trip. The town center is a bustling pedestrian area lined with stores, with occasional half-timbered buildings holding medieval hotels, etc. We enjoyed lunch at the coffee shop of the 15th century "New Inn."<BR><BR>For quiet beauty, you might try to get to Painswick, about 15 minutes drive from Gloucester and absurdly perfect and lined with grey Cotswolds stone buildings. The Rococo Gardens offer splendid views. But make sure you have a GOOD MAP or hire a driver as we got quite lost our first time looking for Painswick.