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Need information on the Cotswolds

We will be in England in July and were thinking about spending one of the weeks exploring the Cotswolds area. Any ideas on great things to see and places to stay would be appreciated. We enjoy the small bed and breakfast hotels and small towns.

We stayed in Chipping Campden in the northern Cotswolds. It was a lovely small town although in July it will probably be much busier than our autumn trip. I would highly recommend staying at the Kettlehouse B & B. Wonderful breakfasts - Charles cooks the perfect egg. The Eight Bells Inn was great on atmosphere and the food was wonderful. A nice place for tea and cakes here is the Bantam Tea Room. While in the area we visited Warwick Castle, the Batsford Arboretum and adjacent falconry, and went to Worcester to buy some porcelain. On our list for next time is Snowshill Manor, some antiquing in Stow-on-the-Wold and hiking the Cotswold Way. You will find one week is not enough time for this area.

Make sure you visit the villages of Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter. They're beautiful, picture book villages. Also Bibury, Snowshill and Bath are worth visiting.

Last spring we took a train from London to Chentelham (larger city) then rented a car for a short driving tour. In agreement on the the picturesque Slaughters...don't miss them. Might skip Broadway as it didn't have too much in particular to see. Stow-on-the-Wold is interesting but will have its share of tour buses.

The Cotswolds are beautiful. I prefer the off-the-beaten-path villages for accomodations such as the medieval village of Stanton where we stayed at the Stanton Court Cottages(self-catering). There is a B&B there as well. I agree with above that the Slaughters are a must and will add the villages of Great Tew and Guitting Power(nr. Winchcombe). Bourton-on-Water(?) has a wonderful miniature village. In Stow-on-the-Wold I can recommend staying at The Unicorn. A good site to visit is www.visitbritain.com/heart-of-england.

Thanks for the responses. Any more input out there?

Bob, If you have access to a Barnes & Noble, Borders or other quality bookstore, pick up a copy of the Michelin map of southeast Great Britain and the Midlands. It’s Michelin map number 404 and will serve you well until you can pick up a more detailed map at a service station in England. The Michelin is on a scale of 1 inch = 6.3 miles. In suggesting the following Cotswold tour, I trust you have a map of sufficient detail to follow my suggested meanderings. Take a look at Banbury on your map. It’s about 23 miles from Oxford, 35 miles for Warwick, 30 miles from Stratford and 35 miles or less from the heart of the Cotswolds. The whole area is laced with lovely country roads. Check the website www.smoothhound.co.uk/hotels/castle2.html and take a look at The Castle Inn in Banbury as a potential place to stay. As an alternative, check out the hotels in Chipping Norton in the heart of the Cotswolds and look particularly at The Forge House at www.smoothhound.co.uk/hotels/forgehou.html. Chipping Norton is equidistant from Stratford, Oxford, Warwick, Cirencester and Cheltenham. For a tour of the Cotswolds, consider the following: from Banbury or Chipping Norton, take route A361 south, first to Burford a charming little village with a number of coaching inns with a great deal of character. Continue south to Fairford and the Church of St. Mary with its unexpectedly stunning stained glass windows. Drive northwest from Fairford to Bibury, supposedly the loveliest town in England with its Arlington Row, early 17th century grey stone wool workers houses. Continue northwest to the Chedworth Roman Villa remains with its wall murals and mosaic floors. Travel north to Sudeley Castle, the former home of Catherine Parr just outside of the non-touristy town of Winchcombe. Continue north to Buckland, an exquisite little village, then on to Broadway and Chipping Campden, both of which are featured in all the guidebooks. Drive south, southeast back to Chipping Norton, stopping at Chastleton to visit its early 17th century Jacobean country house and formal garden. One other thought, if you’re planning to visit Stonehenge, by all means visit Avebury and particularly, the village of Devizes. Visit Devizes before either of the other two sites. Devizes has an anthropological museum that will go a long way in giving you a fuller understanding of the stone monoliths of Stonehenge and Avebury. By the way, you can’t get close to the Stonehenge monoliths and will no doubt encounter a number of tour buses there, as well. At Avebury, the stone circle surrounds the village and you can get as close to the stones as you’d like. When in Avebury, look for signs for the immense chalk horse drawn on a nearby hillside. It’s a primitive, ancient and quite impressive artistic rendering of a horse rivalling some of the artwork in France’s Lescaux caves.

Thanks, Wes. I will get the map tomorrow.

I second most of wes' route. I might also add Northleach with its wool church norht of Bibury. I would also drive on the very smallest roads between Fairford and Bibury - very scenic

Hello Bob, Here's a few more to add to your list! Castle Combe: Picture-postcard village once voted the prettiest village in England. Tetbury: Home of Prince Charles. Bradford-on-Avon: Riverside town on southern edge of Cotswolds, near Bath. One of the loveliest! Saxon church... Lacock: National Trust village near Castle Combe. A must-see, (- although just outside the Cotswolds). Has featured in several period dramas. Painswick: 'Queen of the Cotswolds' - and one of the prettiest... Apart from the places Wes and others have mentioned, you could also include in your itinerary:- BLENHEIM PALACE - Birthplace of Churchill. Arguably the best in England.

- continued... Corsham Court (-one of the treasure houses of England if you're into art...) Stanway House (Jacobean); Warwick Castle; Berkeley Castle; Owlpen Manor; Malmesbury Abbey; Prinknash Abbey; Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust; Batsford Arboretum; ... To see the Cotwolds at their best avoid the main roads, - take the country lanes and 'B' roads instead! Steve James Bath, U.K

I would recommend getting a good book of walks. There are good walks round most of the villages, but the Slaughters and the Swells together or Stanton and Stanway would be good starters. A walk to the Devil's Chimney above Cheltenham is nice too - on a good day, you get quite a panorama. Cheltenham is a nice town, with good shopping in Montpelier and The Promenade. The walking is usually vigorous without being punishing. Generally speaking, the north wold villages are considered better than the south. Avoid Stroud (sorry, Stroud). Buckland is home to an eponymous Manor, which is a very smart country house hotel. It is a dead end, and so surprisingly quiet. I have had some really nice meals there, but it can be a bit stiff. Check if they do afternoon teas - their gardens are very pleasant, and there is a chapel attached to them. I think that would be rather a pleasant treat.

You will certainly enjoy your tour of the Cotswolds. Agree that you must see Lower and Upper Slaughter and take the walk between them through the fields and then back. Have lunch at Lord of the Manor in Upper Slaughter. Lovely old manor house. Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bath, Blenheim Palace, Broadway, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon are all favorites of mine and close to one another for choosing. Blenheim is wonderful. Enjoy!

My sister and I spent a week in Cotswolds October 1999...great place to wander aimlessly for days on end. We stayed 4 days at Cotswold House Hotel in Chipping Camden (highly recommend; dining room a bit proper but excellent street front restaurant). They had scads of suggestions for where to head each day and even helped us concoct a fabulously meandering drive to the Slaughters when when we departed--took us all day to drive about 30 miles (many stops along the way for snacks and lunch and tea and gaping at the beautiful countryside)...loved every minute. Stayed at Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter for 2 nights--a bit pricey but really top flight place! Favorite sight (previously unheard of) was Broadway Tower (I thin

Great information! Any other good places to stay?

Apart from earlier more expensive suggestions, have a look at www.wesleyhouse.co.uk. It is a nice place, though I've only eaten there a couple of times (I'm local so I have no knowledge of rooms anywhere). Winchcombe is pleasant, not overwhelmed by tourists, and well located for touring. Of course, if you are tall, you should check how high the ceilings are!

I was so happy to read all of the wonderful tips regarding the Cotswolds. We'll be there in March for a week. We are staying at the Sudeley Castle Cottages in Winchcombe, on the grounds of Sudeley Castle. The admission for the Castle and gardens is free for the duration of our stay. We plan daytrips to Bath; through Cheddar Gorge to Stourhead and Stonehenge; to Warwick; to Cadbury World (our daughter turns five on the trip!) south of Birmingham (with a stop at Kenilworth Castle and hopefully Evensong at Coventry Cathedral on the way back), looking around the Cotswold villages, and yes, one little venture into Wales. Big plans, I know. I was thrilled to read that Winchcombe is considered "not touristy". Of all the self-catering locations I found on the NET (and I tried to be thorough), we found Sudeley Cottages to be the most economical. To stay adjacent to a historic property is Heaven to us. Hope this helps some...these boards are wonderful! Website for Sudeley Castle Cottages: www.gtunlimited.com (Great Trips Unlimited).

Thanks again for all the good info to help me begin my planning. Anyone else out there with Cotswold experience?

To Danna: Re: Sudley cottages. Been to Cotwolds a few times and do self-catering. Last year when planning our trip to Ireland we found info on Great Trips Unlimited and thrilled to see a few of the places we had already stayed in the UK listed with them. Prices, though were much much higher than what we had remembered paying and it was only the year before that we had stayed at one of the places listed in their info. and could not believe the price difference. There is a web site that lists properties to rent that was given to me when I stayed at this place I mentioned and it is compiled by the OWNERS of the properties, so there is no "agent-fee" which is why there was such a drastic difference in price. It is www.premiercottages.co.uk. Check it out if you ever do another self-catering trip, it covers all of UK, even the Sudley Castle Cottages are listed, I too have been to Winchcombe and would like to go back soon!

great info.....to the top.....