"Ain't no place that's perfect", to quote Shakespeare. Anyway, that being said, what ARE the downsides to visiting the beautiful Cotswolds.(We're heading there in spring.)

Many thanks,
BB

Hi BB,

>..what ARE the downsides to visiting the beautiful Cotswolds?

Too many tourists?

Really the only downside for most visitors is the masses of day trippers that overrun a FEW of the villages. (for those living there, there are some other issues like villages losing shops, poor rail access, development, local priced out of housing, etc. but these affect lots of other areas too).

Some of the villages have become a bit twee and touristy - but most of those have reasons for attracting visitors. Like Bourton on the Water - it really is a lovely place even w/ the ice cream and souviner shops. But from 10:30 a.m. til 3:30 p.m. there are literally hundreds of day trippers pouring off their coaches. If you are there early in the morning it is a whole different place. Places like Bibury - a "must" for Arlington Row and the views of the Swan/riverside gardens. On summer weekends the entire village is totally wall to w/ parked cars.

But really - the worst crowds are on Bank holiday weekends and in July/August. And even then, many villages and country walks will be very quiet.

Anyway, if you are going in the Spring - and don't mean the first or last weekends in May which are both holiday weekends - you won't face those sorts of crowds.

It's one of those areas that has been ruined by the very people who flock to visit it.
Like many other such places, you should aim to go when there's an "R" in the month.

Is it just possible to visit this place when there aren't so many other visitors who have apparently "ruined" it and still enjoy it?

If it's other visitors and traffic jams that can be an irritant then the Cotswolds towns can be placed in three categories.
1) The larger towns (poulations of 1,000 and above) that can provide parking bays for coach tours from London and the family 4x4's. Full of gift shops selling Tartan tat and Devon Clotted cream and everything in between. Need any Spode? Or Welsh love spoons? You'll find them here. The towns themselves are beautiful but after 10am during high days and holidays it can get a bit of a mess. Towns include Stow on the Wold, Burford, Moreton in Marsh, Cirencester, Broadway and the biggest culprit of all, Bourton on the Water.
2) Smaller towns, not too accessible by big coaches and sufficiently away from the beaten track to put off people fearful of losing sight of the A40. A few gift shops, a pub or two and room to breathe. These include Bibury (except between noon and 3pm when at least one coach squeezes in), Northleach, Winchcombe, Fairford, Minster Lovell, Painswick, Snowshill and Castle Combe.
3) The quiet villages serving the local community with a grocery store/post office and maybe a pub. No gift shop, few (if any) tourists. These include Guiting Power, Shilton, Coln St Aldwyns, Windrush, Minchinhampton, Broad Campden, Eastleach Turville, Withington, Duntisbourne Abbots, Uley, Ebrington, Taynton, Swinbrook and Quenington, amongst many others.
I'm not sure where to put Chipping Campden, as it can be a tourist trap but the linear nature of the town seems to disperse visitors widely and they remain hidden amongst the streets. Also there seems to be a number of side roads that few people walk down and therefore remain quiet and beautiful. Not sure where to put Campden in that respect.

Wonderful, Folks.

Thanks for taking the time.

BB

The roads. One was so narrow, I stopped the car (once the two sheep who were out for a midnite stroll moved aside), go out, and paced it off. 12 shoes wide (size 11). That, coupled with lack of shoulders (either a two foot dropoff from the 2" shoulder, or a two foot cliff), made me somewhat tense. Luckily met no buses

I was there in mid-May for four nights mid-week, based in Broadway. We were surprised that we saw few tourists wherever we went, the roads were not crowded at all, and we had no trouble getting seats in restaurants.

Bibury is a must. Spend some time at Arlington Row, and the Bibury Court Hotel--they have a peaceful garden that is adjacent to a graveyard.

Driving might be a downside, especially if you plan to rent a car and have not driven on the other side of the road before. We rented at Heathrow. A better plan would have been to train to Oxford and rent there -- actually, that's what we planned to do, but our plans changed and we needed to pick up the car on a Sunday. Can't rent a car in Oxford on a Sunday. So from Heathrow it was learning to drive while on the freeway. Some single lanes in the Cotswolds are for both directions. A little scary when you see a truck or bus headed in your direction. The hardest part about driving there was staying far enough to the right.

Cost might be another downside, although the dollar has strengthened a bit since spring. Food and gasoline were expensive, not to mention the cost of the rental car.

The visit was worth the effort and the expense, and I would jump at the chance to return.

If you scroll through a bit, you'll read my trip report of our four nights in the Cotswolds. We also spent a week in London and a few nights in Paris. Diane

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...avel&fid=2

I don't think that link works, so I'll paste that section of the report here:

Car hire:

We were given a Ford Modeo, an intermediate-sized vehicle. They offered an upgraded vehicle with a navigation system for only an additional 40 GBP per day. We politely declined. As it was, four day’s rental with a quarter tank of gas (my stupidity for returning it not completely full) was $607. An additional 160 GBP would have exceeded our budgets. I’m sure they all got a good laugh as they watched us take turns practicing our driving in the parking lot.

I wondered for a long time if I would be able to handle driving on the other side of the road. The anticipation was more troublesome than the actual doing. The hardest part, really, was staying far enough on the right side of the lane. There is a tendency to stay too far left. I’m just glad the blinkers were in the same position as at home or I would have been turning on the windshield wipers all the time. I did manage to turn on the rear window wipers, but never figured out how to turn them off -- so we had intermitent rear wipers going for four days -- rain or shine. Just one of the those things. Shirley gave it a try on our second day out. She did just fine -- I was the one with the problem. So sorry, Shirley -- I just wasn’t a very good passenger. She got to drive a whole two miles. Fortunately, she was an excellent navigator.


Author: luvtotravel
Date: 06/04/2005, 09:39 pm
On our second day Shirley was not feeling well and I went for a scenic drive on my own. As interesting as it is to drive on the highways, it is even more interesting to drive on the small lanes. The entire two hours I was out and about it was on roads that were one lane in two directions. Not a problem when no one is around, but terrifying when facing a truck or bus.

We did not see any signs pointing north, south, east or west. Through all the small villages there are signs pointing in the direction of nearby towns. As long as you have an idea of what towns are between where you are and where you want to go, getting there is not difficult.

Someone on this board made the suggestion to remember, “little left, big right.” I must have repeated that to myself hundreds of time and it did help.


Author: luvtotravel
Date: 06/04/2005, 09:41 pm
Where we stayed:

We spent four nights in Broadway, an excellent location for exploring the surrounding areas. As The Olive Branch could not accommodate us for our entire stay, we stayed there the first two nights and moved a few doors down for the second two nights. Both B&Bs were just what we had hoped they would be: 400-year-old buildings filled with charm and character. At The Olive Branch, Shirley took the only small, single room with private bathroom across the hall. My room was ensuite. They played lovely, soothing music, the common rooms were filled with artifacts from the owners’ travels, and the garden was inviting. Unfortunately, we didn’t sit still long enough to refer to any of our time as relaxing. They offer many books to read and games to play should the weather be uncooperative. David and Pam, the owners, were very excited at just winning “Best B&B in the UK,” and well desired it was. The Olive Branch, 78 High Street, Broadway, Worcestershire, WR12 7AJ, telephone: 01386 853440, [email protected], www.theolivebranch-broadway.com. I don’t remember exactly what we paid, but it was about 35 GBP for Shirley’s room and about 50 GBP for my room. The resident dog is very smart -- he knows how to play soccer!

For the second half of our visit we stayed at the Milestone House, Upper High Street, Broadway, telephone: 01386 853432, [email protected], www.milestone-broadway.co.uk. We experienced a gracious welcome from the Nortons and their two beautiful dogs. They have a pretty conservatory where we lingered a bit over breakfast each morning. We again took separate rooms for approximately 50 GBP each. Both rooms were ensuite; Shirley’s room had a shower and mine had a tub.

We saw B&Bs down just about every road in the Cotswolds, but you would not go wrong with staying at either of these two. I only wish we could have stayed longer.



Author: luvtotravel
Date: 06/04/2005, 09:43 pm
What We Did:

On our way from Heathrow we stopped in Woodstock to visit Bleinheim Palace. The weather was on again, off again, on again, off again, and so on. It was a Sunday and they had a Triathalon going on. The following weekend they had an arts and crafts show scheduled -- that would have been more our style. The grounds are beautifully manicured, and we had lunch at the cafeteria seated outdoors next to the fountains. We took a leisurely walk around the lake and continued our drive to Broadway.

On my solo morning I took a slow drive through Buckland, Stanton, Stanway, and Snowshill. It is hard to believe that people actually live in these storybook settings. It seems as though there is a wide open field around every corner with sheep or horses; patches of bright yellow flowers and green trees make it all picture-perfect.

In the afternoon we explored Broadway, popping into the many shops. All the buildings are made with lovely pink Cotswold stone.

We spent our second exploring the towns that make the Cotswolds so appealing. We started in Chipping Camden where we located some beautiful thatched houses. I thought we would find more thatched structures in this part of England, but they were not abundant. CC was one of the largest towns we came across, and we spent some time strolling the High Street. Parking can be an issue in many of these towns. CC has a car park, but we were not always so lucky.

From CC we went to Hidcote Gardens. Strong winds the night before did serious damage to the flowers, but scultured trees abound. We drove through Broad Camden and Morton-in-Marsh without stopping. We ended up back in CC for dinner.

On our last day in the Cotswolds, we ventured out to Stow-on-the-Wold, and then to Burford where we both made purchases. We stopped for smoothies (dreadful) and headed to Bibury -- certainly my favorite. Arlington Row, a group of row houses, is pretty and we took lots of photographs. There was a group of people -- maybe a dozen -- sprinkled around the area working on their watercolors. We wandered over to the Bibury Court Hotel via the church graveyard which occupies the back of the hotel. I had originally wanted to stay here, but they were quoting 155 GBP for a twin room. The hotel’s grounds are extensive with lovely gardens. We walked the main street briefly in Bourton-on-the-Water. It was after 5:00 pm and the town was devoid of tourists. Our last stop was Lower Slaughter. Again, the tourists were gone and the town was peaceful. We walked over to the watermill and leisurely strolled around. This was a beautiful day, both in what we did and the cooperation of the weather. It seemed unreal to be walking through towns with names like Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water. The names fit them very well.

Thank you. . .Thank you. . . Thank you all for such wonderful posts. You've gotten me revved and ready.

BB

I live in a part of the South Cotswolds that seems to be off the track for many visitors. While the northern Cotswolds, from Stratford/Oxford through Stow, Moreton, Bourton etc and on down to Bibury attract the real tourists, and are therefore crowded, if you venture a little further south you will find equally lovely villages and towns to visit, and with more charm for being less visited.

An earlier poster mentioned Cirencester and Minchinhampton. For towns, Tetbury and Malmesbury are lovely little places. Further south in the Cotswolds the stone is not so golden, it's a bit greyer but loses none of its charm for being so. Just outside Tetbury is where Prince Charles lives at Highgrove - between Tetbury and Minchinhampton is the historic and haunted Chavenage House, also Avening where Princess Anne lives at Gatcombe Park. Over the hill and across the valley is Bisley and down the lane(the name we locals give to single track roads) is Nether Lypiatt, another haunted mansion which is currently being sold by Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

Stroud, while a useful but fairly unattractive town, is at the heart of the Five Valleys, and from there you can drive over to the River Severn and Berkeley Castle, or along the Slad Valley (home to Laurie Lee, acclaimed author of Cider With Rosie), and also the Painswick Valley. Painswick is on the road to Cheltenham, has a churchyard with 99 yew trees (but according to legend no one has ever been able to count them properly...) and is a glorious example of Cotswold architecture. Lots of quaint shops and tiny streets to roam around in.

Also, with the new film The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe about to open in a day or so, the young actor who plays hero Peter (Will Moseley) actually lives between Slad and Painswick.

I work in Stroud, and I am thrilled to hear an American accent because they are few and far between...

ButterscotchBaggins, you don't say how long you will be visiting the Cotswolds, but if more than a few days, then you probably have to see the "traditional Cotswolds" but if you have a car and want to venture further, then let me know...

Have a great trip!

Oh, and if you like gelato/ice cream, on the "Common" between Minchinhampton and Stroud is Winstone's Ice Cream Factory with fabulous ice cream/gelato. Not quite as good as Italy, but worth a visit nevertheless.

(The Common is 11,000 acres of National Trust common land, complete with grazing cattle and horses belonging to the 'commoners' [that is, people who own land around the common and therefore have 'Commoner's Rights']) Very ancient and feudal!

What on earth is "feudal" about commoners' rights?

Commoners' rights are the complete antithesis of feudalism.

Thanks, Julia. Not sure about the duration. By the way, I've noticed a lot of "Chippings" on Cotswolds maps. I know a "wold" is a hill, but what is a "chipping"?
Many thanks,
BB

Found the answer: "chip" or "chipping" denotes a market town.

BB

Yes, it's from Ceapen which means market. Also to be found in Chippenham and Chepstow, along with Chipping Sodbury, Chipping Campden, Chipping Norton, Chipping Lambourne, etc.
It's said that the word cheap and shopping derive from this but that is open to debate.