I am planning to spend 3 nights to explore the Bath/Cotswolds area.

I am flying into Heathrow at 10 am and then renting a car and driving to Bath via Stonehenge.

I will spend 2 nights in Bath to explore the city and perhaps Wells.

After leaving Bath I plan to explore the Cotswolds and spend the night in one of it's towns.

On my last day in the area we will drive to Blenheim and then off to London.

Does this sound do-able? Which towns in the Cotswolds are a must-see and where should we spend the night?

We really liked Crestow House in Stow-on-the-Wold, and enjoyed the little villages in the area.

Stow/Wold was the prettiest and most interesting to me

Cheltenham Spa, actually a city and on the edge of the Cotswold Hills made a good base for me and i loved that city as well. Close to Bath

Bourton-on-the-Water with its outdoor model village (a small scale representation of how Bourton looked in the 17th century) and pretty river winding through has my vote. I'm pretty sure the village has its own website so you can look at photos and get more info.

Two points:

1. No it's not doable.

You'll have been on a plane overnight. Getting off it and driving over 100 miles is both stupid and - if you're involved in an accident - a criminal offence which can easily lead to imprisonment. If you're not used to driving on the proper side of the road, or in a country with crowded, relatively narrow roads, it's simply insane.

Do this in reverse. Get a bus to Oxford and then stay in Woodstock. See Blenheim, and get a cab 4 miles to the Hertz depot outside Oxford the following day after a decent night's sleep. Collect your car, do what you want in the Cotswolds, then Bath and return to LHR via Stonehenge.

2. There are NO must-sees in the Cotswolds. There are nice places to see, and even more nice fotpaths to walk gently along to assimilate the true Cotswold Way. But there's no point in seeing ten thatched cottages, or four wool churches, if you've only really got time to see half that number, and there's no equivalent of Angkor Wat or the Taj Mahal round here. And it really doesn't matter that much whether you stay in Burford or Chipping Campden.

I really like Broadway, mainly because it has an excellent antiques shop, a great hotel with a fine restaurant and is lovely to look at.

We loved Snowshill Manor (Bridget Jones movie) and Bibury in particular. Very charming and gorgeous.

Alternatively, take the bus from Heathrow, pick up your car in Bath. Overnight there, then start your driving.

flanner:

as you live on one of the Cotswold hills i believe, what Cotswold town is your favorite for whatever reason? I'd appreciate your take.

Flanneruk, the original poster said elsewhere that he was coming from Amsterdam so he won't be jetlagged. It's not really a bad drive to Stonehenge since it's mostly on the M-3 from Heathrow. (If someone's tired, he can always stop at one of the travel centers along the way for either a nap or a wake-up cup of coffee.)

I would definitely make the time for Wells. It's a pretty little town and the Cathedral is not to be missed. There are unusual scissor arches in the center of the nave that I've never seen the likes of elsewhere. Tours are given every hour or so. It's a very short drive from Bath.

I liked Bibury, too.

If InMiami really is coming from Amsterdam (and not Miami), it's doable.

I really don't have a "favourite" Cotswold town, except the one I have a house in - which was never intended to be touristed.

I have some unfavourites (Stow because it's lifeless at night and has an ugly church, Bourton on the Water and Broadway because they're not proper medieval market towns, Moreton because it's got a busy road running through it and Cheltenham partly because it's not actually in the Cotswolds, but more importantly because it's just too big to walk effortlessly round after a few pints late at night, and - thoroughly unCotswold, this - has some seedy bits)

Which leaves Chipping Campden, Burford, Northleach, Cirencester and Winchcombe. Actually, Tetbury really ought to qualify, but I'm just plain prejudiced against it because it's too close to Highgrove, so the Tesco has an entire wall full of Duchy Originals. Terry Leahy, the Tesco CEO, being an Everton fan, really ought to be above brown-nosing the Windsors. It'll get him in the soup sooner or later (ba-boom).

Why an insistence on towns with a medieval charter? Because it means they have a small marketplace, a reasonable smattering of shops that aren't entirely reliant on tourists, a huge church with 900 years' accretion of stuff and a reasonable permanent population to ensure the pubs are mostly full of people who live in the town, with gossip and preoccupations about the nearest train service.

Thanks for the info, flanner, and a good list from which to choose. I had been considering Winchcombe for our stay but your list gives me some more options to check into.

AHH! WInchcombe! It's 2 minutes from Stow on the Wold and has one of the best restaurants we've enjoyed in the Cotswold, Wesley House. We were staying at a rather posh place in upper slaughter but found the food at Wesley House much better. And the reception and service were superior. We must do that trip again sometime.

We return again and again to Chipping Campden. I like Bourton but it's way too busy during the day, although there is a nice walk from it to the Slaughters. I liked Stow in November, but during the tourist season it is very crowded. Winchcombe is nice. If Broadway was a person it would be an attractive, but unbearable snob.

I'll put in my two cents. I spent four nights in Broadway and thought it an excellent place in which to base ourselves. We also enjoyed Chipping Campden, Bibury, and Burford.

Our favorite restaurant was The Swann in Broadway. We liked it so much, we had dinner there three nights.

Here is my journal and photos if you wish to learn more about my experience:

http://www.travelswithdiane.homestea...Cotswolds.html

avalon: Maybe you are confusing a different village. Winchcombe is at least 10-11 miles from Stow on the Wold. I defy you to cover that in 2 minutes .

InMiami: If you are coming from A'dam then yes, your plan is doable. Lots of folks like Broadway - but it is one of my least favorite places in the whole region to stay. OK to visit for an hour or so, but not much there to fill a day or overnight. Some antiques shops that are simply too impressed w/ themselves.

Of flanner's list (that really does describe the differences) my favorites to stay for a first-time visitor would be Burford, Northleach and Chipping Campden. I'd choose on which one I could find the best B&B for my tastes/budget.

"If Broadway was a person it would be an attractive, but unbearable snob"

Now there's an interesting game. I can't imagine what Broadway's got to be snobbish about: I think it'd be a pretty but vacuous C-list celeb whose neighbours could never quite figure out what the paparazzi saw in her.

The snob would be Tetbury: a once pretty, now rather lived in, but still charming old slapper (think Camilla Parker-Bowles) perpetually going on about distant connections to royalty (absolutely NOT like Mrs P-B, but like an awful lot of Tetbury and Tetburyites)

No, I was thinking of Winchcombe..maybe my husband is just a fast driver. It certainly didn't take long to get there. In fact it was recommended to us by an antiques dealer in Stow, who said he lunched there several times a week.

We had several lunches and dinner at Wesley House, prefering it to where we were staying at Lords of the manor.

http://www.wesleyhouse.co.uk/

Thanks to all for your prompt and learned responses.

As mentioned I will be arriving in London from Amsterdam at 10AM.

My plan is to drive to Bath via Stonehenge and spend 2 nights in Bath with at least part of a day touring the Cotswolds.

Next I would drive from Bath through the Cotswolds and spend the night somewhere in that area.

The last day after a final Cotswold tour I will visit Blenheim and then back to Heathrow to drop off the car.

I realize that the Cotswolds experience will not be one particular site or event so trying to appreicate the area in a short time is a challenge. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.