Renowned World-Wide for its many areas of Natural Outstanding Beauty with charming, quintessentially British, thatched Cottages, rolling countryside, quaint villages, bustling towns and a Cathedral City is the popular area known as The Cotswolds. Including picturesque villages such as Snowshill and Painswick, the Market Towns of Cirencester, Stroud, Tewkesbury and Tetbury and of course the magnificent Cathedral City of Gloucester with its historical waterfront, plethora of retail stores and smorgasbord of fine dining restaurants. The Cotswolds also includes many tourist hot-spots such as Bourton-On-The-Water, Bibury, Burford, Broadway, Morton-In-The-Marsh, Stow-On-The-Wold, Castle Combe and Stratford-Upon-Avon. The best way to experience these villages, towns and the City of Gloucester is to take one or two of the bespoke Cotswold Tours available from a locally based, reputable, experienced Tour Company such as Cotswold Tour. Explore the North or the South Cotswolds for a very special day out that you will remember for many years to come.
If you have any specific places, you really want to include in your Tour then choose their totally flexible, bespoke, private Tour and decide on your own, ideal itinerary. Pick-ups can be arranged from anywhere including train stations, seaports and airports. Your knowledgeable driver will be ready and waiting to pick you up and start your Tour whenever is convenient for you. Experience for yourself the very best the Cotswolds has to offer and enjoy a unique and memorable day travelling around the countryside in true comfort and luxury.
Keeping the cottages and seasons in view
The chocolate-box cottages are a large part of what draws people to the Cotswolds. Villages such as Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, Burford and Bibury are known for dry-stone walls, clear babbling streams, historic churches and cobbled streets, and their thatched roofs, solid wooden doors and old windows are lovingly restored by their owners. Thatchers, dry-stone wallers and glaziers keep these homes in good repair.
The area sits roughly between Bath, Oxford, Evesham and Stratford-upon-Avon, and takes its name from the Wolds, the hills that frame it.
It is worth visiting in every season. Spring brings bright yellow flowers and vibrant colour, and summer offers long sunny days for walkers. In autumn the falling leaves lay a multicoloured carpet along the lanes, and in winter snow can cover the hills in scenes that stretch as far as the eye can see.
Lesser-known villages worth adding to the route
Visitors from around the world come to the Cotswolds for its quintessentially English villages, with Bourton-on-the-Water among the best known. It is easy to come home and realise you missed half the places you meant to see, so it pays to plan beyond the famous names.
The area lies mainly in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire but also reaches into Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Somerset, so there is plenty of ground to cover. In Bibury you can catch a trout from the River Coln and eat it fresh. Castle Combe has attractions dating back to the 13th century. Shipton-under-Wychwood takes its name from the ancient Wychwood forest, and Filkins began life as a Saxon village.
Travelling with a driver who knows the area means you hear the stories behind each place, from the people who lived there to the local traditions, as you go. Whichever way you travel, a little research before setting off makes it far less likely you will leave with regrets.