Cotswolds - UK

My wife and I will be travelling in the Cotswolds later this Spring and would appreciate any suggestions or comments from the many British contributors to this forum. We have taken a self-catering cottage in Burford from May 27th to June 3rd. We are aware that those dates include the Spring Bank Holiday, but we have no choice. So we're especially looking for ways to avoid the crowds and yet still experience the beauty for which that area is known. Already on our list of things we must see are Avebury, Blenheim Palace and Ann Hathaway's Cottage in Stratford. Any hints on when the best time to see those would be would be great. Also, if you know of any particularly nice gardens, shorter country walks, towns that won't be wall-to-wall busses, or less-than-expensive restaurants, that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

AZBuck

I'm not a local by any means but I have spent several evenings in Cheltenham which is just along the road and I can highly recommend the bars, cafes and restaurants there. Burford itself is a charming place and, if the sun is out, you might enjoy an afternoon at Bourton-On-The-Water.

Found this link which has a little bit of info about Bourton.

A little something on the bars and restaurants in Cheltenham if you fancied an evening out (take a cab and head for Montpellier)

And finally some info on Cheltenham itself. This is a nice Regency style town which doesnt seem to suffer with huge crowds which is something that cannot be said for Oxford, sadly, that town is an absolute nightmare!

Craig, thanks for the links. As it happens, one of my colleagues at work went to grammer school in Stratford (and was back relatively recently) and says he'll also have some suggestions. Still, if anyone else has thoughts on this, I'd greatly appreciate them.

AZBuck

Hi there - In reply to your e.mail check out Cirencester - great if you like Roman history and Rodmarton Manor and Gardens is nice. Cheltenham and Gloucester will be very very busy cos the kids are on holiday that week. Try Stow-on-the-Wold for a pretty village which will be quieter and if you have time drive through the Forest of Dean for great scenery. Your National Parks are just awesome - we don't really have anything to compare in England. Have fun.

Iris

Thanks, Iris. The drive through the Forest of Dean sounds particularly intriguing, and gives me just the excuse I need for a daytrip to Wales!

Bath has some interesting history, but it will get busy during the bank holiday weekend. The scenery around Cirencester and Stroud is gorgeous, and would make for a great cycle ride if you can find a cycle hire company. http://www.noahsark.co.uk/ are a good cycle shop around that way, and would be able to point you in the direction of a hire shop.

Hi,

I am obviously not from there but the places mentioned, beautiful,
Stow-on-the-wold, Bourton-on-the-water, not to be missed, Stratford and Anne Hathaways cottage although probably busy is also not to be missed quite easy (well, from my point of view) to get around on foot. Avebury, Cirencester, ahh the memories, loved them all especially Blenheim Palace.
And I loooove the countryside. I've probably not been much help at all other than to confirm that these places are terrific.

I've been to the Cotswolds a few times, but only as a kid, which means I don't remember much about the specifics, but I do remember it being a very pretty corner of the world. I'll try to get my parents to remember where we went and what we did, and post anything that seems potentially suitable.

I have been to Tewkesbury today. It rained. A lot. Just something to cheer you up ;)

I'll just give a brief review of my trip to the Cotswolds, as it was not so much a RoadTrip as it was a wonderful decompression after a week's work. We arrived in London relatively late on a Saturday evening and made our way to our temporary home in Burford.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...6&d=1532125383

No, we didn't have the whole thing, but we did have two floors in the corner of the Manor House, complete with kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and a private courtyard in the back. It made a great base of operations for our day trips around the area. The first day was spent just getting over our last bit of jet lag. The first part of this trip had involved an 11 hour time shift, almost exactly swapping night for day, and we still hadn't quite adjusted. We also laid in supplies and scoped out the local medical situation. My wife had injured her foot just prior to our starting this trip and was also having trouble with her asthma and the rapeseed pollen that is everywhere in southwestern England at this time of year.

So Monday was our first day of actually touring the area and we started by heading north. We are still taking it pretty easy and our first and only stop today was at Blenheim Palace.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...5&d=1532125370

This is the ancestral home of the Spencers and Churchills, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. It is just one of hundreds of sites available through the British Heritage Pass which, much like our National Parks Pass, allows entrance into many places for a single set fee. Well worth it if you ever go to Britain. I can't imagine actually living in a place this huge, but the present Duke of Marlborough does. There is also a miniature steam train to take visitors from the parking lot to the palace, a garden maze, a butterfly house, etc., etc., etc. The item that caught my eye, oddly enough, was the document on display granting Sir Winston honorary American citizenship. Churchill is just far enough back in history that I know him only from newsreels and such, but his citizenship papers were signed by John Kennedy while I was in High School.

Tuesday, we're getting up at a more reasonable hour and getting more comfortable being out and about. We start by driving up to Stratford-on-Avon for a visit to Ann Hathaway's Cottage.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...7&d=1532125393

Ann was Shakespeare's wife and her family was relatively well-to-do. Their home has come down to us as this cottage with its window into life in the 16th century. The guides and docents are great with many tales of both life in those days, and how that life gave rise to bits of our own language such as "upper crust" - had to do with how the bread was baked and what happened to the bottom of the crust, There is an adjacent garden that is wonderfully tranquil early in the morning. But soon the tour busses start rolling up and we take off for our next stop. Gardens are, in fact, everywhere in England. We had counted some two dozen garden centers in various towns as we drove along before we encountered our first big box store. Today's second stop is a formal garden setting, Hidcote Gardens.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...8&d=1532125402

This is just a great place to stroll around and enjoy the views for me, but my wife is taking serious notes for when we get home. How much of this is going to translate from wet and chilly England to our patch of the southwest desert is open to question, however.

The next day we change gears completely and head south to Avebury.

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...4&d=1532125361

Avebury is what Stonehenge used to be like. It's a series of neolithic standing stones making a great circle with smaller stone circles inside it. You are free to wander in and among the stones (no longer possible at Stonehenge without paying quite a bit extra). The outer circle is, in fact, so large that it completely encircles the town and there are sheep grazing in the fields that hold the stones. Watch your step! There is also a small local museum, again admittance is free with the British Heritage Pass, that explains as much as is known about the building of these structures and the archeological efforts to understand them. For me, with my interest in history, the older the better, this is one of the highlights of the trip. As we head back home we make another stop in Lacock. This is a village that has been preserved in its entirety as part of the National Trust and so makes a great place to wander through. The main point for most visitors these days, though, is Lacock Abbey

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...9&d=1532125480

which was used for location shots in the Harry Potter movies. The fact is that this location has an incredible amount of history associated with it, and was fought for back and forth through many of England's cultural and religious wars.

The last couple of days are taken up with somewhat disparate pursuits. Thursday we wanted to drive down to Bath and see the Roman ruins. This was going to be our most ambitious day of driving, and it turned out that we had bitten off a bit more than we could handle. The drive down to Bath was pleasant enough, but as we got near the city, traffic just slowed to a crawl and we were in a long line of trucks and tour busses trying to snake down narrow lanes into the heart of the city. We gave up relatively soon, and just popped a U-turn and headed back out into the countryside and tried to make our way around Bath towards the town of Cheddar to see the gorge, caves, and cheese making. It took a good bit of navigation and the occasional questioning of the locals, but we did eventually get there. Cheddar gorge is a wonderful drive and would probably make a great place to hike, but all the parking lots in the gorge, and the caves as well, are privately owned and charge a fair amount just to stop. We did tour the cheese factory. There's only one left that actually makes cheddar in Cheddar.It'sall done by hand starting with milk from a single local cattle herd. At the end of the day, we just hop on the motorway and head back home. What had taken us pretty much all day to do one way on the two lane black tops through the country side took just a couple of hours to retrace on the freeway.

The last day we just hung out in our little town in the country for easily the most relaxing day of the trip. This region of England built its wealth on sheep

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...0&d=1532125494

and the town of Burford is no different. For a small town it has a huge church built with the revenues of the wool trade and old enough to be steeped in history. Besides the now almost usual great tombs and historic markers, this church has for me a very odd and compelling bit of trivia. The first depiction of native Americans in England is included in one of the commemorative stones on its walls. It makes a fitting end to the trip and a clear call for me to head home.

AZBuck

Thanks for sharing about your trip, AZBuck!

Years ago, I spent 2 weeks in England and I've always wanted to go back. We did London for a week and then 1 week touring the countryside with our BritRail pass. We enjoyed visiting Canterbury including the Cathedral where the infamous murder of Thomas Becket occurred. Then off to Bath. Sorry you missed it. Beautiful city. We also spent time at Anne Hathaway's cottage. Your photo is as pretty as I remember it. The bed 'n breakfast we stayed at in Stratford upon Avon was our favorite. It was simply an extra bedroom in the home of the nicest couple. We had breakfast with them sitting in their lovely backyard garden and ended up staying most of the morning just visiting with them. They were a joy to visit with. Then we spent our final days in Windsor checking out the castle there, Eton, and the beautiful countryside.

Your wonderful pictorial brought back a lot of good memories.

Buck,

Thanks for the trip through England -- beautiful images and descriptions. We should have our roadtrip journal and photo display programs operational soon which will make it easier to share images and trip descriptions with the other roadtrippers.

Mark