Where to stay in the Cotswolds for 3 days
June 11, 2022 3:52 AM   Subscribe

We, an American couple in our 50s, want to spend 3 weeknights in the Cotswolds in September. We will not have a car. We’ll be coming to the area from our friends’ place in Chiswick & will need to fly out of Heathrow on the day we leave the Cotswolds. Where should we stay?

We are not unfamiliar with the UK in general; I lived in London 1989-90 and traveled around the country a bit (mostly Wales, Gloucestershire & the southwest). I know the tiny country lanes well enough to know why we will not rent a car. I had a fender bender with a building in Dylan Thomas’s village way back when.

My dream would be to stay in a village that’s walkable to other villages a mile or so in any direction.

How we picture spending our time:

Wandering in/around the village, or into the countryside up to about 2 miles at a time. Max of about 6 miles/day including just getting around on foot. We are not country walkers/hikers (will not have gear beyond street clothes & supportive shoes) and I have mild mobility limits.

Wandering around village shops especially ones with books, textiles, local craftsman & artisans.

We love quirky museums & manufacturing exhibitions.

And beautiful/notable sights in general. Example: I love the views of Tintern Abbey from the nearby hills.

Eating locally produced food in pubs, where we’d be happy to spend an afternoon playing pub games or reading in a beer garden or watching canal boats traverse locks.

We’d like to spend a max of about 175GBP/night on lodging.

Thanks for any tips or recommendations!
posted by ImproviseOrDie to Travel & Transportation around Welwyn Hatfield, England (2 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: If you want village shops, then I suggest Moreton-in-Marsh. It definitely has pubs with good food. You can wander into the countryside (get the relevant OS map) although it looks closer to 2 miles to an actual destination. But you can get buses and it has a railway station.
posted by plonkee at 4:27 AM on June 11, 2022


Best answer: Moreton-in-Marsh is indeed lovely - I've stayed at the Redesdale Arms and it was very good. It's in the very north of the Cotswolds but seems to be less than 2 hours to Heathrow, perhaps thanks to the brand new Elizabeth Line.

At the opposite end of the area is Woodstock, which is also delightful and has plenty of pubs and some shops. Good bus connections to Oxford and thence to Heathrow.
posted by altolinguistic at 9:11 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]


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