The Cotswolds

The summer months – and particularly the school holidays of July and August – sees the Cotswolds throng with tourists.

Far better to visit if you can in September or October, when the villages are quieter and the countryside is ablaze with autumn colour. Equally beautiful are the spring months of April and May, when the fields are alive with daffodils and new-born lambs.

Bath, Cheltenham and Oxford all have excellent train connections from London. Heathrow Airport is just over an hour’s drive from the Cotswolds; Bristol airport around the same.

The Oxford Tube is an hourly bus service from London Victoria to Oxford, from where connecting buses and trains go to various towns in the Cotswolds area. Around two hours’ drive from London.

The Cotswolds is a large area so to explore it properly it’s best to have a car – although in summer the single-lane country roads are horribly busy. The only train stations in the Cotswolds are at Moreton-in-Marsh, Stroud and Stonehouse, with links to London and Birmingham.

Cycling is an excellent way to discover the Cotswolds; there are miles of bridleways and cycle paths that offer the chance to escape the busy roads.

North of the A40 is where most of the major tourist honeypots are – Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway and Moreton-in-the-Marsh, while the southern Cotswolds are quieter and less visited.

Not all Cotswold villages are overrun with tourists; Blockley is a hidden gem with pretty houses and a great village shop for picnic supplies.

Excellent walking (and fishing) is to be found in the Windrush Valley, home to the villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter, while for long-distance hiking, Chipping Campden, Broadway and Winchcombe are all on the way

First timers looking for the quintessential Cotswolds experience should stay in Broadway or Chipping Camden, while those after a more tranquil, crowd-free break should stay south, in Tetbury or Bibury.