Cotswolds – A Breathtaking English Countryside Vacay & How To Do It  Right

Just close your eyes for a second and visualise a page from a fairytale book from your childhood. What do you see? Deep blue sky, vast green meadows with scattered white sheep grazing all day, a picture-perfect house by a small canal with a lovely garden and a wooden fence; birds chirping, wildflowers, colourful leaves…am I getting warmer? Well, congratulations, you’ve just pictured a real place very much existing on Earth, not a fairyland. That place is known as the Cotswolds. No fabrication, no exaggeration, and absolutely no filter needed. So, if you’re confused about where to plan your next foreign holiday, there couldn’t be a better destination. A typical British countryside experience with every possible element of natural beauty laced with human aesthetic touch in just the right proportions. Let’s take a quick virtual tour of this breathtaking English village so you know how to plan your vacay.

1. Take A Road Trip, Not A Day Trip!

Like many other towns in the UK, you could easily take a train from Paddington station to reach Cotswolds within a duration of under 2 hours. There are buses too from Victoria Coach Station that will take about 2.5- 3 hours ride to reach Cheltenham or Gloucestershire. You also have the option of making a day trip via tour operators and spending a whole day getting just about a little taste of the British countryside in the Cotswolds. (Although, we highly recommend you don’t! If you want a typical English country experience, you must spend a day or two in the heart of the Cotswolds.)

And the best way to travel from London to the Cotswolds is by hiring a self-driven rental car. Here’s why:

• The cost is almost the same, even cheaper if you’re travelling in a group. Check this link to compare different modes of transport.
• You have the liberty of wandering around on impulse; stop to admire the views anywhere for as long as you want, and traveling at your own pace.
• Explore more than what’s written on travel blogs. When you don’t have the rush of catching a train or keeping up with your tour guide, you can always choose to spend a little more time in your dreamland. Take advantage of your freedom to explore some off-beat destinations along with famous ones.

Friendly Tip: Make sure you have a UK driver’s license before you set out for one of the most stunning road trips you’ll ever have. There are many car rental companies you can look up online. We used Virtuo and were pretty satisfied with their services.

2. Stow-On-The-Wold:  A Perfect Drive On A Bright & Sunny Summer Day

Contradictory to the usual climatic trend in the UK, it was a bright summer morning, the end of May. The weather couldn’t be better and the sun was never happier! Four happy souls set out for our lovely summer road trip by first reaching the NCP Parking near King’s Cross tube station. There at the NCP Parking, our swanky rental ride was waiting for us with welcoming arms! It was a 3+ hours drive with multiple coffee and bathroom breaks. One of the stops we made on the way was at Burford. Burford was one of the major towns of the Cotswolds and although the market area was a little cramped with cars, the town’s charm didn’t escape our eyes. It took us another 20 minutes and we reached Stow-On-The-Wold at around 2 pm. Stow-On-The-Wold is a quaint little market town with coffee shops, ice cream parlours, bakeries, a few pubs, and eateries all surrounding a church at the centre. It’s the kind of town that was neither bustling with tourists nor looked abandoned. There were just about enough people that make a town look alive!  

We grabbed English sausage rolls and coffees to go and satiated our hunger. After a couple of relaxed strolls around the church, petting a few furry fellow travellers we decided to move on to our next venture. Of course, we couldn’t leave Stow-on-the-Wold without trying some ice-creams at Lucy’s Tea Room first!

Friendly tip: Don’t rush yourselves while strolling around the town. Soak up the sun, have a bite on a bench, relax, and enjoy the laid-back yet friendly vibes. And definitely don’t leave without trying their local ice-creams and cream tea.

3. Snowshill Circular Trail: A Walk To Remember

What Charles Dickens said centuries ago, “It’s not easy to walk alone in the country without musing upon something”, still holds true today! A 6-mile walk by the spectacular Snowshill served us more muses in huge platters than we could imagine…or ingest! We parked our car at the Snowshill Manor Parking, right next to the building, and started our circular walk following a downloaded map as well as the signs on our way. Although we started a bit late (around 4:30 pm), the generously extended daylight during summer worked massively in our favour! So we didn’t really miss anything about the British countryside experience despite our leisurely pace.

After crossing a wooden kissing gate, we entered a farmland and kept walking through the narrow mud path. There was faint chirping audible from a distance, large shady hop trees by the corners in case you want to take a break. While we were halfway through the field, suddenly we spotted two horses, a white and a brown, grazing in the middle of nowhere! As if the greens and blues weren’t vibrant enough to fit into a Disney-created HD animated movie, there had to be more characters in it! The very first sight of the horses made me jump. It wasn’t because I haven’t seen horses before, of course, I have. The sheer totality of the vista was just unreal. And it didn’t stop with horses either! Walk for another half mile and you enter another meadow filled with innumerable sheep! They look at you with inquisitive eyes and then continue with their grazing. And those white sheep are just the perfect colour you need on a deep green blanket of land for a complete Polka Dot look! Nature isn’t just an artist, she’s a stylist too!

It took us roughly 2.5 hours to complete the whole circuit. And in that entire duration, I lost count of how many times I had to simply stop just to process what I was witnessing. I was not just remembering my childhood fairytales, I was actually living one. After all, Snowshill doesn’t come under Cotswold’s AONB (Area Of Outstanding Beauty) for nothing!

Friendly Tip: There are multiple countryside walks and trails throughout Snowshill which are mostly easy walks. It’s quite convenient to rely on the map and road signs. And, even if you get lost, you won’t regret the location anyway! You can make a stop at the Snowshill Arms for a quick refreshment

4. Northleach: A Church, Local Pubs And Manor

Northleach, where we had booked our accommodation in the Cotswolds, wasn’t one of the most popular destinations in the Cotswolds. However, we were pleasantly surprised and thankful for our decision by the end! Northleach is a market town that seems to have existed since 780 AD with enriching historical backgrounds. The SS Peter and Paul parish church of Northleach with gothic architecture, was initially built in about  1058 and was then rebuilt several times. Northleach was titled as a Royal manor until 1631. However, very little has changed in terms of the architecture of houses and the entire town keeping that old-world charm intact. The old graveyard at the back of the church area, for instance, is sure to take you back centuries and make you visualise (and imagine!!) history quite vividly! The church is situated right in the centre of the town beside the market area. There is a tiny canal flowing on the left of the church with stone brick walls and trees with purple leaves surrounding it. If you decide to go for a morning run or a walk by the town, you must spend some time by the church area. It’s so gorgeous, that for the first time, I regretted not being able to paint. This would have been such an ideal frame!

Speaking of morning runs, if you’re a regular runner you are going to love exploring the streets of this English town. Sure, you might just get too distracted by the sights and lose your pace, but it’s worth it! While passing by the houses made of Cotswold stone that gleamed golden in the morning sun, I realised, I’d never had a more picturesque run before! And the weather has just been too generous to us. In fact, I’m sure people of the UK will be talking about this historic sunny summer of 2023 that went on for over two weeks without a drop of rain! With a breezy head and a happy heart, I was ready for a big breakfast and our day 2 hike!

Friendly Tip: There are just a few pubs in Northleach, Wheatsheaf Inn, and Bar being the most famous one. Drop in by the bar for a beer and some vintage Brit vibes! And if you love dogs, you might end up making a lot of friends too!

5. From Devil’s Chimney To Deya Brewery

Pack a few bites, juices, and/or beer, strap on your hiking shoes, and get ready for a hike to the Devil’s Chimney at Leckhampton. You can park your car at the Seven Springs parking at Leckhampton or take a bus to that very spot to start your hike. Being ardent horror lovers, the name itself piqued our interest. The story behind such a nomenclature turned out to be satisfactorily interesting too. Devil’s Chimney is a limestone rock formation rising from the ground in a twisted shape that resembles a chimney. Legend has it, that the Devil used to hurl stones sitting above this rock at the parish churches to disrupt their work!! Spooky right?

It’s a moderate circular walk of 4.5 miles or 7kms that took us about 2:18 hours. But even during the rough hiking parts, you get so amused by the landscapes and skies, you tend to forget your level of exertion. All part of the plan it seems, eh?

 It wasn’t a ‘clear blue sky’ day. Rather there were flocks of disorganised clouds floating around for as far as your eyes could see through the valley. On your way to the Devil’s Chimney, there are multiple pit stops with wooden benches facing the valley. You can see the entire Cheltenham, which is the biggest town in the Cotswolds from up there. There is no way you could just ignore them and keep walking! You have to stop, sit, get engrossed in the view, click photos…it’s just impossible not to! There are hop trees everywhere blooming with yellowish-golden flowers which consequently create beautiful framing for your landscape photographs. As I said before, aesthetics is at its best!

Finally, when you reach the Devil’s Chimney, you feel like taking a short break on the grass. So come out the sandwiches and beer. The clouds are still playing around and you know for sure they’re just for aesthetics, they won’t rain! You could take the same trail back or choose a different route through the woods. This jungle walk is just as beautiful but with a very diverse ambience. You can hear crickets and birds there are unknown tall trees with so many shades of green; it feels like a completely different place altogether!

It had been a long walk of 7kms and it’s only natural we wanted to chill a little. And while you’re near Cheltenham or Leckhampton, and if you love beer, add Deya Brewing Company’s Tap Room to your itinerary right away. Huge bar with over 50 varieties of freshly brewed ales, stout, draft beer, or mixed fermented ale with ample seating to accommodate almost a hundred people. The bartenders are very well-versed in all kinds of ale composition and they will help you to taste, understand and know what kind of beer you would prefer. Spending a few hours at this tap room is an experience every beer lover must have. Hire a cab if you want to enjoy the drinks or simply stick to a pint!

After a couple of pints (don’t ask how many though!) we wanted food. And lots of it. So after much searching, we finally managed to find a restaurant/bar open in Cheltenham called Harry Cook who served the best hamburgers I had during my entire UK trip. This was just the perfect end to an already perfect day. From Devil’s Chimney to Deya’s Tap Room our stay at Cotswolds just kept getting better with each passing day!

Friendly Tip: Pretty much all the food joints in Cotswolds close by 5 pm. If you’re planning your next trip to any English countryside, make sure you plan your dinner in advance. Make reservations or eat a heavy lunch. Otherwise, you will have to depend on cold supermarket sandwiches!

6. Burton-On-The-Water & Picnic At Bibury

A cute little village that basically begins and ends with the water- exactly as the name suggests! There is no need for a prior agenda to visit this beautiful British village. Just a 15-minute drive from Northleach, and you can spend a few hours by the lovely water. There are a couple of “insta-worthy” bridges ready for you to click and reel (#feelitreelit)! Take a long walk by the water, watch the ducks and swans play around, grab a croissant, and enjoy it by the canal. There are bakeries, gift shops, and cafes you can explore. Every nook and corner at Burton On The Water, screams pretty and cute! You can plan your picnic by the water or just laze around on the grass. We, however, wanted a more secluded place for our picnic, so after spending a few hours we moved on to Arlington Row at Bibury.

Now once you reach Arlington Row, you get an idea where did the expression “picture-perfect” come from! Humans and nature have collaborated quite successfully to make this place look that way. No wonder it’s one of the most photographed places in the Cotswolds. Of course, the whole street was flooding with tourists. This Arlington Row houses lanes of cottages which were built in the late 14^th century for weavers. When you take a walk by the lanes, you can evidently see the old English architecture and a very unique masonry of these houses.

Apart from the Row, there is a small market on the other end of the road which was bustling with tourists. There was one particularly quite popular bar where it seemed impossible to get a table or a bench! However, we had other plans! We grabbed some food to-go, held the beer cans into the water for a while (a very popular way to chill the beer when it’s hot out!) and kept walking past the market.

After reaching the end of the market and all the hustle-bustle, we found what we were looking for! A huge farmland, with adequate grass and a perfect number of large trees to host our little arrangement! We found our picnic spot! Oh and did I mention, there was not a single human soul? It might sound like we knew such a place existed, but honestly, we didn’t. We just kept looking until we found one! We chatted, ate, drank, and even sang! No rush, no agenda. We wanted to soak it all in before leaving the Cotswolds!

Friendly Tip: If you like off-beat spots, lesser travelled roads, and love to explore unheard-of names, keep walking. Keep looking, be spontaneous don’t always follow the crowd. And yes, you must find that farmland at Bibury (or any other farmland, for that matter) to plan a picnic!

“The closer you get to the countryside, the closer you get to your distant past because historically you came from the countryside and the closer you get to the places you exist, the more peaceful you feel!” – Mehmet Murad Ildan.

Before you start your Cotswolds journey, you need to ask yourself what kind of vacation are you looking for. Sure you can have all kinds of fun in every English village or town including the Cotswolds. You need to know what to expect before you design your itinerary as per your taste. Historical buildings, gothic churches, astounding landscapes, peaceful air, delightful beer, leisure walks, dogs, coffees, cakes…take your pick! And you know the best part? You can pick them all! As for me, every hike, every walk by the woods, every farmland with sheep and horses, and every little piece of cloud in the blue sky made my trip worthwhile. I could stare at that sky for hours lying under a huge willow tree with a book in one hand and a beer in another..indefinitely.

Let us know if you planned your next trip to the English countryside in the Cotswolds. Or share your own travel experience in the comment section below.

All photographs are clicked by author Alakananda Bhattacharya