Cotswolds Tourism is an independent guide to visiting the Cotswolds, written and published by one person rather than by a committee, a tourist board or a marketing agency. It exists to answer the practical questions that come up when you are actually planning a trip here, and to be honest about the answers.
Why a whole site for the Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are awkward to plan for in a way that a city never is. The National Landscape sprawls across Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, so no single council, tourist board or transport operator covers the whole of it. There is no one station you arrive at and no one centre you base yourself in. The famous villages sit a few miles apart down lanes that a bus reaches twice a day, if at all, and the difference between a wonderful few days and a frustrating one is usually a decision made weeks earlier: which base, which season, and whether you hired a car.
That is the gap this site is written into. Not a list of pretty places — those are easy to find — but which of them reward the drive, which are unbearable at eleven on a Saturday in August, where you can park, and what is actually open in February.
What is covered
The guides are organised the way a trip is planned. There is a general travel guide for the shape of a visit, the villages and things to do for the days themselves, where to stay for the base you pick, and getting here and around for the part most guides skate over. Beyond that there are guides to walking and hiking, food and drink, history and heritage, outdoor activities, events and festivals, visiting with children, romantic breaks, shopping and markets and day trips and itineraries.
How the guides are put together
Every guide is researched against primary sources: the National Trust and English Heritage for their own properties, estate and parish websites for opening times, the train and bus operators for what actually runs on the day you want it, and the district councils for parking and market days. Where a price or an opening time appears on this site, it is the figure published by whoever charges it, on the date the guide was written or last revised.
The Cotswolds change less than a city does, but they do change: a pub closes over winter, a car park goes cashless, a village introduces a residents’ parking scheme, a footpath is diverted. Guides are revised when I learn that something on the ground has moved, and the detail that matters most — opening hours, fares, parking — is worth confirming at source before you rely on it.
Independence, and how the site is funded
No hotel, pub, attraction or tour operator has paid to appear on this site, and none can. There are no sponsored posts, no paid placements and no “best of” positions for sale, and requests to buy a link or a mention are declined.
What does pay for the site is commission. Some booking links, mostly for places to stay, are affiliate links: book through one and the booking platform pays a percentage, at no extra cost to you. That is a different arrangement from a paid placement and the distinction is the whole point — the commission follows a recommendation that was already made on the merits, and it has never created one. The detail is in the privacy policy.
A note on the honest bits
Some of what you will read here is not what a tourist board would write. Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water are genuinely lovely and genuinely overwhelmed in high summer; several well-known villages are best visited before ten in the morning or not at all in August; and a few celebrated spots are worth less of your time than the quiet ones a valley away. Saying so is more useful than not, both to you and to the villages themselves, which are places people live rather than exhibits.
Corrections
If something here is wrong or out of date, telling me is the single most useful thing you can do. The contact page reaches me directly, and a correction usually gets fixed faster than it gets replied to.
Who publishes this
Cotswolds Tourism is an independent website with no connection to Cotswolds National Landscape, any local authority, the National Trust, English Heritage or any business written about in the guides. Nothing published here should be read as an official statement from any of them. See also the privacy policy and the terms of use.