Cotswolds

Beaches play no part in a Cotswold stay. The Severn Estuary runs just below the western escarpment, and the Bristol Channel shore around Weston-super-Mare is about an hour from the southern wolds. This is not a swimming coast, though. The estuary has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, and at low tide the water pulls back across wide mudflats with strong currents, so it is a place to walk rather than swim.

The nearest thing to beach life is the Cotswold Water Park near Cirencester, a string of flooded gravel pits with a sandy lake beach and open-water swimming in summer, when the water reaches about 20°C at best. A few river stretches have quiet wild-swimming spots, but they are cold. Clean sea and sandy beaches mean the Gower, north Devon or Dorset, which are further than a comfortable day out.

Eating here centres on the country pub. Stone inns with low beams and open fires serve good local lamb, game in autumn and Cotswold cheeses. The better ones in villages around Stow, Chipping Campden and the Coln valley cook to a high standard. Farm shops and weekly farmers' markets in Stroud and Cirencester sell local beef, rapeseed oil, cider and ales from small breweries, and tea rooms in every honey-stone village serve scones and cream teas.

Cheltenham has the widest choice, with fine dining and a mix of international cooking around Montpellier. The region has no cuisine of its own and little street food. In the busiest villages some menus are written for coach parties, and a good meal usually means booking a pub a few miles away.

Here the landscape itself is the main sight. Villages and market towns built of golden limestone have survived almost unchanged since the wool trade made them rich. Chipping Campden's long High Street, Burford's sloping main street, Bibury's Arlington Row and the market squares of Stow-on-the-Wold and Northleach are the classic set. The wool churches in Cirencester, Northleach, Fairford and Chipping Campden are among the finest parish churches in England.

The great houses add depth. Blenheim Palace at Woodstock is a World Heritage site, and Sudeley Castle, Snowshill Manor and the gardens at Hidcote are each worth half a day. The Roman past shows at Chedworth Roman Villa and in Cirencester's Corinium Museum. There are few museums of any scale, and the pleasure is in driving or walking from one village to the next.

Evenings in the Cotswolds mean a long dinner and a pint by the fire in a village pub, and most villages are silent by eleven. Cheltenham is the only place with a real night out. It has cocktail bars and late venues around the Promenade and Montpellier, and they fill up on weekends and during race meetings. Anyone who wants nightlife should look elsewhere. The region suits people who like to be in bed early.

This is gentle, lived-in country. The limestone wolds roll between dry-stone walls, sheep pasture and beech woods, cut by small river valleys like the Windrush, Coln and Evenlode. The western edge drops in a steep escarpment with long views across the Severn Vale to the Welsh hills, from Cleeve Hill, Broadway Tower and Haresfield Beacon. The Cotswold Way runs about 164km along this edge from Chipping Campden to Bath. Short circular walks link almost every pair of villages.

Quiet lanes make for easy cycling, and the Water Park offers paddleboarding and sailing. Spring brings bluebells and wild garlic in the woods, and autumn colours the beeches around Stroud and Painswick. There are no mountains, coast or wild country, and the walking is pleasant rather than dramatic.

The Cotswolds are surrounded by first-rate places for a day out, and few trips need more than an hour by car. Oxford's colleges and libraries lie east of Burford. Bath, with its Roman baths and Georgian crescents, is just beyond the southern edge. Stratford-upon-Avon and the Shakespeare houses, and Warwick with its castle, are close to the northern villages.

Gloucester Cathedral is just below the escarpment, and Tewkesbury Abbey and the cathedral city of Worcester are a short drive on. Bristol's harbourside and Wells Cathedral can be reached from the south. Hereford and the Malvern Hills, and the Welsh border towns, are within reach from the west. A car makes the most of the list. Oxford, Bath and Worcester are also an easy train ride from the region's stations.

The region works well for a gentle family trip. The Cotswold Wildlife Park near Burford has rhinos, giraffes and a narrow-gauge railway in the grounds of a manor. Bourton-on-the-Water has a model village and a bird park, and children paddle in its shallow river. Farm parks raise rare breeds of sheep and pigs and offer lambing in spring. The Water Park has a lake beach and play areas. A heritage steam railway runs along the escarpment from Winchcombe. Warwick Castle, just to the north, is the region's biggest family draw.

The villages are safe and calm, and pubs welcome children. Much of the fun is muddy walks and picnics. The downsides are the car journeys between attractions and the summer crowds in the most visited villages.

A car is the practical way to see the Cotswolds. Most villages are less than half an hour apart, but they are linked by narrow, winding lanes between stone walls. The rail line from London stops at Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham and Charlbury, and there are stations at Kemble, Stroud and Cheltenham. From these a few villages can be reached by rural buses, but services are thin, especially on Sundays.

Walking between neighbouring villages on footpaths is a real pleasure, and some visitors plan a whole stay around it. In summer, parking in Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury and Broadway is the main frustration, and narrow roads hold up traffic behind tractors and coaches.

Shopping here is about antiques, interiors and country style rather than fashion. Tetbury and Stow-on-the-Wold are full of antique dealers selling furniture, silver and old prints. Burford, Broadway and Chipping Campden have galleries, cookware and homeware shops, and Stroud has crafts and a large farmers' market. Upmarket farm shops sell local produce and well-made goods. Cheltenham has the region's only proper high street, with Regency arcades along the Promenade and independent boutiques in Montpellier. Beyond that the range is narrow, and the busiest villages lean towards fudge and tea towels.

The Cotswolds are an expensive place to stay. Characterful inns, manor-house hotels and stone cottage rentals are priced well above most of rural England, especially in summer and at weekends. Eating out at the better pubs also costs a lot. Self-catering cottages shared between a group, chain hotels in Cheltenham or on the edge of Gloucester, and picnics from farm shops bring costs down. Walking and the villages themselves are free, but the stately homes, gardens and wildlife park each charge a full admission.

Cheltenham is the centre of the region's arts life. Its Everyman Theatre is a fine Victorian playhouse with touring drama, opera and pantomime. The town's long-running festivals are its high points: jazz in late spring, classical music in early summer, and the literature festival in autumn, which also brings talks and readings. In summer, opera is staged in a converted barn at Longborough, with Wagner a speciality, and church concerts are held in the wool churches.

From the northern villages, the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatres at Stratford-upon-Avon are about half an hour away and make an easy evening out. Away from these, live music means folk sessions in pubs, and many evenings have little on.

Slowing down is much of the point of a Cotswold stay. Days are spent on quiet walks, long lunches and evenings by the fire in stone villages with little traffic after dark. Country-house hotels across the region have serious spas, many with outdoor pools, saunas and treatment rooms set in old barns and gardens, and spa breaks are a mainstay of the local trade.

The one real bathing tradition is at the southern edge. In Bath, the only natural hot springs in Britain feed a rooftop thermal pool above the Georgian city, an easy trip from Tetbury or the southern wolds. Cheltenham grew as a spa town, and its Pittville Pump Room survives, though it is no longer used for bathing. Outside Bath, spa life here means hotels rather than public baths.