Cotsworlds

[Newyear2023]

Hi all
Looking to have a girly weekend in the Cotsworlds in a few weeks. Me and my friend are early 30s and single. Looking to have a mix of chilling, nice food and probably go out one night to a few bars and maybe a dance towards the end of the night. Any recommendations for what areas of Cotsworlds please? Thanks!!

It doesn't sound like either. I genuinely don't know anywhere in Gloucestershire people would care about accents etc either.

Both Cheltenham and Gloucester have big centres and it doesn't sound like Gloucester park (although that can be rough).

Im cracking up over this now, where the bloody hell were we???. We went to stay in Corsham instead, which is lovely and lovely park... I dont remember the drive being that long from 'possibly not Cheltenham'.

I feel like i need to drive to Cheltenham right now, ha ha

😂

The moral of the story OP dont listen to me.

Is this why the ex is an ex? Taking you to all these awful places? 😂

Just one of his many faults. I cant even ask him as we don't speak. 😂



It sounds more like Gloucester than Cheltenham, but even then, I've lived in Gloucester and never found it hugely threatening. There are some odd people there but they're pretty innocuous - although avoiding the park after dark is a good idea...

@NerrSnerr I think you and I might live quite near each other. I love this part of the world!

I definitely think you should put Cheltenham on your wish list of places to visit so that you can see how nice it is. 😁

MN on iPad ate the grinning face I used! There should be a laughing face in there - I promise I'm not just humourlessly taking offence! 😁

Cirencester is fab. Great restaurants and bars

Well you could choose one of the amazing spa hotels for some R&R - they have so many to choose from.
Or a weekend at Daylesford or Bath for culture and nightlife.

Cheltenham is great fun at the weekend, I would recommend 131.

It depends what you are looking to get out of the weekend - long walks, lovely service excellent spas and cocktails are easy to find everywhere. Log fires and cosy winters its very good at winter luxury as well as summer.

Tetbury is also relatively undiscovered and you can pop in and meet the King!

Cirencester might do it

very pretty, cafes and restaurants, and there is even a nightclub! Moved on a lot since I grew up there and the only thing to do on a Saturday night was the roller disco at the leisure centre 😁

But for clubbing/proper night out, my ds and mates go to Cheltenham. No public transport home afterwards though.

In general Costwolds are very pretty, very expensive, and very aimed at the retirement market.

Consider staying at The Old Swan at Minster Lovell, shopping in Burford, going out in Witney. Also, close enough to Oxford if you want some time in the city.

To add to the confusion about Cheltenham. I went recently and was very disappointed in how it had gone downhill compared to how it was when I used to visit in the 80s, but in itself it wasn't bad. But I much prefer Gloucester!

I really like Broadway, the Slaughters and Bourton on the Water, as long as they're not overrun with other people (which they usually are).

Cotsworlds sounds like a baby bed emporium in the style of Childrens World (showing my age now).

What did you find in Gloucester to prefer? Serious question...

I do agree about Cheltenham though. A brand new John Lewis doesn't make a town.

It couldn’t have been Swindon, could it? Surely not! That’s about half an hour from Corsham.

No it wasn't I have been to Swindon and it wasn't there. Honestly he said we were going to Cheltenham and it wasnt what i expected. God knows. Im finding it quite funny though that I possibly went somewhere else. I really want a little break in the Cotswolds now and will definitely go via Cheltenham to sort this weirdness.

I love the cathedral in Gloucester, the wonderful old pubs and buildings, the Roman road that you can see through a glass window, the museum (we went for the Ladybird exhibition which was ace) and how accessible it was overall for the disabled. I use a mobility scooter and in Cheltenham I found many of the shops had a ridiculously high step up to them which meant I couldn't get in.

I also like how Gloucester has a sort of hippy, arty, stoner vibe in parts.

But as I said, Cheltenham was so much better when I used to go there as a girl in the 80s. The shops were all amazing and individual, so different to the shops in other towns that I went to, and it all felt so, well, 'posh'. It doesn't now.

What did you find in Gloucester to prefer? Serious question...

As pp have mentioned, the Cathedral is stunning and its surroundings lovely. The city centre is a bit run down but there are some wonderful buildings (there’s a shoe shop with a perfectly preserved C16 moulded plaster ceiling) and I believe the best preserved Roman street layout in England (but feel free to correct me). The Docks have been developed as a pleasant and thriving residential/retail/leisure quarter. There’s even a proper busy working boatyard featuring boats and ships of all sizes including three-masted sailing ships.
There are walks down the canal towpath and round an extensive central nature reserve, Alney Island.
www.gloucester.gov.uk/environment-waste-recycling/nature-and-conservation/habitat-countryside/alney-island-nature-reserve/

Gloucester people are down to earth and friendly. You can buy a Georgian town house in Gloucester for about two thirds what you might pay in Cheltenham. It has excellent transport connections by road and rail. It’s seriously on my list of places to relocate to when I eventually retire.

I too want to know where @Mydogatemypurse really went.

I'm past the age of looking for anything more exciting in the way of night life than a bottle of wine and a bowl of pasta. My experience of the Cotswolds is that even the chip shops are closed by 9pm, so presumably there are few drunken revellers to cater for. There might still be a Chinese takeaway in Stow-on-the-Wold. You may be aiming for something a bit livelier.
Will you have a car, OP?

Oh the high street in Cheltenham has gone right down hill, totally agree. I tend to wander round the Prom and Montepllier, and defintely up that end for a night out too.

I think cirencester, it has bars, cafes, some high street shops (although not many) restaurants, a nightclub, park, museum, yet still has the cotswold feel about it.

Friend suggesting Cheltenham now.

Before you do that I would seriously suggest you try living there for a couple of weeks, see what the city and its surrounding areas are really like. I love all the places you have mentioned, use them regularly to walk the dog, visit friends, but they are not Gloucester. They are Tourist Gloucester, almost entirely divorced from the city that houses people from Gloucester. That has always been Gloucester's problem. The absolute separation of the local populace and the potential money making tourist sites. Gloucester City Council has a nasty habit of withdrawing money and support from its own history and being forced to back down by Westminster. The 1960s saw a lot of deliberate burial of so much history - which is why you have to view the Roman walkway through scratched glass and whole priories got buried under a car park. Almost the whole City centre having been decimated and replaced by concrete with few surviving buildings in some places.

I know what you mean about the feel of those places, but they are a bit like a bubble with a little bit of Stroud or Glastonbury popped inside. There is a reason those townhouses are so cheap. And it isn't pleasant.

Having said that you may have missed one of the best shops, the Great Hall is amazing. And when the Golden Fleece and the adjacent site, when finished should make a huge difference to the city centre.
www.gloucesterantiquescentre.com/

Sadly none of that will have much of an impact on the long term socio economic deprivation of the local communities.

@SamphirethePogoingStickerist I live nearby though rurally with no amenities, and worked in Gloucester for nearly a decade, often with people from deprived and difficult backgrounds. I’ve lived in deprived areas in the past. I’m neither naïve nor a “tourist”, thanks. The city is still high on my list of possibilities for my eventual relocation.

Crikey! Why take umbrage that?

As you were?!?!