Visiting the Cotswolds whilst on holiday in London?

[Ridingaroundonbuses]

I would like to visit the Cotswolds this summer whilst on holiday in London. Can anyone give me any tips on what part of the Cotswolds is good to visit and what station I would go from. I would ideally like to book in advance to get the best and cheapest tickets I can for the train.

TIA

This is a good place to start:

https://www.gwr.com/stations-and-destinations/travel-inspiration/blogs/london-to-cotswolds-daytrips

A lot depends on how you will be getting to the Cotswolds - car or train?

More ideas including public transport down this post:

https://explorethecotswolds.com/day-trip-from-london-to-cotswolds/

Train

The Farmers dog is lovely to visit,even if you don't get a pub reservation.

It’s impossible to get to the Farmers dog if you are relying on public transport.

What do you actually want to do once you get off the train? I wouldn’t really consider the best of the Cotswolds to hugely accessible by public transport. You would be able to get a taxi from some stations, but you may struggle to get one to come back for you once you’re done what you’re doing if you’re quite rural.

To be honest, if I was going to make a day trip from London, it wouldn’t be to the Cotswolds. Could you hire a car and go for the weekend? It’s more country drives and walks and long pub lunches territory. Not really something you can do in a few hours from a bus, unless you just want the few Instagram photo ops.

There are buses apparently.

What's the purpose of the visit? Walk around a village, photos of people's houses?
Or is there a particular attraction you want to see?

What do you actually want to see? If it’s general site seeing how about a 1/2 day coach trip eg Oxford tours. Typically take 5 hours. If you don’t want a tour then why not just go to Bath on the train and walk around, plenty to see

Painswick is beautiful and non-touristy and there is a stunning pub for food called The Woolpack in Slad.

Very few places in the Cotswolds proper are on a train line, and public transport is dire. So I’d either go for an organised tour or do a day trip by train to Oxford or Bath. Both give a bit of a flavour, otherwise really you need to drive.

Agree a coach tour might be better. Maybe with Blenheim included.

Bourton on the Water is the quintessential Cotswolds village, and i agree, a day coach tour would probably be best.

Am I alone in finding the Cotswolds a bit boring once you have taken in a choc-box village or so?

Oxford, Cambridge, Bath make great visits from London.

I’ve never been and would like to explore and see what the fuss is about.

You could get the train to Moreton-in-Marsh, which is a very pretty town. Sezincote House and Batsford Arboretum are nearby.

Are you keen to walk around a village though?

Paddington to Moreton in marsh. Stay in Chipping Campden - hidden gem, not over run with tourists. www.hookcottage.co.uk. Or www.campdenplace.co.uk depending on group size & budget.

The Cotswolds covers a large area, bath to almost Stratford, so what fuss have you heard about & where?

otherwise you might be disappointed

Go to Kemble by train and get one of the 5 daily buses to Cirencester

https://explorethecotswolds.com/day-trips-from-cirencester-to-cotswolds/#:~:text=How%20to%20get%20there:%20Northleach,shop%20for%20antiques%20and%20collectables.

then do day trips from there on the bus

Personally I would rather go to Bath or Oxford where there are things to do than just walk round a village and take photos of houses.

Do you realise that the Cotswolds covers about 6 counties and about 100 square miles?

Coach trip sounds like a good idea. DM and her friend often go on them, they typically take you to 2/3 places in a day which are the highlights of a particular area and you have time to wander around a market or historical town, get lunch etc. I would assume that there's some that set off from somewhere in London such as Victoria coach station. Google coach tour Cotswolds from London.

Although any 'honeypot' area in the UK is often very busy in high season so if you're looking for photos, it will probably be hard to get them without loads of other people in them.

Burford is nice and with easy access to most of the Cotswolds.

Yes Iw as going to say this as well, a day trip is not recommended in my view

Save it for a full week and rent a cottage there another time

"Explore"? Exploring the Cotswolds really needs a car. Trains from London will take you only to those few towns / cities with train stations - and frankly that's not what I'd call the 'real' Cotswolds (mainly the villages) that you've heard all the fuss about.

Also, how long do you plan to spend in the Cotswolds? If it's just one day, then you'd probably be better of taking a coach tour, they generally take in three or four villages, time to walk about them, get lunch, onto the next etc. then get you back to London.

I'm really only familiar with the north Cotswolds - I live in Warwickshire so it's a nice day-trip to Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, or Broadway. Stow is my favourite; lunch at The Hive! We stayed at The Porch House once, for our anniversary one year. And of course there's St Edward's church there, with the amazing ancient trees framing the doorway.