Cotswolds

The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty spans approximately 800 square miles across central England, covering parts of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, and Worcestershire. The region takes its character from the underlying oolitic limestone, which weathers to a warm golden-honey colour and provides the building stone for the area's distinctive villages, dry-stone walls, and market towns. The landscape is defined by gently rolling hills — the Cotswold escarpment drops sharply to the west above the Severn Vale, providing dramatic views — dissected by clear chalk streams and quiet river valleys. Bourton-on-the-Water is the most visited village, straddling the shallow River Windrush with a series of low footbridges and a model village in the garden of the Old New Inn that replicates the village at 1:9 scale. Bibury, called by William Morris the most beautiful village in England, contains Arlington Row — a terrace of 17th-century weavers' cottages visible from the road that is among the most photographed locations in the country. Castle Combe in Wiltshire, hidden in a wooded valley without through traffic, has served as a film set on numerous occasions. Bourton-on-the-Hill, Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh, and Chipping Campden each offer a different character ranging from antiques dealers to high-end restaurants. The Cotswold Way, a National Trail of 102 miles, runs along the escarpment between Chipping Campden and Bath and provides some of the finest ridge walking in southern England. A hire car provides the most flexibility for village-hopping; several villages are unreachable by public transport. Accommodation ranges from converted farm barns and thatched-roof cottages to upscale country house hotels.