The Cotswolds in a day, driven in the order the lanes allow
The villages are close together and the roads between them are not fast. Twelve miles of Cotswold lane takes half an hour, and any itinerary that assumes otherwise falls apart by three.
A chauffeur-driven day through the Cotswolds from London, running out on the M40 and A40 to Burford and then north through Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, the Slaughters, Stow-on-the-Wold and Broadway before returning. The day covers around two hundred and thirty miles and takes eleven to twelve hours, with roughly four and a half hours of driving. Cotswold lanes average around twenty miles an hour, so the itinerary is built on five or six villages rather than ten. Early arrival matters at Bibury and Bourton, both of which fill by mid-morning. Rates quoted are guide figures.
Duration
Eleven to twelve hours
Distance
About 230 miles
Villages
Five or six
Lane speed
Around 20 mph
01/Overview
What a day at The Cotswolds actually involves
The Cotswolds run for about ninety miles from south of Bath up to Chipping Campden, and the part most visitors mean sits in a compact area of Gloucestershire and west Oxfordshire between Burford, Broadway and Bourton-on-the-Water. From London it is an hour and three quarters on the M40 and A40 to Burford, which is where the day properly begins.
Inside the area the distances look trivial and behave otherwise. These are stone-walled lanes with blind bends, tractors, horses and a great many other visitors, and twenty miles an hour is a realistic average. That is not a complaint. It is the reason the day is planned as five or six villages rather than the ten a map suggests.
02/At a glance
The The Cotswolds day in four figures
Duration
Eleven to twelve hours
Distance
About 230 miles
Villages
Five or six
Lane speed
Around 20 mph
03/The itinerary
The Cotswolds, stop by stop and in driving order
Timings include the walking and the standing about, not only the mileage between stops.
01
Burford
An hour and three quarters from London on the M40 to junction 8 and the A40. Burford’s high street runs downhill to a medieval bridge and is the natural start: it is on the edge of the area, it has somewhere to get coffee, and it is quiet before ten. Forty-five minutes.
02
Bibury
Twenty-five minutes south-west on the B4425 and lanes. Arlington Row is the most photographed terrace of cottages in England and the village is very small, which is a difficult combination after eleven in the morning. Half an hour is enough, and being there early is worth more than being there longer.
03
Bourton-on-the-Water
Half an hour north. The Windrush runs down the middle of the village under a series of low stone footbridges, and it is the busiest place in the Cotswolds by some margin. An hour, including lunch, and it works better at half past twelve than at two.
04
The Slaughters
Ten minutes away and a different world. Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter are a mile apart along a stream, with almost nothing to buy and nothing to queue for. Forty-five minutes on foot between the two is the quietest and often the best part of the day.
05
Stow-on-the-Wold
Ten minutes north, sitting higher and more exposed than everything around it, with a large market square and the church door famously flanked by two yew trees. Forty-five minutes, and it is the right place for tea if the day is running to time.
06
Broadway, and the drive home
Twenty-five minutes north-west on the A424 and A44, over the escarpment. A wide green high street and, if there is an hour left, the tower on the hill above with a view across several counties. From Broadway the run back to London is about two and a half hours on the A44, A40 and M40.
04/Planning notes
Things worth settling before a The Cotswolds day
01
Bibury and Bourton-on-the-Water both fill by mid-morning in summer and at weekends. Doing them early and the quieter villages later is the single most useful decision in this itinerary.
02
Parking in these villages is limited and often unsuitable for a large vehicle. Your chauffeur sets down and collects rather than parking in the middle, which also keeps the car out of a street that people are photographing.
03
Lanes are narrow, walled and frequently single-track with passing places. A large MPV can do it and takes longer than a saloon, so a party of two or three is genuinely quicker in the smaller car.
04
In winter the day shortens usefully rather than badly: fewer visitors, easier lanes, and the villages look better under a low sun than under a July coach party.
05/In detail
How the The Cotswolds day is put together
TR-01/Twenty miles an hour, and why the plan respects it
Twenty miles an hour, and why the plan respects it
A map of the Cotswolds shows villages six or eight miles apart and suggests you might see ten of them. The lanes between them are single-track in places, walled on both sides, and shared with farm traffic and a great many other cars doing exactly what you are doing.
Twenty miles an hour is the honest average once stops and passing places are counted. Building an itinerary on that figure rather than on a motorway assumption is the difference between six villages seen properly and ten seen through a windscreen.
TR-02/Being at Bibury before the coaches
Being at Bibury before the coaches
Arlington Row is a terrace of fourteenth-century cottages beside a stream, and it is genuinely lovely at nine in the morning. By eleven it has a queue of people waiting to photograph it from the same three feet of pavement, and the village has nowhere to put them.
The whole day is arranged around getting there early. It costs a seven o clock start from London and it buys you the two most crowded villages at their emptiest, which is worth more than an extra hour in bed.
TR-03/The Slaughters are the reason to come
The Slaughters are the reason to come
Lower and Upper Slaughter sit a mile apart along the River Eye with a footpath between them, a mill at one end and almost no commerce at all. There is nothing to buy, nothing to queue for and very few people, which after Bourton is a considerable relief.
Most itineraries skip them because there is no attraction to list. That is exactly why they work. Forty-five minutes walking between the two villages is the part of this day guests describe afterwards.
06/The cars
Vehicles that suit the The Cotswolds itinerary
On a touring day the boot is used more than the legroom, and the lanes decide the rest.
No standing price list. Send the journey on WhatsApp and the written quotation confirms the price, what it includes and any applicable tax.
07/Further detail
Getting the most out of The Cotswolds
TR-04/Where a car can stop in a Cotswold village
Where a car can stop in a Cotswold village
Very few of these villages have a car park worth the name, and the ones that do fill by ten. Parking a large vehicle in the middle of Bibury is difficult and, frankly, unwelcome; the village is somebody’s home and a good deal of it is in every photograph.
So the chauffeur sets down at the edge, waits somewhere sensible and collects at an agreed point. It is quicker, it is better mannered, and it means the car is never the thing holding up a lane while somebody reverses.
TR-05/Lunch, and where to actually eat
Lunch, and where to actually eat
Bourton has the most choice and the most queues. Stow has better pubs and fewer people. Burford has the best food of the three and is at the wrong end of the day for lunch unless the itinerary is reversed.
We do not book restaurants or take commissions from any of them. What we will do is tell you which ones a car can reach and leave from without a fifteen-minute detour, and which ones need a table booked in advance in July.
08/What it costs
Pricing the The Cotswolds day
Touring days are quoted by the hour, from the first collection to the last drop, with the mileage folded into the figure. That is the arrangement that lets a stop run long without anybody doing arithmetic in the back of the car, which on a day built around six or seven stops matters more than it sounds.
Admission tickets are not included and are not something we sell. The figures shown here and on the pricing page cover the car and the chauffeur. Where a day runs past the hours quoted, the written quotation says what the additional time costs before you set off.
09/Worth knowing
Season, weather and the The Cotswolds variations
TR-06/Making it a two-day trip
Making it a two-day trip
Two days in the Cotswolds removes the four and a half hours of driving from London and replaces them with an afternoon and a morning in the villages. It also opens up the northern end properly — Chipping Campden, Broadway Tower, Snowshill — which a single day cannot reach.
Where a party is staying, the same car and driver work across both days. The second day usually goes further north and slower, which is the right order once you have learned how the lanes behave.
TR-07/Pairing the Cotswolds with Oxford or Blenheim
Pairing the Cotswolds with Oxford or Blenheim
Burford sits twenty minutes from Witney and forty from Oxford, so the two areas are geographically adjacent even though they make quite different days. Blenheim is half an hour from Stow on the A44.
Adding Blenheim to a Cotswold day does not work; the palace needs three hours and the day does not have them. Adding a short stop at Burford to an Oxford and Blenheim day works very well, and that is the combination we would suggest.
10/Collections
Where a The Cotswolds day usually starts
The collection point sets the departure time, and on a long itinerary that decides how much of it fits.
Five questions that come up on almost every enquiry for this itinerary.
How many Cotswold villages can we see in a day from London?
+
Five or six, seen properly. The driving between them averages about twenty miles an hour on walled single-track lanes, and each village needs thirty to sixty minutes on foot to be worth stopping at. Itineraries that promise ten are counting the ones you drive through without getting out.
What time do we need to leave London?
+
Around seven in the morning. That puts you in Burford by a quarter to nine and at Bibury before the coaches, which is the whole design of the day. Leaving at nine means arriving at the two busiest villages at their busiest, and no amount of driving skill fixes that.
Is a large vehicle a problem on Cotswold lanes?
+
Not a problem, but slower. A V-Class or Sprinter fits everywhere on the itinerary and takes longer at passing places and in village centres. For two or three people a saloon is genuinely quicker across a day, and for six or more the larger vehicle is worth the extra minutes.
Can we add Blenheim Palace to a Cotswolds day?
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We would say no. Blenheim needs three hours to be worth the ticket, and a Cotswold day does not have three spare hours in it. Blenheim belongs with Oxford, which is a separate itinerary. A short stop in Burford added to that day is the better way to combine the two.
Is the Cotswolds worth doing in winter?
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Yes, and in some ways more so. The villages are close to empty, the lanes move, and the stone looks better under a low winter sun than in flat summer light. The day is shorter, so the itinerary drops to four or five villages, and everything is easier.
Tell us the date for The Cotswolds and we will put the day in writing.
Send the date, how many of you there are, where the day starts and any timed tickets you already hold. You will get a written quotation with the vehicle, the collection time and an itinerary that fits the hours rather than the wishlist.
