Cotswolds any suggestions?

Hi all my wife and I are planning 5 or 6 days in the Cotswolds early November in the MX5, any suggestions on places /things to see and do and some good scenic driving roads ?
Thanks in advance, Dave.

As a “local”, a few suggestions: Moreton in Marsh, Chipping Campden , Bourton on the water, Broadway ( And Broadway tower for the views), Stow on the Wold and Burford ( Burford garden centre is a lovely garden centre but also sells high end stuff which is worth a look. The Daylesford farm shop (Owned by Lady Bamford) is another place to visit, excellent pizza/ cake and lunches). Finally, the Slaughters are wonderful and there is a great tea room at the mill there which I think is open.

In terms of roads , 5 mile drive from Moreton to Broadway and taking in Fish Hill for views, any of the B roads between Campden, Paxford, Snowshill, Hidcote manor gardens (National Trust) and then the rod from Stow to Burford, the road from Burford back through the Rissingtons and Slaughters…

Hopefully some suggestions to give you a starter for 10
Cheers
Mark

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Visited many times and many times to the villages mentioned above.
I would add Bibury and a bit further towards Oxford Chipping Norton is worth a drive to.
We’ve used Chedworth farm shop as a breakfast/lunch stop off when travelling to Wiltshire and The Cotwolds. Also can recommend The Croft in Bourton on the water for food and great coffee. Presumably those two are still up and running, we’ve not used them since late last year.

Most of the roads are great, we were down that way only last week at Hidcote (NT) and came back via Stratford on Avon, another place worth a visit if you get time.

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My daughter lives in Burford. It’s a lovely village all be it one big old hill. It’s not car friendly at rush hour and not a drivers Nevada. It’s a lovely place to visit tho and the roads I. And out can be enjoyable.
Ducklington and surrounding roads are good for driving pub to pub too.
Farringdon to clandield has some nice driving roads if you pick your routes. I couldn’t tell you toad names I drive my memory I’m afraid.

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Wow what great responses thanks guys, we will list all those suggestions and work out some routes accordingly, we had been thinking of Bourton on the water as a base for a few nights and have now booked a room for 3 nights for the first half of the trip (The Old Manse Hotel) jus need to sort out the second half now. Again many thanks for your advice, there’s nothing like personal recommendation or local knowledge. Love the fact that there is plenty of references to tearooms and pubs :yum::+1: Cheers guys.
Regards Dave.

Went to the area last year.
If you are at Bourton I would consider a visit to the motor museum at the top end of the village.
I took a trip round while the wife, mother in law and daughter did the shops.
Really enjoyed the wander round the place, so much stuff to see and a fairly good shop with a large selection of metal cars for sale.
Might even find an MX5.
Must remember to look for one for ours the next time we’re down that way.
Have a good trip

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Thanks Woodster just told the wife and it’s now firmly part of the plan! Really looking forward to this trip and inputs from you guys is bringing it alive, many thanks Dave.

Anyone have any views on Stowe on the Wold as a base for a couple of nights or is it too commercial/busy ?

Hi Mark, do you think Stow would be a good base for 2or 3 nights or just a place to visit ?

Stow is very busy in normal times, limited parking but parking at the Tesco store a short walk away is free. Just park in the section on the right, I think it says town parking, well at it did do when we were last there.
Plenty of shops, cafes pubs to go at there, November should be quieter for you. As we’ve found with most of the Cotwolds villages you will get foreign tourists, tour buses dropping off at each village and moving on and so on. I guess it’s really quiet now, well minus overseas visitors for sure.
We’ve never really stopped in hotels in the Cotwolds, it’s always been caravan sites going back to our days doing that, we swapped that for the MX-5.:+1:
We’ve stopped nearer to Swindon for hotels and the occasional pub type B&B as we have family that way.

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Taking your view on Stow into account we are thinking that we will visit it but find somewhere smaller to stay maybe a lovely village or very small town providing it has a couple of pubs / eateries, a sort of bolt hole after a busy day out sightseeing. We are still doing the campaign thing in our 35 year old VW happy days but as we are getting older a caravan starts to look attractive. Thanks for the heads up :+1: Dave

I think you’ll be fine midweek, it’s just the weekends that it gets busy. What November will be like especially for this year, who knows.:thinking:

Is the vacuum cleaner museum still beside the car museum in Bourton on the water, yes you heard correctly :blush:

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:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing: that’ll be one for the wife :laughing::sweat_smile::joy::rofl: please don’t tell her I said that :drooling_face:

Let’s hope she doesn’t go on this forum on the sneak, unless she goes on the old vacuum cleaner forum. :wink:

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If you’ve not already been there, try Westonbirt Arboretum.

We did it at the very end of October last year as part of a Wedding Anniversary trip. A week earlier and Westonbirt would have been drier and the Autumn Colour even more spectacular.

We stayed at the Close Hotel in Tetbury for a couple of nights, superb food, a good night’s sleep in comfortable big en-suite room, lots of old period charm, and with a private car park hidden away at the back. They did us a very good deal on the Arboretum tickets, but now with Covid it has become more complicated with advance booking needed at the Arboretum website.

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As MRH1962 mentioned above, Lower Slaughter is a lovely little village and worth a walk. Hopefully the Mill cafe will be open by then, if you are lucky you might even see a convoy of MX5s passing through :wink:

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Sorry for tardy response been out getting wet golfing…I would consider Moreton in Marsh as a base as Stow can be challenging to park but is only 3 miles from Moreton and Moreton has some excellent hotels, pubs, tea rooms, b&b,s and parking is much easier

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Would recommend the White Hart, Redesdale hotel ( for eating and staying), Manor hotel if you want to push the boat out (eating and staying) and the Ask Italian restaurant , although a chain, is very good but book in advance at any of these

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I’m planning my first roadtrip for next week, passing through the Cotswolds on my way to Dorset. A couple of the places mentioned are on my list of villages to pass through. I checked ‘trip advisor days out’ and viewed itinerary of some of the private tours. So thanks everyone for validating part of my route. :heart: