The Best Cotswold Villages: Where to Go, and What to Skip

I lived in Bath for four years, right on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, and I’ve been going back ever since. My brother lives in the region now, so I think it’s fair to say this is an area I have some familiarity with. The short answer to this guide is that all the Cotswold villages are beautiful. This is actually a problem when it comes to deciding which ones to visit if you have two or three days and a rental car. So this guide is designed to help you figure out which ones earn a detour, which are only worth it if your route already goes that way, and which one you can skip without missing anything. So that’s what this is. Fifteen villages, each with a straight verdict, plus the two things that decide whether the day works at all: where you park, and what time you turn up. If you only have one day, go to Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold and Lower Slaughter. They sit close together in the northern Cotswolds, they’re all quite different from each other, and you can do all three of them well in a day. If you have two days, add Bibury and Painswick. Three or four villages a day is the right number. It will mean you spend more time enjoying what’s on offer and less time trying ...