Cotswold 10 day trip June 29-July 8 based in Stroud

Following, as we are interested in doing a similar trip in August, but without a car. :)

I’ll address options in London.

Mudchute Farm
Shoreditch neighborhood for the street art and a visit to the BoxPark
Walk through Richmond Park looking for the fallow deer
Pub lunch
Hampton Court Palace
Look at the London Walks website; might find a walk the entire family would enjoy. www.walks.com
If travel dates include a Friday check the Spitalfields
Market website to see if it’s Vinyl Friday.
Attend an evensong. Maybe at St Bartholmew the Great or St Brides.
Visit the Sky Garden
Ride the Underground
Brick Lane
Horniman Museum

There are direct trains from Stroud to London Paddington.

I’d definitely do a day or two in London. The Cotswolds is quite short on castles but there’s a great one right there in London (the Tower of London) and I think everyone would enjoy it. Your 23-year-old might enjoy a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

Stroud is a nice place to stay. It’s a bit more workaday than other Cotswolds towns. It’s not the most attractive Cotswold town but there’s plenty going on.

Stroud is a convenient location to explore from with many options within an hours drive. For castles, you could go to Chepstow and then on to Tintern Abbey. That would make a fabulous day out. There’s a good walk at Tintern up to a fantastic viewpoint called the Devil’s Pulpit. It’s not a long walk.

I’d recommend any of the National Trust places - Dyhram, Newark, Chedworth Roman Villa. Most NT places have walks that you can do to or from. A good walk to a country pub is a quintessential Cotswold activity.

only advice about Stroud, I have family there, is get your steps and walking practice in before you go. Lots of lovely and also some in town, hills. Hills everywhere. no really.

get in shape. Then enjoy.

Let the kids plan (all of them) - then they helped make the choices, and will have buy in.

The Cotswolds are good for two days of touring. We did it with a rental car, staying at the Volunteer Inn at Chipping Campden.

We used it as a base to also visit Stratford Upon Avon, Blenheim Palace and Oxford, staying 6 nights. If you go to Oxford, consider a walking tour, we found a good one there. Warwick Castle in Warwick might be good for your kids, we saw lots of families there. Stratford Upon Avon is great, especially if you like Shakespeare. Windsor Castle is a must see. Also, I enjoyed Stonehenge.

Stroud is southeast of the Cotswolds, closer to Wales, however, it is a bit away from London.

I suggest not staying in the same place for the entire 10 days. First, pick WHAT and WHERE you want to visit and then book the lodging.

If you stay some days in Stroud, you could take in Tintern Abbey in Wales, even visit Cardiff and more castles.

Bath is worth at least a full day. We stayed at the Brooks Guesthouse.

I think it’s fine to stay in one place for 10 days. There are so many places to visit from there and with family it can be easier to have a set base. Also, Stroud very much is in the Cotswolds!

Sudeley Castle is lovely, near Winchcombe in the Cotswolds:
https://sudeleycastle.co.uk/

On the northern edge of the Cotswolds is the town of Warwick with Warwick Castle.
Warwick Castle is ancient, with a long history, but has been bought recently by an entertainment group that operates it.
They have a show with a handler/trainer with falcons, owls, hawks and more.
They have jousting shows on some dates; check their website if interested.

Not far from Warwick is Stratford-Upon-Avon, with all the Shakespeare houses and theatre.

Hilly Stroud is very much in the Cotswolds, about midway between the northern and southern Cotswolds. If anything it is perhaps towards the western edge of the area, certainly not southeast of the Cotswolds. Perhaps the writer was thinking of Swindon (home of the Magic Roundabout)?

I meant that Stroud was SW of the Cotswolds. When I did my two days of touring the Cotswolds, I didn't see it.

We spent five days in a village near Moreton in Marsh last year. A couple of day trip ideas:
1. Bletchley Park, home of the Code Breakers, was about an hour away. Well worth a day trip, there’s a lot to see.
https://bletchleypark.org.uk/
2. British Motor Museum near Warwick—fantastic collection of British cars, well signed and displayed with the history of automobile industry in Great Britain. About 1.5 hours northeast of Stroud.
https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/

In my opinion, it would be very inconvenient to commute to London from Stroud for a day trip.
You sure wouldn't have time to see much.

Plenty of people commute from Stroud to London everyday. I did it for years. It’s not a long journey.