Cotswold Way - cash vs card

I was in Scotland - Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2023. You will need very little cash. A church gift store was the only place that would not take CC and that was for low pound amounts only.

It's highly unlikely that any service or purchase you need to make won't take a card payment. I'm not saying that everywhere will take a card, but if they don't, just go somewhere else.

If I were doing the walk, which one day I would like to do, I wouldn't be overly concerned about having no cash with me. You could get it from an ATM en-route if needed.

Cash Machines are in the Cotswolds. Check to see which Credit Cards work best in UK. We did take some cash with us one time, and the next time we used Airport Cash Machine to have a some cash. Always check exchange rates each day. It is sometimes useful when shopping in Street Markets, etc. although some regulars now use phone transfers or other methods. Otherwise, the Cotswolds is Tourist Trade oriented, and cards are like V*** and M********** can be used internationally. Maybe take a couple of tap cards with an upper limit to be used on transit, etc. Please check with your own Card company. Bon Voyage! P.S. Having cash for Tips is a good idea!

Chiming in to say CARD. Or better yet, contactless.

A few smaller vendors may have a hand-written sign saying “cash preferred,” and if you have £50 on hand in small notes that would be gracious of you - but basically NO ONE doesn’t have a “tap to pay” contactless terminal these days. It just really almost never even comes up.

Volva’s comment about no one not accepting a card may well be true in the Cotswolds but it’s certainly not the case in the UK as a whole. For the great majority of the time and for most tourist purposes it’s true but not everywhere.

If you’re just coming to London and other major tourist centres you will be fine without cash but if you’re planning to step away from main centres (and I advise you to if you can), then it’s probably wise to bring or get when here a small amount of cash. You should have no trouble getting rid of it on your last day or so if you don’t need it.

Agreeing with what most are saying on here- I pretty much never have cash on me but if I was travelling around, especially to rural areas, I would definitely have some (like £50). The one thing I always need cash for when travelling (including domestically) is for leaving a tip for the housekeeping staff in the hotel room. One consequence of things going progressively cashless is fewer cash machines- in my neighbourhood for example we've lost at least three sets of cash machines in the past few years. If you're having trouble finding one, look for a post office or one of the larger format major chain supermarkets (e.g. Sainsbury's, Tesco, etc) as those often have cash machines.