Cotswolds

The Cotswolds is a large area, so your route will be determined by the villages you decide to visit. Some of the popular ones are Broadway, Chipping Campden, Bourton on the Water, Stow on Wold, Upper and Lower Slaughter, and Bibury. There are others.

How much time do you have? Are you trying to “see it all” in just two days? How are you traveling: car, train, bus?

Don't miss Cirencester and Stratford Upon Avon.

Here’s one idea: https://www.cotswolds.com/dbimgs/Cotswolds.TheRomanticRoad_Itinerary2018.pdf

A nice two-day tour plan taking in many of the traditional highlights of both the north and the south, using Cheltenham as a base.

If you did stay in Cheltenham there are no must sees in the town, but the architecture of some buildings is nice. A couple hotels I’ve stayed at are The George and Hotel Du Vin. I preferred Hotel Du Vin, but each was fine. My stays were a while ago. Each had free parking. Last time I was there most of the stores and smaller restaurants closed early; by 6pm. If you enjoy pasties, The Pasty Shop on Regent street had pretty good ones.

Stratford Upon Avon was a nice base the last time we were in that area. We stayed at the Arden hotel. It too had free parking.

Back to the OP question, I think having a better understanding on your expected mode of transportation helps. In my 3 trips to the area, I relied on my legs and public transportation (which has less options than other areas). Of the cute towns I visited, the cutest to me was Stow-on-the-Wold with Broadway a close second. In fact, we walked to Broadway from our base in Stow. Chipping Campden is less cute but still a nice place to visit. Bourton-on-the-Water was a little too cute for me. Still cute, but not as cute or genuine as Stow or Broadway (in my opinion). Cute.

Hi!

I am actually in the process of planning a broader UK trip, but we are going to be passing through the Cotswolds, so I've been doing some research there. I'm more of an outdoor/adventure travelers and I tend to avoid the guided, packaged options, so we were looking to build a self-guided walking or cycling route.

There seem to be too many villages/sights to see in just a few days and it really comes down to specifically what you are looking for in those villages.

I'm not sure how you go about your research, but I typically start by looking at packaged tours of the area to get a feel for what they consider to be the highlights and then build my own itinerary based on what I want to experience.

I'm not sure if walking or cycling is how you planned to explore the region. but I found a few resources that provided good inspiration for my own trip, Active England Tours and Cotswolds. Even if you are planning on driving, this might help you narrow your search.

Hope this helps!

Still cute, but not as cute or genuine as Stow or Broadway

I'm interested in the use of the word genuine. I'm sure the residents of Bourton-on-Water feel that their village is genuine.

What are people expecting/looking for when they visit these villages? To state that a village is not genuine sounds like someone discussing a theme park or historical reconstruction.

I'm sure the residents of Bourton-on-Water feel that their village is genuine.

I’m sure they do JC, but to the average day visitor, Bourton on the Water does begin to feel a bit like a theme park... Many of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds are so popular with visitors their economy is now driven by the tourist spending power.

You need to get away from the recognised names and to some of the other smaller villages that don’t see the tourists. Mind you they won’t have the cafes, craft or gift shops, but some do still manage to support a pub.

I'm sure that some of the villages do feel akin to a theme park, it seems that some tourists appear to forget that they're living and breathing villages where people live and work. I think we've all read reports of tourists peering through windows in houses or even entering them uninvited.

Personally I would hate to live there and in some respects many of the villages have become a victim of their attractiveness. I'm just intrigued by the mindset of someone referring to a village as more genuine than another. How do some tourists view these villages?

I'm sure the residents of Bourton-on-Water feel that their village is genuine.

My parents lived for several years in a small village 3 miles from Bourton on the Water. Before that they lived in Stow on the Wold, just out of the centre, and before that they lived in the centre of Chipping Norton above a shop.

Of the three, Chipping Norton has the fewest tourists, and in all three they just got on with life like most locals. Sure there were tourists about but when they went into the centres they went to the supermarket, the cottage hospital in Bourton on the Water (now sadly gone - it is a trip to Winchcombe or Cheltenham now), the doctor, the grocer, the ironmonger, the fish (although in the last the fish came to them once a week in a van), the newsagent, the bank (fewer banks now). They met friends, they had a cup of tea (mother) or coffee (dad). They went to the library and ran errands.

The villages and towns they lived in were as genuine as genuine gets. Even down to the once weekly bus which served the last village.

You may like them, or you may dislike them, but for the locals they are genuine. My parents wouldn't have lived anywhere else.

Are you driving? Walking? Slithering?

Hi!

we actually came back from a 3-day trip last week. We found 3 days that were pretty okay to have a good taste of Cotswold.

Bibury and Castle Combe were very nice.

Nevertheless to say we had great time and highly recomended!!

For me, as a tourist with not a lot of time to really explore and do it justice, Bourton-on-the-Water seemed like an English village that Walt Disney would have built for Disney World. Way too perfect and cutesy and looked like a movie set.
I much prefer villages like Blockley.
But i’m no expert on the Cotswolds, even by American tourist standards.
I hope to spend 2 wks in the Cotswolds on a future trip and will research more to find the right village for me to stay in.
My definition of “genuine” is: not on the tourist route, full of locals, no two structures alike, shops that are for locals… more like Moreton-in-Marsh…but for my stay a bit smaller and a bit more charming.

While researching our own trip to the Cotswolds last year we stumbled upon a series of YouTube videos called The Cotswolds Explorer hosted by a local bloke named Robin Shuckburgh which we enjoyed very much, and which provided a great deal of insight into popular and more off-the-beaten-path (ie "authentic") locations in the area.
It's very well done, and is worth a look if you plan to visit the region.

Thank you Robert. I’ll look for this YouTuber. When we research where we want to go, we always watch YouTube videos now as part of our planning. YouTube is a great resource for travel planning.

Susan,
While all of his programs are excellent, given your interest in off-the-beaten-path little places you might be especially interested in his series titled Hidden Gems in the Cotswolds - lots of great insights there about lesser known places in the area. For info, he lives in the village of Bampton - a pretty little place in its own right and one of several Downton Abbey film locations in the region.

I really appreciate this Robert, thank you. I’ve been to Bampton… : )

A genuine TR about the Cotswolds. It is titled 'Jack in the Green'.
I am done. the TR
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/jack-in-the-green-a-cotswolds-tr-1716239/