Cotswolds day trips by train

If you want to spend time in the Cotwolds without a car then you are better off staying in Moreton as opposed to taking a number of day trips from London. Unless you are seriously into hiking, most locations mentioned in the article are not worth a day trip on their own.

Moreton gives you easy access to Chipping Campden, Broadway, Bourton, Stowe, Stratford, the Slaughters, Blenheim, Woodstock and Oxford, as well as a few gardens.

We did the Cotswolds in 2017, while we had a rental car for 4 weeks traveling S. Wales and England.
We stayed in Chipping Campden at the Volunteer Inn for six days. For 2 days we did the Cotswolds thoroughly and 3 days we did day trips to Oxford, Blenheim Palace and Stratford Upon Avon. We loved the Shakespeare 4 sites there and the city.

Most of the Cotswolds are not accessible by rail. If you limit yourself to the places you listed, you will miss the best places.

The places mentioned just happen to be on the railway but they are not worth trips to visit in their own right - don't believe me - then find them on Google maps and go on street view.

You can have a very nice time in the Cotswolds without a car and without relying solely on trains. We stayed in Moreton-in-Marsh for six nights in April. We took the train from Wales and left by train to go to London at the end of the trip. The only time we used the train during the visit was for a day trip to Oxford — very easy and worthwhile.

Morton-in-Marsh is not the cutest place to stay in the Cotswolds, but it is an attractive town with plenty of restaurants and it’s an excellent transportation hub. We are big walkers, so we spent two of our days walking to small villages. Another day, we took the bus to Burton-on-the-Water, walked to Upper and Lower Slaughter and Stow-on-the-Wold, then took the bus back to M-In-M. It was a great day. There are a number of bus lines that you can take to different villages.

I would also recommend you look at Go Cotswolds tours. They offer full-day tours that pick up in M-in-M and Oxford. I don’t recall what other options they have. I took the full-day Secret Cotswolds tour and absolutely loved it. We stopped in four villages, two churches, and drove through pretty scenery. The guide was excellent. Go Cotswolds is frequently recommended by others on this forum.

For some people a day in the Cotswolds is more than enough. There are people who simply want an easy, dip-your-toes-in day trip from London -- no car, no overnight stay, no searching out the consummate quaint destination. Just a taste of what many people think is a "must do" on an England trip. I looked at the photos in the article; they looked nice enough. But in my attempt to be helpful for these travelers, I failed to first go to google maps and personally inspect each potential destination. My bad.

What Gunderson and geovagriffith said.

If you prefer not to have a car, look at the day tours of the Cotswolds offered by GoCotswolds.
This is a company based in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
They have more than one day trip, covering different itineraries.

I do agree with geovagriffith, that the ideal way to see the Cotswolds is with a car, as they did on their trip. Look up their trip report and read it if you want more details. They had a great trip! Excellent planning, great choices of what to see, great hotels, including the aforementioned Volunteer Inn in Chipping Campden.

Not everyone feels comfortable renting a car and doing the driving, so tours of the Cotswolds are for those people.

Here's more information about GoCotswolds. They give a really good tour in a minivan.
https://www.gocotswolds.co.uk/
https://www.gocotswolds.co.uk/product/cotswolds-in-a-day/
https://www.gocotswolds.co.uk/product/secret-cotswolds/
Make reservations in advance. Their tours fill up quickly, so reserve as soon as you know your desired date.

Your base for your stay could be either Moreton-In-Marsh or Stratford-Upon-Avon. GoCotswolds picks up from both places.

P.S Now I see that Carroll also likes GoCotswolds and recommends them.
We were posting at the same time, so I did not see her post earlier.
Good post by Carroll!

Wanderlust, you need not apologize for posting about the article.....It's interesting! Thanks for posting it!
It gives good information for anyone wanting a day trip from London to the countryside....they can just choose one of hers if they wish. And Kingham is known for a certain pub and eating establishment.
I like her articles.
Here's a link to the story:
https://www.aladyinlondon.com/2025/08/cotswolds-day-trips-by-train.html

If you go do not miss Cirencester.

Kemble actually isn't in the Cotswolds AONB (Area of Natural Beauty). Close, but neither Kemble nor nearby Cirencester are Cotswolds. Cirencester does have an excellent Roman amphitheatre and villa sites, the latter National Trust Chedworth Roman Villa, but not easy without a car.

Stroud is unique, and has more than its fair share of very steep hills, and I like it a lot, and have family there, but also not in the Cotswolds AONB - close but not quite. Certainly scenic landscapes, hard on the legs.

Kingham and Charlbury are in the AONB, on the train line the two stops before Moreton-in-Marsh. Nice but not much at either, certainly little or no local transportation.

In my opinion the only winner in the group without a car and wanting to be in the Cotswolds is Moreton-in-Marsh.

I agree with Nigel. One thing Kemble station is very useful for, however, is if you are finishing (or starting) walking the Thames Path- it's a reasonable walking distance to "The Source."