Family trip to include the Cotswolds

Winchcombe is the only town mentioned in your post which is actually in the Cotswolds.

It is over Cleeve Hill from Prestbury, a village which is part of Cheltenham and looks like the Cotswold villages, but Cheltenham is not really in the Cotswolds, IMHO (grew up there).

Getting up and over Cleeve Hill takes a bit of skill, especially if you aren't really competent with steep hills and manual transmissions.

Stratford upon Avon, Warwick and Oxford are near(ish) the Cotswolds but entirely different.

Oxford is no place for an automobile. Visit it before or after the car, or use the park and rides.

Most towns and villages shut down on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Those attractions which don't will be rammed if the weather is halfway decent as the kiddoes will all be off school.

I know everyone deals with overnight flights differently, but if you're taking an overnight flight, arriving at noon, and then planning to pick up a car and drive for 3 hours through holiday-weekend traffic on who knows how little sleep, it doesn't seem a like a good idea to me. How about taking a train or bus to Oxford and spending the first night there, then picking up a car the next day?

Don't mean to rain on your parade, just offering food for thought. Will any of you be ok to drive on the day of arrival? Jet lag, lack of sleep, and not being familiar with the local road system can all be a problem. Not to mention driving on the left and having to deal with tired kids. There are some people that are not bothered by any of those things. Others think they are ok but are really driving somewhat impaired. Still others are complete zombies and should never drive the same day. Suggest you stay overnight somewhere first and then rent the car the next day.

Nigel, do yo have any recommendations on where to home base?

TC and acraven, i did think about that too, but gatwick to oxford looks like it takes the same amount of time. To drive from gat to cotswolds (2.5 hrs). and a train from gat to oxford is about 2 hrs. hmmm........lots to consider. any recommendations on where to home base in cotswold ?

My point was that you will not cause an accident if you fall asleep on the train.

Someone had a question about bus transportation from Oxford to Gatwick not too long ago, and as I recall the service was pretty frequent. However, Good Friday seems like it could be a high-traffic day, so I'd seriously consider a train to somewhere near the spots you want to visit.

I just took a one-day van tour of the Cotswolds, so I can't provide a recommendation for a place to stay in one of the small towns. I stayed in Oxford and hopped a train to Moreton-in-Marsh, which is where some of the tours begin.

Winchcombe is a lovely place, more a town than a village. A large number of people from the Forum base in or near Chipping Campden - it is exactly what you might imagine. Any of the villages in that area will likely work well for you if you are comfortable with left hand driving on lanes.

We home based in Chipping Campden for six days while touring Britain in October. Stayed at the Volunteer Inn at 80 pounds per night, breakfast included. Parking no problem. If you want to visit Oxford, take the train.

There are probably no wrong answers. We used Stow-on-the-Wold as our home base and it was lovely. There was a nice assortment of pubs, restaurants, and tea shops near the square and we sampled quite a few of them in our 4 days. From there we had an easy drive to the outskirts of Oxford, used a park & ride, and bussed into town for a day. It's also closer to Warwick Castle than the two locations you mentioned.

You might consider staying at Corncroft Guest House B&B in Witney. It's in a cute little town and is 20-30 minutes from Blenheim Palace and Oxford. It's an easy walk to pubs, restaurants, and shops. Breakfast is excellent. We stayed there twice and loved it, and would happily stay there again.

Danielle

Hi sorry to be negative but traffic in England is much different to that in the us. You see we are a small country with more vehicles than people. So when you say 2.5 hours from Gatwick to Oxford you are perhaps looking at a time when the road is completely empty. It once took 9 hours for me to drive from Bristol to Cornwall at easter.

We Brits are increasing vacationing in the uk and Easter is a very very popular time to travel. The m25 (the freeway that circles London) and m4 the main road west from London, are often jammed for miles on g Friday.

You really need to consider if you want to drive in extreme traffic for hours so near to a long flight. A train to Oxford then car next day is much safer.

all great advice- thank you.

we'll train it to oxford from gatwick. we only have 3 nights before heading to York. With tweens it may be better to just use Oxford as a home base for all 3 nights. i do want to rent a car to explore the surrounding area (not to drive in Oxford).