Inn to Inn hiking

There are a lot of companies that will organize an independent walk for you, booking your accommodations and providing luggage transport. Contours is a company that is often recommended, and they do offer a "short break" or highlights trip in the Cotswolds.

http://www.contours.co.uk/walking-holidays/circular-walks-cotswold.php#COTH

We recently did a trip in different areas ( not the Cotswold/ but Wales and Shropshire) with Celtic trails, and I would recommend them, but it appears they only offer a full week walk in the Cotswolds.

Just google "self-guided walking tours Cotswolds" and you will find many more.

These companies all offer booking, maps, luggage transport, and other services as a package.

If you only want luggage transport, you could try Sherpavan. Not sure if they offer this for the Cotswolds, however.

I will advise from our experience that the maps and walking directions provided by the tour companies are very helpful. In some cases you will not be following an actual path on the ground, just directions that have you climb a stile to go over a fence, then cross the field to the next stile, and so on. The directions will read, "keeping the solitary oak tree on your right, ascend diagonally across the field to the stile by a gate. . . ". I don't know how much of the Cotswold Way is like this but the one day we spent walking there had quite a few fields to cross, some populated with animals. Watch out for bulls.

I can also highly recommend Contours Walking Holidays. As Lola notes they offer "short break" trips and will work with you at adding extra days. We have booked three walks with Contours including a three day short break trip in the Lake District, but have not walked the Cotswolks. The Contours website offers a number of suggested Cotswolds walks. They may be able to accommodate you on doing only part of a route.

Countours is a full service self-guided booking service that provides information, overnight accommodations and baggage transfer service. We have been very pleased with the accommodations that Contours booked taking into account that they are finding lodging in the bush. As said adding extras days/nights hasn't been a problem.

The luggage transfer service picks up your bag by typically 9 am or later then transports it to your next night's accommodation. Your bag will usually beat you unless you are at the far end of a walking route. The luggage transfer service may allow a walker to ride with the bags. We know of walkers who bailed on extreme weather days and one of us hitched a ride after a knee injury.

it appears they only offer a full week walk in the Cotswolds.

Checking the Contours website, they do offer two "short break" walks:

Cotswold Short Break--A circular short break from Bourton-on-the-Water via Winchcombe and the Windrush Valley. 26 miles in 2 walking days.

Cotswold Highlights Trail--Chipping Campden to Stow-on-the-Wold. 15 miles (24km); Stow-on-the-Wold to Winchcombe. 13 miles (21km); Winchcombe to Chipping Campden. 15 miles (24km). Total of 43 miles in 3 walking days.

Contours provided us with Ordinance Survey maps that have an UTM map reference grid. Its been handy when used with a GPS. We've inadvertently followed an animal track and walked off course.

Sorry----somehow I omitted the name of the company that we used: Celtic Trails. I have corrected my earlier post to clarify. I did say that Contours is the one that offers short breaks in the Cotswolds, so I hope it is now clear!

Following animal tracks---yes that is a hazard and the walking guide we were provided specifically warned against that. The routes we followed were "way marked" at each stile and those marks, together with OS map and occasional compass check, kept us on course.

Thanks so much for all the advice. I've been looking at the routes that sherpa van covers and I'll definitely check out the tour companies. I think we are comfortable planning it on our own with bag transport but will definitely do a little comparison shopping of the tour companies before we make that decision.

I also had no idea there were so many options for mid-to-long distance hiking in England and Scotland. Shame on me for not doing my research first. So many beautiful posibilities. I absolutely love the idea of hiking the full coast to coast path of Hadrians wall but since this will be our first thru-hiking experience, I'm thinking we should probably start with something shorter.

Again, thanks for all the info. Feel free to suggest other locales for short thru-treks if there are ones you highly recommend. We are early on in the planning phase. The only thing we don't want to do is do round trip hikes from a single point. We do plenty of that at home.