Need Assistance for England

4 nights is not long enough to do what you want to do. The Cotswolds are a large area covering many towns, villages and cities.

Here is what your itinerary could look like:

Day 1, leave London and drive to Bath. Exploring in Bath (Abby and Roman baths). Overnight Bath.
Day 2. Drive around Georgian Bath... Poultney Bridge, the Crescent etc. Drive to Oxford maybe stopping at Avebury for its impressive stone circle (way better than Stonehenge, I think) or at Bibury a quintessential English village and on the edge of the Cotswolds. Overnight in Oxford.
Day 3. Say goodbye to 2 members of the group who will make their own way to wherever they are off to. Rest will explore Oxford. Overnight again in Oxford.
Day 4 Drive to Windsor to visit castle, Eton and town. Overnight in Windsor.

You do not need a village for pubs, and all three towns are full of them. See other postings on this forum for suggestions.

Thank you so much!!! Is this only passing through Cotswold then and not spending time or the night there?

Congratulations on the wedding. I expect that your parents will love the countryside. I wish I still had mine. You may want to block out time to just sit quietly in the garden of a pub and absorb the culture, see the flowers and watch the bees.

The Cotswolds (the Cotswold Hills, sites of Special Scientific Interest, and AONBs - Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty -, is not one place, it is a large area comprised of many places. It is like saying you want to go to New England.

Lesley had a pretty good plan, but Oxford parking is awful. You will likely have to park outside the city and ride the bus into the city.

You won't have a lot of time to see the Cotswolds, so consider skipping Oxford and spend a night in Chipping Campden, then on to Windsor.

By late October, there won't be much colour left in the gardens in the Cotswolds and the clocks change 29 October so it will be dark by 5pm.

Allowing for commuting time between your destinations, you can realistically only see at most 3 out of your 4 places. If the weather is inclement, which it may well be so late in the year, then the Cotswolds is the obvious place to drop, as the cities will have more to offer.

Distance wise, Bath is the most remote, so you would save time if you dropped this. You have a large group to please, so take a vote and decide on your priorities.

Oxford parking is awful. You will likely have to park outside the city and ride the bus into the city.

Most Oxford hotels have a degree of parking for residents but it is not always sufficient for everyone, and sometimes it is in a separate facility (for example for the Royal Oxford Hotel it is in Office Outlet next door). Then again many guests will have arrived by rail orcoach and not need parking.

We have used a Bath based car service that was very good and would use them again. Not sure how far afield they they go, but you can email them, explain your needs and see if they can be of service. The web site is chauffertravel.co.uk. The email address to get a quote in [email protected].

Mad Max Tours does small group tours from Bath. You can also hire them for a private tour with one of their guides. This might make it easier for you for a full day visit into the Cotswolds or any of the other area they offer.

I agree you are trying to do too much in four days.