Please sign in to post.

Private tour recommendations Cotswolds/Windsor

Posted by on

Hi all,

My husband (52) and I (50F) are taking our moms (70, 71) & stepmom (72) to Europe in September. None of them have every been and they each pick places to visit. We start in London on 9/21, move to Paris on 9/25 and then on to Florence 9/30-10/4. The moms are very interested in seeing all the royal sites, gardens and culture and not as dedicated to museums. My husband and I did the small group International Friends tour of Stonehenge, Windsor & Bath several years ago and were very pleased. They have an option to build your own private tour, which I think I want to do, but am having trouble narrowing down places. They want to visit the Cotswolds and all watched Downton Abbey (but are more interested in the villages and not so much into the filming part). They have also expressed interest in going to Windsor, but I'm not sure about the time spent traveling from one site to the next if we do both Cotswolds+Windsor. So, is the IF tour the best small or private company? What villages in the Cotswolds do you recommend?

Posted by
8684 posts

We have visited all the places you mentioned. The Cotswolds covers a larger area than you think, we spend TWO FULL days exploring the Cotswolds, staying in Chipping Campden. We had a rental car. If you don't rent a car, you are stuck taking public transportation, which can slow you down even more.

Suggest you research and plan exactly were you will go and measure the time between each.
Doing Stonehenge, Windsor and Bath in one day would be possible on a tour, I'll bet it was a long day.

Cotswolds:
https://www.cotswolds.com/explore/towns-and-villages/
Do not miss Cirencester.

You don't need to do a tour, but if you do the long one mentioned, it will be expensive.

I didn't mention doing London, Paris or Florence. Suggest buying guidebooks for each. Florence you can definitely do on your own. London and Paris have so many things to see, it may be hard to decide.

Use TripAdvisor.com "things to do in London" and you will see what I mean.

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.