Renting a Car in Oxford. Best place to stay in the Cotswolds?

I've rented cars several times in Oxford and used gemut.com for the bookings. The car rental was a quick taxi ride from the train station but too far to walk. I know at least one was an Auto Europe rental. The good thing about the rental car location was that it was very near the highway that goes to the Cotswolds, so very little city traffic. The bad thing about the location is that when returning from the Cotswolds you pass no petrol stations close to Oxford, so tank up somewhere in the Cotswolds before you head back!

Check out the website Sawdays.com for places to stay. You can then use the website Rome2Rio.com to see how far from Oxford they are. The Cotswolds are not a large area, but they are really not at their best in late November. Might be very gray.

Blenheim was wonderful, but none of the special tours on their website will be running in November. They weren't in late October either when I was there, but it was completely uncrowded. We also visited the small country church where the Churchills are buried. It's not easy to find, because it's on a tiny back street the NAVI couldn't locate, but it's very special. Inside the small church there's a commemorative window to Winston Churchill and a small group of photos from his funeral procession.

It appears that we have the same last name, a good Welsh name.

We stayed in Chipping Campden at the Volunteer Inn for six nights and used it as our base to explore the Cotswolds and nearby places like Oxford, Blenheim Palace and Stratford Upon Avon. We rented our car at Heathrow, but I believe you can rent one in Oxford.

Warwick was a good one night stay allowing us to visit the castle and historic downtown, but it is a bit away from the Cotswolds.

Pretty much all the major car hire places in Oxford are strung along the Botley Road which is good as they are the same side of Oxford as the railway station and you don't need to cross Oxford to get out. A couple are in reasonable walking distance.

If you are driving you should just stay in Oxford, there are more options for hotels and the cotswolds itself is very easy to drive around in, vs trying to pack up and stay in the Cotswolds for just a night.

I used AutoEurope; it was about a 15 minute walk from the train station, probably 5 minutes by cab. Hertz is nearby, and most of the rentals are in that area. It’s pretty convenient, especially if you’re driving from there to the Cotswalds.

https://www.autoeurope.com/

You can’t drive in some of the downtown/university sections of Oxford that are popular with tourists, so once you rent a car, you’ll need to park it in an outer lot and use a cab/bus to get to the Queen Street/High Street area. It’s a 10 - 15 minute walk from the train station and about 10 by bus.

In terms of how much time you plan to spend in and around Oxford versus the smaller villages/countryside of the Cotswolds, consider whether you’d rather be based in or near Oxford and drive 30 minutes to Bleinhem and about an hour to visit the Cotswolds’ villages. Or would you rather be stay in a Cotswolds’ village and drive to Oxford for a day. Oxford may have more to do after dark.

All the best,

Raymond

We always rent at Heathrow upon arrival. We’ve stayed in both Chipping Campden at a now closed B&B and in Stratford-Upon-Avon at the Arden hotel. Where you choose to stay depends on which part of the Cotswolds you’re visiting since it covers a pretty decent sized area from about Oxford to Cheltenham and from Stratford Upon Avon south to about Chippingham. Most visitors tend to focus on the area around Bourton On The Water, Stow on Wild, Broadway, and Upper and Lower Slaughter.

you have a little time for planning, welcome to the Forums.

It isn't clear from your question if this is your first time to England, or if perhaps you have visited London many times and now want to branch out.

I know the Cotswolds well, certainly the northern Cotswolds as I was a boy there and my parents retired to the Cotswolds.

As one poster said, it is a very large area and there are differences between different parts.

So a key question, so as to be able to answer your question for you rather than a one-size-fits-all (which actually fit nobody), what do you want to or expect to see and do?

Do you want to walk around towns or villages? Which ones? What do you hope to see?

Do you want to walk or hike between villages or towns? What do you hope it will be like? Do you have suitable clothing for adverse (likely) weather? How about suitable footwear?

Are you interested in specific things, like English literature, or government, or history, or geography, or stone circles/monoliths/standing stones? Castles? Roman ruins?

Help me.

Do you like a particular style of architecture? Which one?

If I know what you want I can help you find it.

We rented a car in Oxford, which was a short 15 minute walk from the train station. Getting out was a bit of fun, road construction everywhere and google maps not helping much. We stayed in Stow-on-the-Wold and happy we did. Our BNB told us to just drive up and down the street and look for parking, but after 4 or 5 times of doing that, and not finding anything, we were happy there was a grocery store nearby that allowed 24hr parking for free. Otherwise, I suspect we'd still be there, going back and forth.

Personally, I wouldn’t visit the Cotswolds in late November as there won’t be any colour left in the gardens, daylight hours will be short and it’s likely to be cold and wet.

Oxford will easily fill one day, as will Blenheim. I am not a great fan of Warwick, but that would be another day, which doesn’t leave much time for the Cotswolds.

I would stay in Oxford. Most of the car hire places are located on the business park about 0.75 miles from the train station - some will probably permit you to pick up the car there.

Since you might be unlucky with the weather and need indoor sightseeing options, I'll mention that both the Ashmolean Museum (art) and the Pitt-Rivers Museum (ethnography) in Oxford are very good. I found the latter dark enough that I struggled to read some of the labels (I was over 65 at the time), but it turned out the Pitt-Rivers gift shop was loaning out flashlights!

I agree with previous writers that the Cotswolds that time of year won't be at their best. I think Oxford will easily fill your 4 days. You don't need a rental car to visit Blenheim because it's a quick and inexpensive bus ride from Oxford.

Thanks so much for all of your posts and suggestions!