revised itinerary review - Winchester & Cotswolds

I did a day trip to Winchester some years ago with London walks. I really liked Winchester.

One thing we did was visit Winchester College, which was really interesting. Its a short walk from the Cathedral. Have a look at the website www.winchestercollege.org/guided-tours.

Katy

Sorry, but I think you have seriously underestimated how long it’s going to take you to get around.

5 April - your walking tour will probably end between 12.30 and 1pm. Grab some lunch. Pick up hire car. At Chawton probably about 3.30pm.

6 April - you have in excess of 3 hours drive time plus you need time to park the car at each destination. Stonehenge is usually 2-3 hours for a visit. Salisbury is another 1.5 - 2 hours including the Cathedral. Avebury another 30-60 minutes and Lacock is at least another 2 hours. Plus time for lunch and coffee breaks.

Personally, I prefer Avebury to Stonehenge, as you can get closer.

7 April - again 3+ hours driving. 1.5 hours for a Sunday lunch. Looking at 3 places plus a walk is a lot for one day.

You may need to prioritise what you want to see each day for a more realistic timescale.

Thanks Katy for the suggestion!

Jennifer, I was wondering about the timing myself. It's a small area and some things don't seem so far apart and there are so many interesting things to see and do! I appreciate the advice and it sounds like I need to cut a few things. I've got a few thoughts per your advice, maybe this is better?

April 5 - we could do a self-guided tour instead and start earlier instead of waiting for the guided tour. I'm hoping this would give us a more realistic timeframe to go to Chawton? There's a chance we could explore more of Winchester than we'd planned on our first day if things go efficiently at LHR but that's a crapshoot and it could as easily go the opposite way with delays.

April 6 - English Heritage hasn't posted the schedule for April yet but if they follow previous months, there should be an 8am inner circle tour. That puts us finishing Stonehenge at 11am. It sounds like we should drop either Lacock or Salisbury Cathedral. I'm tempted to drop Lacock because we'll be seeing other interesting small towns/villages on this trip. I've read that parking in Salisbury, especially on a Saturday, can be very difficult though...need to make a decision on this one. Should we be picking a different overnight stop than Bradford on Avon? It looks very charming and was fairly convenient to the area so that's why I landed on it.

April 7 - we could play this by ear and do a walk at the end of this day if we have time after arriving at our base in Chipping Campden. This way we wouldn't be rushed in between our stops.

Thank you!

I would definitely prioritize Salisbury over Lacock. There's also an interesting museum there-it would be a good overnite stop-I don't know about parking though.

We did the Stanton/Snowshill/Stanway Walk and loved it. Spend some time at the gardens in Snowshill. We went north to south and were glad we did, as it is a long steep downhill into Stanton. Cleeve Hill is the highest point on the Cotswold Way. We did not do that hike specifically for that reason.

Are you planning on doing a circular walk?

We went in mid May and walked for two days in the rain. It was still very enjoyable.

Are the walks you are considering in a book?

I'd be interesting in where the Cleeve Hill walk goes. As a kid I used to take the dog up there (you needed plenty of energy and he was a lovely dalmatian) and more recently my Dad and Uncle played golf up there.

Fabulous views, non-trivial terrain, on a clear windless day it is beautiful, looking into the wide valley and over to the Malverns.

Windless is a question though - especially in early April. The top and edges of Cleeve Hill is one of the windiest places around often. My Dad used to say that he would hit his ball and then hunt for it, guessing where the wind had taken it. Since the sheep wander freely every once in a while a ewe would form a mobile hazard.

Balancing Lacock and other choices may be difficult - it really is apples and oranges and will come down to the weather and how you feel on the day. It is nice to be somewhere with no wires or aerials but it is what rings your chimes.

You commented that this is a small area. It is - but a lot of it is best explored on farm tracks (the farmers will be very busy in April) and narrow lanes and roads. While it is true that unless posted otherwise if you are outside the built up areas of a village or town the national speed limit is 60 mph that doesn't mean that you will be doing that. Probably for the vast majority of time it will be half that or less, and of course you will be stopping along the way to look at views and things and eat, etc.

I take it that you know that from Bradford-upon-Avon, it is just a short train ride into Bath? Also check out the Tithe Barn at Bradford-upon-Avon.

From Chipping Campden, it is only about a 30 minute drive to Stratford-upon-Avon. When in Chipping Campden, you might like to visit nearby >https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hidcote

Also doable from CC is Blenheim Palace (which is just NW of Oxford).https://www.blenheimpalace.com/

April and May can be a bit early for Hidcote. Not much will be out - maybe some early bulbs in early April. It will be open, and it one of my favs - I make a 2 hour trek there several times a year - but if you don't have membership will it be worth the £12.70 pp?

Great plan,
We have done much of what you are planning.

I have some recommendations for hotels in Winchester and Chipping Campden

Winchester
The Wykeham Arms was our Inn. It was in a great location to visit the Winchester Cathedral and other sites in the city. It was over 250 years old and the restaurant is excellent, as well as the Pub that could be in a movie. Our room was in an old building across the street, but had been modernized. It was not luxury, but clean, comfortable and spacious. This is the place to stay if you come to Winchester. The Inn was a quarter of a mile from the cathedral.

Chipping CampdenOur B&B was The Volunteer Inn. The Inn is a great B&B located on the main street of the town. The pub is busy and a fun place to visit. The Indian restaurant in the Inn is excellent, we dined there twice in our 6 day stay. The accommodations were spacious, clean and a great value for the Cotswolds. Parking is not included, but was not a problem in the town. Owner and staff were friendly and helpful.

morrowbabette, thanks for the tip on the Snowshill/Stanton walk! I'd like to avoid steep downhill walks and would rather walk uphill since my knee gets cranky going downhill some days. Can you please take a look at this map and tell me which way is the correct route to avoid the steep downhill? Clockwise or counterclockwise? Based off this advice, I think we'll save Cleeve Hill for a hopeful return trip. I'd rather not risk it. Yes, I'd like to do the circular route. I'm going to do a little shopping for appropriate footwear that will hold up to the rain as I don't want to miss out on anything the countryside has to offer due to less than perfect weather.

Nigel, yes, I found the walk originally in the Goldeneye Cotswold Classic Walks book. It also appears here but the distance differs from my book, 6 miles versus 7 miles. It sounds like you have lovely memories of the area. While Kansas has its beauty, I can't imagine growing up in such an area. I think we'll proceed with our day, considering Lacock as optional stop. It sounds very likely that we will run out of time but it is good to have an idea in the back pocket. Perhaps we could consider staying there but for whatever reason Bradford on Avon has caught my fancy as it looks like a lovely place to stay for a quick visit. As far as the size of the area and distances...I've seen such a variation in comments on the web as to how much of the area people have covered in different time frames and it makes it hard to judge how much we'll be able to comfortably see. I figured the driving may be similar to rural Ireland so it's helpful to know more of what to expect. In regards to Hidcote, I originally had it on my list but removed it when I factored in the time of year. At some point in my life I'm looking forward to seeing an English garden in the summer! Due to my husband's job, we can't currently travel in the summer. I did run across another place, Batsford Arboretum. It sounds like it could make for a good springtime visit but it's not as high on my priority list as other things. We plan to experience some gardens at Sudeley Castle; I did write them and they said magnolias should hopefully be in bloom which should be very pretty.

James, yes, I was aware of our close proximity to Bath. However, we're going to save it for another trip. After doing some research, I decided that I was more interested in starting our trip in Winchester than Bath so we decided to go that route instead. While I'm not as interested in Blenheim for this trip, I did see that we are also close to Kenilworth Castle. I love castles and I love ruins so I'm very tempted to visit it on Wednesday April 10 instead of what I have originally proposed. I need to do more work on our London itinerary to see how well it would fit in.

geovagriffith, thanks for the tips! I have actually booked Wykeham arms and it's great to know that it comes recommended. Haven't completely decided yet on our Chipping Campden lodging so I appreciate the recommendation on it, too.

There are many books with guides on walking the Cotswold Way. We used the one called Cotswold Way: Chipping Campden to Bath published by Trailblazer and we really liked the hand-drawn maps that identify all sorts of wayfinding aids.

Look at the topo lines on your map. The closer together, the steeper the incline. It looks like it's hard to avoid steep coming out of Stanton either clockwise or counterclockwise. We walked along the Cotswold Way from Broadway and took the detour to Snowshill, then back to CW, then to Stanton. Your map shows two circles that meet in the middle; I think we took the northernmost path down from that point into Stanton and it was steep. I have to say "I think" because we did get a little lost in our wanderings LOL.

If you like Castles & ruins, although to the west of the area you intend to visit, may I suggest Chepstow Castle and Tintern Abbey (both are ruins in the beautiful Wye valley on the border between England & Wales).
https://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/chepstow-castle/?lang=en
http://www.castlewales.com/tintern.html