We will be in London (staying near Glouster Road underground station) at the end of March. Is there public transportation to the cotswolds or has anyone taken a tour of that area. We have already paid for our hotel in London so this would just be for a day trip.
Posted by
Land of La
8725 posts
The question is not new to the helpline. Here's a cut and paste link for some discussion on the matter. Hope it helps.
http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/35994/cotswolds.html
Posted by
Troy, Oh, USA
2779 posts
You can take the train from Paddington Station in London to Moreton-in-Marsh. You could take an early train around 7:30am which would get you to Moreton-in-Marsh around 9am. There are trains leaving to return to London once an hour up to around 9-10pm. If you want to see several villages you could do a loop...you could, take taxi to Broadway, then bus to Bourton-on-the-Water, then bus to Stow-on-the-Wold, then bus back to Moreton-in-Marsh. Or you could just pick acouple of villages to see. All the villages I've mentioned are beautiful and worth seeing. It would depend on what time you want to get back to London as to how long you would have in each village. If you visit four you probably would have only around 2hr in each., and you have to consider travel time between each village. I would suggest picking a couple of villages to visit, giving you more time. I would definitely have Bourton-on-the-Water as one of them.
Posted by
Boulder, CO, USA
719 posts
I was going to give a lengthy rely on this, but then I read Robin's post, and I'll just tell you to follow her lead. When I was last in the Cotswolds, an old woman there told me that I HAD to visit Bourton-on-the-water, since is was so quaint. If a local is calling something in the Cotswolds quaint, then I'll not miss it! She was right, totally quaint. You'll have a great day.
Posted by
Los Angeles, California
1986 posts
Buses are not that frequent or convenient in the Cotswolds, so you would need to watch your timetables very carefully. I have done the Cotswolds in a lot of different ways- the best (By Far) is to rent a car from somewhere near the Cotswolds, say Oxford or Swindon. that way you can wander down by roads and stop where the mood strikes. there are also one-day coach tours from London (or Bath) which will give you a glimpse of the Cotswolds
Posted by
Mission Viejo, Calif., USA
1010 posts
We have stayed at the Crowne Plaza, South Kensington three years in a row. It is directly across the street from the Gloucester tube station. We took many Gray Line bus, day tours, including to the Cotswolds. Sometimes the tour buses picked us up directly across the street from the Crowne Plaza at the Holidy Inn. Then we joined our tour group at a train station. Sometimes we took the tube to a partciular train station and met our tour. Gray Line does a great job of their 1/2 day or full tours.