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Where to stay in the Cotswolds?

What town or village in the Cotswolds would be a good base for three or four nights while exploring the area by car? Any suggestions on pleasant, moderately priced lodgings?

Posted by
32171 posts

Roy, I stayed in Stow-On-The-Wold on my last trip there, and quite enjoyed it. I felt that it was a good "central location" for visiting other towns in that area. I don't know what you consider to be "moderately priced" (the UK tends to be pricey at the best of times), but I stayed in the Old Stocks Hotel. The food portions in the restaurant were "generous" and there was parking in the back of the Hotel. Happy travels!

Posted by
1986 posts

Stow, Chipping Camden, Bourton, Burford, and many other hotels in little hamlets. Cotswolds are extremely popular with both tourists and Brits, so tend to be pricey

Posted by
228 posts

In my opinion the ONLY place to stay is Broadway. It is a perfect place, centrally located, has a grocery-store, and lots of restaurants. The English take day trips there and call it a "Christmas Chocolate Box Village" for it is absolutely beautiful! Fly into Birmingham (Continental has a direct overnight flight from Newark which arrives at 7 a.m.... and every seat has a private T.V. which has games/movies/shows). Rent an automatic car... do not let them get you into a manual one... we are great drivers/fast learners and were white-knuckled for 3 days when the company told us although we reserved an automatic, all they had were manuals and pretty much 'take it or leave it.'
Our condo rental (http://www.broadway-cotswolds.co.uk/oldbakery.html) also was perfect AND cheap! If you make this your base, you'll see what I mean that Broadway's perfect!

Posted by
228 posts

Also, Broadway doesn't 'Shut Down' like ALL of the smaller villages we visited. No joke, 5 p.m. and if you haven't eaten, you'll need to drive into Broadway to eat. You'll see what I mean about "shutting down" at 5.

Posted by
993 posts

It's all lovely and you're spoiled for choice. Off the beaten path but a good base is the village of Kingham. We stayed there a few years ago at Moat End. www.moatend.co.uk. Kingham is very quiet with, at the time, 2 pubs. Gwyn at Moat End was a wonderful hostess and she even washed my jeans bless her. There is a larger hotel that served a delicious stickey toffee pudding. Our second night there we walked to "our pub" looking for dinner and tho the kitchen was shut that day the landlady still managed to bring us some soup with bread and butter which was exactly what we went there for.

Posted by
3696 posts

I stayed in Chipping Camden at the Volunteer Inn and it was great. Right on main street and above a pub. Great fun with all the locals and the noise stopped about 10 or 11 from the pub. Nice breakfast and there were lots of wonderful restaurants in the town and they did not close down at 5p.m. Very central to all of the Cotswolds villages. Greater Tew is a little tiny town with a great pub (nothing much else) and some wonderful restored thatches. Looked like a movie set and from what I hear a few movies were filmed there. Also, Volunteer Inn was not expensive.

Posted by
1064 posts

Thanks to all. I am checking out these suggestions for next spring. I have just begun researching the Cotswolds. The travel writers, including RS, seem to like all the towns. It seems there is not a really bad choice in the lot, but one needs to serve as a home base and the town counts for as much as the lodgings in making that decision.