We would prefer not to rent a car. Is public transportation reliable throughout the Cotswolds? Or what is the best method of travel to visit a couple of villages in a 2-3 day stay?
Posted by
Land of La
9221 posts
Bus but tediously slow.
Posted by
Washington DC
28073 posts
Only Moreton-in-Marsh has a train station. There are buses fanning out from M-i-M. I'm a big user of public transportation, but I decided I could be satisfied with a one-day van tour, since I wasn't planning to do any town-to-town hiking and the stops were in small places I could see fairly well during brief tour stops.
MadMax runs tours from Bath. Go Cotswolds runs tours from the Moreton-in-Marsh rail station, which is a short trip from Oxford, where I chose to stay because of its many points of interest to me. The Secret Cottage tours originate in M-i-M as well. The Go Cotswolds website shows a price of £40, but I think that might be an off-season price. I know I thought my tour was priced very well; distances are short, so they don't have a lot of fuel costs.
I'm not a great fan of one-day bus tours, but I think they can be a good solution when you don't want to rent a car and are interested in seeing a lot of small towns/villages. In your situation I think you could do worse than to stay in Moreton-in-Marsh, take a one-day tour and then do some additional exploring by public bus the second day. You might look at the Secret Cottage tour, which advertises that it goes to places inaccessible by public transportation; it is more expensive, however.
Posted by
S.F Bay Area (Marin)
291 posts
We have been to the Cotswolds twice in the past 3 years, no car. Both times we took the train to Moreton in Marsh, caught the Pulham bus to Stow on the Wold where we stayed for several days .(There are 2 bus companies , both with limited service in different areas). Then we caught the bus back to Moreton and once stayed there before catching the Johnson's bus to Chipping Campden and then stayed in Chipping .The last time we just took the 2 buses to Chipping Campden.
Our trips were longer than you have allocated and our focus was also to walk so we walked to various villages from each location.
For your limited time you might want to either stay in Moreton in Marsh which is nice but not as charming as Stow or Chipping or pick one . From either you could manage to get a bus to a close by village to check out.
With the limited schedules you have to make sure you coordinate carefully including with your train arrival.
For us less is more and along with the walking we do gives us the experience that works for us
But if you goal is to see a wider swath of the Cotswolds then acraven's suggestions re day tours work better than trying to tour around on the local buses.
In any case enjoy!
For Chipping Campden
https://www.johnsonscoaches.co.uk/timetables