With its beautiful rolling green hills and charming villages, the Cotswolds is a breath of fresh air, especially if you want a little getaway from the busyness of London. During my few weeks in England, my mom, cousin and I spent three days exploring the Cotswolds, which I made a pretty well-researched itinerary for. I spent hours skimming through online travel guides and restaurant and hotel recommendations and hope sharing our itinerary will save someone else the trouble :)
DAY 1
While you can take the train, we opted to rent a car so that we can explore the different little towns and village in the Cotwolds, which is huge, running through five different counties. My mom braved driving on the other side of the road, which she did pretty ok at — although she kind of did hit another car’s side mirror within 15 minutes of us leaving London.
While we had planned to stop in Burford, we were running later than expected and made our first stop at The Lamb Inn in Shipton, a local pub and inn with a classic British menu. We were able to sit outside on their patio and ordered the fish and chips, which were the best I’ve had in England so far, and the sticky toffee pudding, of course.
Before heading to our hotel in Cheltenham, we stopped at Bourton-on-the-Water, known as the “Venice of the Cotswolds” with their bridges and little waterways. There, we walked around the village browsing the bakeries and candy and ice cream shops.
We had dinner reservations for The Wheatsheaf Inn, which was a beautiful ivy-covered restaurant with an enticing pudding menu, but… we accidentally had our taxi go to another Wheatsheaf Inn, which happened to be 10 minutes from our hotel. It was a local pub that I would definitely not recommend.
DAY 2
On day two, we had planned to visit Sudeley Castle, but decided to keep the day more relaxed. We again attempted to head to the The Wheatsheaf Inn for breakfast, but because there was some bicycle marathon, a bunch of roads were closed, derailing our plans.
Instead, our first stop of the day was Bibury and its famous Arlington Row, one of the most beautiful and photographed cottages in the country. It really was like stepping into a story book.
Afterwards, we headed to Eastleach, where we roamed around, walking through the town and its churches. We had reservations at the Victoria Inn, a cozy, traditional country pub. We ordered the devon crab on toast, pear and ricotta, and roast beef with yorkshire puddings. Once we got done with lunch, we checked into the Thyme Hotel, which is the destination we were looking forward to most.
THYME HOTEL
Thyme Hotel could have been its own post with the amount of photos I have of the property and all the good I could say about it. If you ever find yourself looking to visit the Cotswolds, I highly recommend staying here.
Thyme is one of the most special places I’ve ever stayed. It’s owned and run by an incredibly talented family, with Caryn being the brains behind it all, Milly, her daughter running all branding and marketing, her son running the kitchen as head chef, and her husband working on the engineering on the property. They restored a Cotswold manor and farm to create a thoughtful and intentional hotel and spa that prioritizes conservation and sustainability first and foremost to not only preserve the past but more importantly, secure the future. They only use responsibly sourced, seasonal ingredients with a focus on growing and harvesting from their own gardens and orchards on the estate, and use only seasonal British grown cut flowers to decorate the space. They’ve also removed single-use plastics and have a rigorous composting, reuse & recycle policy and are working towards a no-waste kitchen.
Not only do I love the ethos behind Thyme, but the people behind it too — I had the pleasure of meeting the founder and daughter, who were both so kind and passionate about the history of the hotel. And by chance, we happened to meet the founder’s husband as my cousin and I were visiting the sheep at sunset — he was just about to feed a couple of the orphan lambs and asked us if we’d like to do it instead, which was truly the highlight of our trip to the Cotswolds.
My cousin and I stayed in the Pear Tree Cottage, while my mom stayed in a Garden Room, which I’d love to stay in the next time I visit. It’s stunning with beautiful natural light coming through the large window, white and tan interiors, and a gorgeous in-room bathtub.
DAY 3
On our third and last day, we checked out of Thyme and on our way back to London, drove through Lechlade-on-Thames and had lunch at The Double Red Duke, which I highly recommend. It’s a seventeenth century Cotswold stone inn and pub with beautiful interiors and good food. We ordered the Brixham crab and Piri Piri chicken, and of course, finished off with a sticky toffee pudding.
See more of our Cotswolds getaway here.