February 11, 2025 • 43 mins
Discover the enchanting world of the Cotswolds with us and special guest Lisa Benjamin from GoCotswolds. Lisa brings her expertise and love for this quintessential English region, sharing her top five must-do experiences. From picturesque villages to breathtaking hikes, you'll gain insider tips on how to truly immerse yourself in the Cotswolds' charm and beauty. Plus, we dive into listener questions to ensure your trip is nothing short of unforgettable.
Explore the hidden gems and fascinating history that make the Cotswolds a unique destination. We share stories of the quirky Cotswold Olympicks, delve into the region's artistic heritage with the Arts and Crafts movement, and uncover ancient mysteries like the Rollright Stones. With Lisa's guidance, you'll learn how to embrace the laid-back lifestyle, savouring every stroll, hike, and historic site visit. Whether it's the allure of Hidcote's gardens or the intrigue of Broadway Tower, the Cotswolds offers a rich tapestry of experiences waiting to be explored.
Looking for practical tips during your visit? We've got you covered. From dining recommendations in Moreton-in-Marsh to navigating the bustling villages of Bourton-on-the-Water and Bibury, you'll find advice to enhance your travel experience. Join us as we discuss transportation challenges and propose solutions inspired by other scenic destinations.
Whether you're a first-time visitor or a seasoned traveller, our episode promises to enrich your journey with warmth, hospitality, and insights into this beloved region.
⭐️ Guest - Lisa Benjamin from GoCotswolds
📝 Show Notes - Episode 136
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #115 - Essential Tips for Planning Your Perfect Cotswolds Adventure
- Episode #107 - Exploring the Cotswolds with Lisa Benjamin from Go Cotswolds
- Episode #86 - London like a local with Discover Real London Black Cab Tours
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dreaming of a trip to the Cotswolds, but not sure
what to include in youritinerary?
In episode 136 of the UK TravelPlanning Podcast, I chat with
Lisa Benjamin from GoCotswolds,who shares her top five must-do
experiences, from exploringcharming villages to uncovering
unique traditions.
Plus, we answer listenerquestions about visiting the
Cotswolds, giving you even moreinsider tips to plan an
(00:22):
unforgettable trip.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
Your host is the founder of theUK Travel Planning website,
tracey Collins.
In this podcast, tracey sharesdestination guides, travel tips
and itinerary ideas, as well asinterviews with a variety of
guests who share their knowledgeand experience of UK travel to
help you plan your perfect UKvacation.
(00:47):
Join us as we explore the UKfrom cosmopolitan cities to
quaint villages, from historiccastles to beautiful islands,
and from the picturesquecountryside to seaside towns.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Welcome to episode 136 of the UK Travel Plan and
Podcast, and this week I'mreally excited to be talking to
Lisa go Cotswolds, benjaminagain for the third time Now.
Lisa has been on the podcastwith me twice before to talk all
things Cotswolds.
And if you haven't heardepisodes 107 and 115, and are
not familiar with Lisa, she'salso in our UK Travel Planet and
London Travel Planet Facebookgroups and is very active in the
(01:33):
groups.
But if you don't know Lisa,would you just like to give us a
quick introduction to who youare?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Hi yes, I'm glad to be back on the podcast.
Tracy, my name is Lisa Benjamin.
As you said, I am one of theowners of Go Cotswolds.
Along with my husband, tom, werun a small group guided tour
company.
We're based inStratford-upon-Avon, just on the
edge of the Cotswolds, and wetake visitors from
Stratford-upon-Avon and alsofrom Morton-in-Marsh on the
(01:59):
beautiful day trips and theconspires.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And you've taken quite a few of our listeners and
group members on tours alreadyand we've had some wonderful
feedback about your tours.
Yeah, we have.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
It's been a great response to the previous team
podcast that I recorded with youand, yeah, lots of UK Travel
Planning fans have been on atour with us, which has been
absolutely lovely.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And I asked my Facebook groups last night for
questions for you.
So at the very end of theepisode, after I ask you the
obvious question of what yourtop tip is, we'll go through the
questions from our Facebookgroup members.
And I also have a message, alsofor somebody left via SpeakPipe
Laura.
I'm just going to name dropthere and at the end of the
episode we'll go through thoseand we'll have a Q&A session.
(02:43):
So stay tuned to listen to allof Lisa's pearls of wisdom about
visiting the Cotswolds.
And thanks, guys, for leavingthose messages for Lisa as well.
That was great, right, shouldwe head straight into it?
Would you like to introduce theCotswolds and explain what
makes it such a special place tovisit?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I'd love to introduce the Cotswolds.
The Cotswolds is an area ofEngland.
It's the third largestprotected area of England.
So, after the Lake DistrictNational Park and the Yorkshire
Dales National Park, theCotswolds National Landscape is
the third largest protected areain the UK.
By protected area we mean thatit's a conservation area, so
(03:24):
building is very limited.
New building is very limited inthe Cotswolds and there are
special rules on what you canand can't build, what you can
and can't build with, and alsolots of environmental
conservation protection of thisarea as well.
It's an absolutely beautifularea of England.
There are places in the worldin England or Britain that have
(03:45):
far more spectacular or dramaticscenery places like the Lake
District, spring to Mind or theHighlands of Scotland.
But the Cotswolds is that kindof very quintessentially English
countryside, the kind ofcountryside that you've seen in
those British rom-coms therolling hills, the sheep in the
fields, cute little chocolatebox, picture-perfect villages,
(04:07):
that kind of thing.
So the Cotswolds is a very,very special place.
I absolutely love it and, yeah,lots of people who visit love
it as well.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And lovely people in the Cotswolds as well.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah yeah, it's a really agricultural area in the
Cotswolds, so you'll find that alot of the local people are
very, you know, salt of theearth, very down to earth, very
genuine people.
They love a chat and, yeah,it's just a really, really
friendly place to be.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It is, and it's a place that I continue to go back
to over and over again becauseI love the Cotswolds.
Now the theme of this episodebecause we've talked about the
Cotswolds a couple of timesbefore is actually the
experiences that you recommendfor people to have in the
Cotswolds.
So I kind of asked you your topfive experiences.
So let's start with the firstexperience you recommend to
(04:54):
truly immerse yourself in theCotswolds.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So I thought long and hard about this, but I think
really the best thing to do whenyou arrive in the Cotswolds is
just hang out.
I was listening to one of yourTrip Report podcast episodes
recently and it was a ladycalled Krista, I think, an
American lady who'd been to theCotswolds with her family, and
she said one of the things thatthey did partly because they had
children with them was theydidn't try and do too much.
They didn't run around tryingto see everything and tick off
(05:24):
every single box that they couldpossibly could, but they just
spent a lot of time hanging outin parks or in bars or
restaurants or pubs and and gotto have very authentic
experiences with local people,talking to local people and I
think that was a really good tipactually.
Um, my top tip would be go to avillage.
I.
(05:44):
My personal favorite in theQuetzals is the small town of
Chipping Camden.
It's not too touristy, it's avery genuine local town.
There's loads of pubs, which isgreat if you like to explore
the local ales and local wines,and there's lots of little
independent shops.
There's not really many bigchain stores or you know, no
(06:07):
huge supermarkets and thingslike that.
Lots of little independentboutique shops, local crafts,
handicrafts, and it's just areally great place to hang out.
There's a great playground forchildren.
There's lots of historic thingsto see and do.
The architecture is spectacular.
Chipping Camden reportedly hasthe prettiest high street in
(06:28):
England, so that's a nice place,just a really great place just
to wander and mooch about andpop into a tea room or pop into
a pub and just kind of have anauthentic experience of what
it's like to live here in theparts of Wales.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Brilliant, it is lovely, I have to say.
I also agree I love ChippingCamden.
It's a lovely little small townto visit Now if you enjoy
exploring what would be oneoutdoor or scenic experience
that people shouldn't miss.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
The Cotswolds is pretty much synonymous with
walking and hiking.
So as well as probably the twothings that the Cotswolds is
best known for are the beautifulvillages and the countryside,
but also walking.
It's massive.
In the Cotswolds there arelonger walking trails you can do
here.
So there's a 600 plus milewalking path called the
(07:17):
Monarch's Way which passesthrough the Cotswolds.
That was the escape route ofKing Charles II as he was
fleeing from Oliver Cromwell'sarmy.
But also there's the famousCotswold Way, which is 102 miles
national walking trail whichgoes from Tipping Camden I just
mentioned goes 102 miles southto Bath or vice versa, from Bath
(07:38):
to Tipping Camden.
So people come to the Cotswoldsto do walking trails like that.
Some people will just do littlesections at once.
They'll maybe do a few miles aday and then carry on the next
day, or they'll do it over aseries of weekends or just come
in and out and do little bits ofthe Cotswold Way Trail.
There are running events wherepeople run the whole thing in
(07:58):
one go, which is kind of bonkers.
The record, I think, is about19 and a half hours from start
to finish.
This guy ran the entireCotswold Way in less than one
day, which is crazy.
You don't have to do that.
Of course.
Even going for a short walk isreally good for the soul.
I think it's getting out in thecountryside.
It's a completely differentpace of life from you know, if
(08:20):
you've only visited London orbig cities in the UK.
It's just completely different.
It's relaxing, it's calming,it's beautiful.
And, yeah, we're so blessed inthe UK to have thousands and
thousands of miles of publicfootpaths and I think us Brits
take it, take them for grantedand we hardly ever use them or,
you know, we don't use them asmuch as we should do.
(08:41):
But those rights of way andthose rights of access over
farmland, over over countryside,it's really amazing.
And so, yeah, that's myabsolute top tip would be just
go for a walk.
It doesn't have to be a longone.
There are specialist walkingtour companies that can arrange
long hikes for you.
We've got a kind of what wecall an entry level walking tour
(09:03):
, which is great for beginners,and going with a guide is really
good if you aren't confidentwith map reading or, uh, you
know, never, never done itbefore, or perhaps you're on
your own and you don't fancygoing for a walk on your own, um
, but yeah, there's so manylovely walking trails that you
can do so.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, highly recommended and because I'm not
a hiker, as I'm sure most of ourlisteners will know.
But one thing I do enjoy doingis walking around some of the
cotswolds gardens and myabsolute favorite.
So my idea of just having awonderful day the cotswolds is
is to go to and then go togiftsgate, because opposite each
(09:38):
other, so they're really easyto do in the same day and oh, my
goodness, oh, just that'swonderful yeah, I agree, hidcote
is my favorite garden in thequadswards as well.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Of the ones I visited , there are so many, I'm sure I
haven't visited them all andhidcote is beautiful.
Um, it's any time of year aswell.
It's so nice.
It's different displays,different foliage, different
flowers are in blossom atdifferent times of year.
So it's wonderful.
It's not too big, it's, it'snot daunting to walk around.
So, yeah, it's lovely justgetting outside it is.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
It is really, really special place to go now.
What about a must-do experiencefor foodies out there?
So food and drink lovers, wherethey should they head to in the
cotswolds?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
that's a really interesting question.
Um, the cotswolds because thecotswolds is such a large area
and I talked about that beforeit's 800 square miles.
It's covers uh, five or sixdifferent counties.
There's no actual onespeciality of the cotswolds,
like there's no.
You know, if you go to cornwallyou're gonna have to have a
cornish pasty, or if you go touh link sorry, leicestershire
(10:42):
you're gonna have to have a porkpie.
The cotswolds haven't we haven'treally got that, but we're just
known here for just being verygood at producing food.
It's a really agriculturalregion still and has been for
centuries, so producing food issomething that we're really good
at.
There are amazing fruit andvegetables.
Asparagus in the sort ofnorthern tip of the Cotswolds is
(11:07):
massive.
If you visit the Cotswolds orvisit the north Cotswolds around
May, asparagus will beeverywhere, which is really
really delicious.
We've got places like I'm surelisteners will have heard of
Diddly Squat Farm Shop, jeremyClarkson's farm, and there's
also another one calledDalesford Organic Farm.
These are farm shops that arethey're so much more than farm
(11:28):
shops just kind of like wholelifestyle destinations where you
can just have the most amazingfood and drink.
There are restaurants on site.
So, yeah, it's kind of a foodiedestination, but there's not
one thing I would recommend youto try, with the exception being
, um, the local gin.
There's quite a few gins aroundCotswolds, if you like a gin and
(11:49):
tonic, and then the Cotswolddistillery produces whiskey and
gin.
There's, um also another littledistillery in Burford called,
uh, copper Lion Distillery,which produces delicious gin.
And oh yeah, the other one Iwas going to mention was, um
there's a village called GuitingPower where there's a little
delicatessen shop called theCotswold Guy.
So if you want to try DavidBeckham's favourite sausage
(12:13):
rolls, then that is the place togo.
David Beckham has a very fondlove of this particular sausage
roll that they make at theCotswold Guy, which is a little
deli.
So, yeah, there's lots and lotsof things.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh well, there's loads of possibilities there to
add to your to eat list in theCotswold.
One thing I did try when it wasthe lavender fields.
I think they do lavender icecream.
Yeah, they do.
Yeah, it's very nice, very nice.
That's something to say ifyou're there at the right time.
Yeah, I guess we're going tosee the lavender fields as well,
because they're really prettyyes, they are.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
If you, um, there's a short window of opening time
for the lavender fields andthey're only open when the
lavender is actually in bloomand then they close it because
they have to harvest thelavender for their products and
their ice cream and things likethat.
But yeah, um, the lavenderfields are gorgeous.
Yes, now.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Can you suggest an experience that showcases the
history or culture of theCotswolds?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
okay, and my top tip for this would be, if you visit
the Cotswolds and thankful a dayin May, go to Chippinghampton
and you can hike up the hill toDover's Hill and there is this
wonderfully bonkers festivalthat happens on Dover's Hill, so
so Dover's Hill is just a hillreally.
(13:27):
There's a lovely viewpoint.
You can see over the valley ofthe Vale of Evesham.
You can see for miles and mileson a clear day, so it's a
beautiful place to go anyway.
But on Maybank holiday there isthis event called the Cotswold
Olympics and it's kind ofinspired from the Greek Olympics
and the Cotswold version of theOlympics has been running for
(13:49):
over 400 years and it'scompletely bonkers.
There are lots of sports, as theOlympics is known for.
There are sports to participatein and things, but they're
traditional sports, so thingslike tug of war and there are
running races.
Traditionally there would havebeen things like hair coursing.
(14:12):
We don't do that so muchanymore Stick fighting other
things.
But the piece de resistance ofthe Cotswold Olympics is the
sport of shin kicking, which iskind of a primitive form of
wrestling whereby two people,two usually men I don't know if
any women have actually takenpart.
I don't think women are thatstupid.
(14:33):
But two men will grab eachother by the lapels and
basically kick each other's legsuntil one of them falls over or
can't take it anymore and it'sreally, really funny to watch.
It's very painful to watch andit's been going on for hundreds
of years, so that is crazy.
And that is followed the nextday, usually the next day in
(14:54):
Chipping Camden, by somethingcalled the Scuttlebrook Wake,
which is like a procession wherethere's the queen of the
Scuttlebrook Queen and herattendants and it's's, yeah,
just a big fun party in chippingcamden.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So that's brilliant that sounds a lot of fun.
Now, if people aren't visitingthat particular time of year
because that's a very shortwindow of opportunity to be able
to see and I've not, I've notexperienced that.
I shall add that onto my bucketlist of things to do.
Yeah, so that one, lisa.
So what about um kind ofhistoric?
About kind of historic, I'mthinking kind of castles or any
kind of particular monuments orbuildings that people should see
(15:29):
.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, there's loads, loads, loads of historic places
in the Cotswolds.
The ones that spring to mindare Seedley Castle, the royal
home former royal home ofCatherine Parr.
It's beautiful and the gardensare great as well.
Broadway Tower is another place.
There's not a lot there onceyou get there, but it's
beautiful and the gardens aregreat as well.
Um, broadway tower is anotherplace.
It's there's not a lot thereonce you get there, but it's
quite a quirky, interestingplace to go and it's this tiny
(15:50):
little castle on the hill and itlooks ancient but it's only
actually a couple of hundredyears old and there's some
really fascinating stories thatgo with that and there's lots of
arts and crafts history todiscover in the Cotswolds.
So the arts and crafts movementwas this kind of artistic period
in the late 19th century whereyou know we had the industrial
(16:10):
revolution, everything wasmachinery and heavy and dirty,
and this group of artists wantedto kind of bring back the art
of handicrafts and making thingsproperly and making things that
were functional, things likecutlery and furniture and
textiles, and they wanted tomake them beautiful rather than
just kind of churning out thiskind of mass-produced stuff that
(16:32):
started to happen at that time.
So again, chipping camden was abit of a center for arts and
crafts.
There was a chap called charlesashby who set up his um guild
of handicrafts in chippingCamden.
Other famous names that you mayhave heard of William Morris
was a famous textile designer.
He was based in the Cotswoldsfor some of his time.
(16:54):
And also Gordon Russell, afurniture designer, was probably
one of the most famous peopleto live in the village of
Broadway.
So there's lots of lovely smallbut very lovely and really
interesting little museums andgalleries, and it's quite a bit
of an artistic hub as well inthe Cotswolds.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So that's really interesting as well, definitely,
and it was William Morris, ofcourse, who described Bybury or
Arlington Way as the mostbeautiful road or street.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Arlington Way.
Yeah, it's William Morris'fault that it's so popular and
so busy.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, we can blame him.
We can definitely blame him.
What about hidden gems and thisis a difficult thing to say
because obviously the Cotswoldsare very, very popular.
But what about a lesser knownexperience or something that you
know?
I hate the term hidden gem, butI'm going to use it that people
may not be aware?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, there is lots and lots and lots of hidden gems
.
When people think of theCotswolds they only usually
think about a handful of reallypopular villages, but as I said,
it's such a massive areathere's lots and lots to
discover.
One of my favourites is a bitrandom and it's a bit funny, but
we have a little ministonehenge in the Cotswolds.
It's called the RollwhiteStones.
(18:10):
It's kind of located near to avillage called Longcompton,
great Rollwhite, littleRollwhite wonderful names,
wonderful English village namesand it's three Neolithic sites.
So there's a stone circle.
I mean I say it's a bit likeStonehenge.
You'll be underwhelmed if you'vebeen to Stonehenge, but it's a
little stone circle of littleancient stones.
(18:32):
And then there's also a coupleof other sites where there are
some standing stones and some ofthose stones this is the fact
that always blows my mind aboutthe Rollwright stones.
Hardly anybody has ever heardof it, but some of these stones
actually thought to be olderthan Stonehenge.
So that kind of blows my mind alittle bit, the fact that the
Cotswolds history it's not justwe talk a lot about the war,
(18:54):
trade, the medieval period onour tours and the history of
Victorian period and later on,but the Cotswolds history goes
right back to Neolithic times,which I find absolutely
mind-blowing so yeah, I highlyrecommend the Rollwright Stones.
It's a really fun place.
It's a nice place to takechildren.
You can can wander around thestones.
There's a legend thatapparently it's impossible to
(19:17):
count the same number of stonesaround the stone circle twice
and if you do then you will getyour heart's desire or something
like that.
There's some really fun mythsand legends associated with that
place as well.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Oh, that's really cool.
That's a really cool thing toknow.
Now, what about unique seasonalexperiences in the Cotswolds?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, there's lots going on.
I already mentioned theCotswolds Olympics, which is in
May.
There's cheese rolling, whichis another bonkers thing that
happens in the Cotswolds, butthey're day events.
There's lots going on.
There's I'm trying to thinkthat we've got um being, as the
is a big agricultural area.
There's the morton show, whichis a big agricultural uh show
(20:02):
that happens um in the cotswolds, which is a really fun day out
as well.
Um really we call it a reallyvillage experience.
There's lots of uh animals.
Farmers come to show theiranimals and you know
prize-winning sheep andprize-winning cows and and all
that kind of stuff um and lotsof fun activities for families
and children.
(20:22):
There's an opera festival in uhlongborough.
Uh, we have um a quite a bigmusic festival in the cotswolds
called the big feastival um,which is kind of a cross between
music festival and the foodfestival, which is very cool.
I mentioned Soudley Castle.
They have fabulous eventsthroughout the year, but my
favourite one is the WinterLight Trail around Christmas
(20:43):
time.
It's absolutely beautiful.
And then the Cotswolds Gardens.
Again, at pretty much any timeof year they're absolutely
beautiful because they'redifferent in different seasons.
So I really love BatsfordArboretum or Westonburg
Arboretum, especially in autumn,beautiful colours of the trees
and the flowers in spring yeah,just lots and lots to do.
(21:03):
It's definitely not just asummer destination.
There's lots to do in theCotswolds at any time of year.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, I totally agree with you, it doesn't matter
whatever time of year.
Yeah, I totally agree with you,it doesn't matter whatever time
of year.
We absolutely love it and wevisit like every season.
I'm happy to visit thecotswolds in any season.
What kind of travelers are thecotswolds kind of best suited
for?
Do you think there's aparticular?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I know you're going to get into the fact that it's
kind of associated, particular,maybe, with a one particular
type of traveler, but I know youfeel, and I agree, the
cotswolds is for everybody yeah,um, I would say so on our on
our tours that we run um, ourtypical customer is, um a couple
who, perhaps from north americaor australia, um in their
(21:44):
middle to senior age and they'reafter a tour of the cotswolds.
They're not not so keen ondriving around the cotswolds and
so are looking for a driver ortransport around the Cotswolds.
And I would say that is thekind of classic customer that we
get.
But I think it's wrong to sortof think about the Cotswolds as
a place that only older peoplelike or only older people will
(22:07):
enjoy, because there is so muchfor people of all ages.
I've got a seven-year-olddaughter Obviously she's a bit
biased because her mum and dadrun a Cotswolds tour company but
we take her out on tours youknow, sometimes if we've got
spaces in the school holidaysand she absolutely loves just
being out in the countryside,she loves riding on our minibus
(22:29):
and there's lots and lots forchildren and for families to do.
So I definitely want tochallenge the stereotype that
the Cotswolds is this verysedate sort of thing that only
older people will enjoy.
Or we get lots of women on ourtours, more than men as well,
which is another interestingthing.
But I think, yeah, there'ssomething for everyone in the
(22:49):
Cotswolds.
History books will absolutelygo mad.
It's lovely.
Sightseers, obviously, peoplethat love architecture and art
and history Walkers, runners,cyclists will all love the
countryside around here.
Car enthusiasts is one that I'vesort of started to wake up to
recently.
I'm actually planning a privatetour for a family at the moment
(23:11):
and they're big into vintagecars and there's actually quite
a lot of things to do in theCotswolds for car enthusiasts A
motoring museum, there's aclassic car hub, there's places
where people meet in theirclassic cars and their vintage
cars and get together and talkabout classic cars.
So there's lots and lots to do.
And also, I was going to saythe other thing is one thing the
(23:34):
cotswolds doesn't have is acoast.
We don't have coastline, we arelandlocked.
We don't have any ocean orbeaches, apart from at the
cotswold water park.
And there's a big area in, uhsort of the southern part of the
cotswolds called the cotswoldswater park and it's former
quarry that was um, has beenfilled in and turned into
beautiful lakes and it lookslovely.
(23:56):
It's a nice place to go, butthey have lots of quite
adventurous and adrenalinesports there, which is quite
interesting.
It's not what you wouldassociate with the Cotswolds.
So you can go wakeboarding, youcan do this big inflatable
assault course thing, you can gokayaking and do lots of
adventure stuff.
So that's something that youprobably wouldn't expect to
(24:16):
associate with the cotswolds butdefinitely shows that there's
something for everyone.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
I'm gonna say that, definitely, definitely gonna say
I'm gonna repeat it somethingfor everything for sure in the
cotswolds, um, what about um?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
practical tips for anybody planning to visit um, I
think I've touched on thisbefore when we've spoken, but
public transport or transport ingeneral in the Cotswolds, I
think this is probably thenumber one question that we get
asked as owners of a tourcompany how easy is it to get
around, especially if you don'thave a car and the answer is
(24:49):
it's not very easy to get around.
It is possible, there are buses,there are trains, but they tend
to only go to a limitedselection of places and you're
beholden to very infrequenttimetables.
Some villages only have likeone bus a week, for example.
So if you happen to stay inthat village and you haven't got
(25:10):
a car, then you know you're notgoing to be able to get
anywhere by public transportvery fast.
And the other thing I thinkagain, people that have perhaps
only visited cities in the UKkind of expect taxis and Uber to
be everywhere and it's not.
There's basically no Uber inthe Cotswolds.
Sometimes you can get lucky andget one, but it's kind of the
(25:32):
exception rather than the rule.
And a lot of the taxi companiesin this area are sole traders,
very small companies.
They only have one car or acouple of cars.
So if you want to go somewhereand you call their company and
say, hey, can you give me a ride, and they're like, well, no,
sorry, I've got another booking.
So you have to keep goingthrough a long list of taxi
operators to try and find onewith any availability.
(25:53):
So pre-booking taxis if you'regoing to use taxis is definitely
something that you need to do.
There's no uber and, uh yeah,transport can be quite difficult
.
So our suggestion, obviously,is to join a tour of the
cotswolds um, or, or to, or, tohave a car as well perfect.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And also also I know you've mentioned about adding
other places, rather than themost popular places, into your
itinerary.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
There are certain places in the Cotswolds that
everybody wants to go to becausethey are beautiful.
They're the places that you'veseen on the internet, on
Facebook, instagram and so on.
So I'm talking about placeslike Wharton-on-the-Water,
bybury, castle, coombe,stonewall, even and they are
very, very popular places.
They're busy.
(26:42):
They're popular for a reasonbecause they're beautiful, but
they do get very, very busy.
They're like the honeypotdestinations that draw the bees
in, so they can get very, verybusy.
I'm not saying don't go to thoseplaces, but there are lots of
places in the cotswolds that areworth seeing.
We have a secret cotswolds tourthat we launched last year,
(27:02):
which has been really popular,getting people a little bit off
the beaten track not going tocompletely quiet places, not
going to places that have nosoul or that are completely dead
, but going to places that haveno soul or that are completely
dead, but going to places thatare real, genuine places that
perhaps visitors wouldn't go tobecause they haven't heard of
them, but that are stillwonderful and I did the.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I did your Cotswold in a day to uh this year, I
think yes, it was this year andI I did the um.
I enjoyed the secret village,which I'm not going to reveal on
my Instagram.
I kept very stumped about whereI was, but you do actually get
with secret village on your, onyour consoles, and a day tour as
well, which is fun yeah, wecall it the secret village.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I mean it's not hard to find out where it is.
But yeah, we'd like to try andkeep that little bit of mystery,
just so that the the hordes ofof other tour companies and
other cars that you know, peopletraveling in their cars don't
don't congest that little tinyvillage, because it's really
small and it can't cope withmassive numbers of tourists
absolutely so what?
Speaker 1 (28:02):
before we go on to the q a, I'm going to ask the
one question I always ask at theend of every episode, which
everybody is always expectingwhat is the one tip you'd share
with someone who wants toexperience the cotswolds for the
first time?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
well, I've been, uh, running our guided tour company
for 10 years, so I've had lotsand lots of inquiries from the
visitors over the years um, thatthey want to try and do too
much.
And I don't know if this isnecessarily a cotswolds tip, but
it's a tip for planning travelin the uk, uh, and that is just
try not to do too much.
It's really tempting to try andsee everything, to tick every
(28:37):
box, but I think box ticking canultimately be unsatisfying.
In the Cotswolds there's loadsto see, there's loads to do and
we've mentioned it before, it'sa massive area.
So you can't although we have atour called Cotswolds in a day
that is slightly tongue-in-cheek, it's it's not possible to see
the Cotswolds in a day.
(28:57):
So I would say, slow down andalso be present.
Don't look at everythingthrough your camera.
Experience, don't just see, um,and that's where coming on a
tour with us, for example, is areally good thing to do, because
our, all of our guides arelocals and so you've got that
interaction with a local personwho can, you know, talk to you
(29:18):
about how it is, what, what lifeis like here, and you're not
just looking everything throughyour camera or through the
through a big coach window.
Um so I think that's that's mytop tip slow down in cotswolds.
The cotswolds is countryside,it's rural, it's a much slower
pace of life than big cities.
So do as the locals do and takeit a bit more slowly.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Definitely, and if you're considering, you know if
you've been in London for a fewdays and you consider going
somewhere to have a bit of aslower pace and a bit of a chill
out after the hectic time we'vehad in London, the Cotswolds is
the perfect idea absolutelyyeah, um, I saw recently on uh,
I think it came up on facebookor something.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I think it was an advert for some kind of ai
program on google or somethingand it was a video of um, this
young man, uh, who was stayingat a youth hostel in london.
He was an american guy stayingat a youth hostel in london and
it was dead.
This video was demonstratinghow amazing this ai app was on
his phone.
So he's walking around Londonand asking his phone hey, google
(30:21):
, whatever it was, what's thatstatue?
And the AI would tell him whatstatue was.
Hey, google, what's that museum, what's that building?
And he was just walking aroundLondon just talking to his phone
and part of me was thinkingwell, it's amazing what AI can
do, what AI knows and what AIcan tell, tell you.
But also, this guy hasn'tspoken to a single human being
on his whole trip and I thoughtthat was really quite sad and it
(30:43):
can be quite difficult to youknow, go and walk into a pub.
You can't just randomly go andstart talking to someone,
because that might be a bitweird.
But like coming going on a touror meeting local people, being
where locals are is such a niceway to get to know a place, I
think.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Oh, absolutely, I love tours and I've been out on
a few of your tours now and yourtour guides are amazing.
They're so friendly, soknowledgeable, they're so funny
and they're just.
I mean, I just have had so muchfun.
So, you know, I highlyrecommend booking going out with
you guys.
Go Cotswolds.
I've put a link in the shownotes and we have got a five
(31:23):
percent discount code as well,which I'll, which I'll, add in
as well.
Um, if you're booking with lisa, definitely, uh, go and check
out the link.
We inquire with lisa and getyourself booked in for at least
one tour.
You can do a couple of tourswith you guys.
You don't just offer cotswoldsin a day and the secret
cotswolds.
You're kind of, you're growingand doing more and more, aren't
you?
Yeah, we are.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
We have a Bath and Stonehenge tour.
We've got a Walks and Villagestour I think I mentioned earlier
, and, if you stay tuned, in thenext week or so we're about to
launch another tour which isBath and Southern Cotswolds as
well.
So stay tuned for that soexciting.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Now, I for that so exciting.
Now I'm going to go on to the qa, which comes from our I don't
know if you've had a chance tolook at them, so these might be
just going okay, so let's start.
So we've got a question fromjordan elizabeth wilkins.
Thanks, jordan, um, she saysshe's already booked tickets
with you guys, so that'sfantastic.
And she's going to stay inMorton and Marsh, so she's
wondering about things to seeand where to eat in Morton and
Marsh so Morton and Marsh is oneof those towns I mentioned
(32:25):
right at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
It's a good idea to just hang out in a town.
So Morton and Marsh is a verygenuine working town with and
it's got a lot of.
It's got a few hotels andairbnbs and accommodation,
because it's one of the fewtowns that has a train station
so it's very easy to get to andso, consequently, people are
visiting from london or oxfordor other parts of the uk find
(32:49):
themselves in morning marsh.
Morning marsh itself has gotlots of lovely independent shops
and tea rooms and bakeries andcafes, so it's a great place to
just wander and window shop andhave a cup of tea and have a
cream tea.
In terms of places to eat, oh,that's a good question.
There's my favorite for for anevening meal is a pub called
(33:13):
black bear.
Um, there's also a really goodthai called Siam Cottage and the
bakeries are great.
There's one called Otis andBell, there's one called Linwood
and Co.
There's some really amazingartisan bakeries.
So yeah, that's my tips.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Fantastic, so that's excellent.
Now I've got another questionfrom Karen Lee, so thanks, karen
, for this one.
So she wanted me to ask youabout the better days to visit
for ease of parking.
Now I know she wants to seequite a few of the Cotswolds
villages and towns, such asBurford, borton-on-the-water,
sirencester, stowe-on-the-wall.
Now she hasn't mentioned whattime of year that she's planning
to visit, but I know she wasplanning to visit.
(33:53):
She was hoping to visit midweekin her itinerary but she's
thinking it may not, it may be aweekend.
So she's kind of asking aboutparking and I know that's a bit
of a nightmare already.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, so if she's traveling in the winter or
spring or the autumn, sheprobably won't have a problem
parking at all in any of thoseplaces the very popular villages
and towns like Stonewall, likeOrton-on-the-Water.
They have big car parks sousually parking isn't a problem.
(34:24):
The only caveat to that is ifyou are travelling in the summer
on a weekend, particularly on abank holiday weekend, then you
may struggle to find parking.
Boughton-on-the on the water isparticularly challenging.
It gets very, very busy withpeople coming in their cars.
There was, unfortunately, um, arecent uh change that brought
(34:47):
on the water no longer allowscoaches to park in the village.
There was previously a bigcoach park which was very well
used by day trippers, but theyhave no longer allowed coaches
to park in the village.
So consequently that's caused afew problems because now
everyone comes in their cars soit gets very, very busy with
cars.
(35:08):
And the other problem it hascaused is that it's pushed the
coaches to other villages thatnormally have coach parking but
perhaps don't have such bigcoach parks and so tiny little
villages like Port Bybury aregetting overwhelmed with coach
tourism.
(35:30):
I don't have any answers to that.
We don't like to be part of theproblem.
We have small minibuses.
We can use coach parking.
We can use ordinary car parksas well.
So, yeah, it's challenging.
I wouldn't worry about it toomuch.
As long as you're not visitingon a bank holiday weekend in the
height of summer, then yeah,files are normally fine.
You might find that you need topark on street parking.
(35:50):
You might need on streetparking and pay attention to the
signs.
Double yellow lines mean youcannot park there.
Some people don't realize thatwhen you come from abroad, and
there are sometimes ticketmachines or parking metres and
that sort of thing, usually it'snot too much of a problem.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, you just have to keep an eye out.
I'm just thinking.
Last year I was at Guybury atthis time of year and on a
Sunday morning not the best timeto decide to go and visit we
gave up.
We ended up driving and wentand drove out again because it
was again, it was a lot of the,it was just so.
So it was a lovely winterweekend, but again weekend and
it was just.
It was overwhelmed actually andI was with my friend.
(36:29):
We drove through, went back outagain and went no, let's not.
And lower slaughter I also findcan be sometimes difficult.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah, lower slaughter doesn't allow coaches
or even minibuses of our sizethrough the village.
So again, you don't get the bigcoaches blocking the roads, but
you do get lots and lots ofcars.
Yeah, I do feel very sorry forpoor Bybrey.
At the moment it's the problemsin Boughton-on-the-Water have
kind of moved the problemsomewhere else and I'm not
(36:57):
really sure what the solution tothat is other than just don't
visit and don't park like anidiot.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
so yeah, you could share with you guys, and then
it's, it solves.
I think it's a bit like yeah, Ithink about the lake district
now and how 10 years, 20 yearsago in the lake district, I
remember we could not get parked, driving around there, and now
we don't.
We wouldn't even considertaking a car to the Lake
District because the publictransport is amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah, that's the problem that we have in the
Cotswolds the public transportis definitely not amazing so
yeah, I'm quite often in Friburythese days in the summer.
We will drop our customers andgo and then come back from later
.
That's kind of the only way wecan get around it yeah, but I
said that's.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
That's the advantage in the cotswolds, where, say,
public transport isn't good isif you don't want to drive and
you don't want to go through the.
You know the hassle maybe notbeing able to get part is is to
go with you guys and also thathas a less of a impact because
you have, you know, 15 people,or 16 people maximum, in your
minibus.
So that's the thing aboutmountain cars that are off the
(37:59):
road when they go out with youguys.
So yeah, yeah right, I have aone question through speakpipe
from laura adults and I'm gonnaplay this.
So thank you so much, laura,for this.
Let me play this see.
Hopefully this will work hi.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
If you were going to stay several days in the
Cotswolds, where would yourecommend someone stay to have
the best access for all theplaces to go and see?
Thank you from Laura inMassachusetts.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Thank you, Laura.
Well, I've kind of alreadymentioned it.
My topic for somewhere to stayin the Cotswolds is
Morton-in-Marsh.
As I mentioned earlier.
The Cotswolds has only a handfulof train stations.
In the Cotswolds, like maybefour or five, six different
villages have train stations andMorton-in-Marsh is one of those
(38:52):
towns.
So the really good thing aboutthat is that there is a direct
train line from London to MortonMarsh.
You can also get from Oxforddirectly to Moreton and Marsh.
It only takes half an hour fromOxford.
It's really really close,really quick, and so it's easy
to get to Moreton and Marsh,especially if you don't have a
car.
It's also one of the bettertowns for public transport.
(39:12):
If you're comparing theCotswolds to London, then
overall the Cotswolds publictransport is shockingly bad.
But Moreton and Marsh, beingthat hub with the train station
as well, does have a few usefulbuses that you can take to get
to various places of interest,including Bournemouth Water and
Stoneworld and Chipping Norn youcan get to by the bus as well,
(39:35):
and Blockley for the FatherBrown fans and Chipping Camorn
you can get to by the bus aswell, and Blockley for the Farth
of Brown fans and ChippingCamden as well.
So that is a good place to stayWith my biased hat on.
It is also the place where wepick up our passengers for our
tours of the Cotswolds, so it'sa really good place to stay.
Other places you can stay inthe Cotswolds, particularly if
you have your own car.
(39:56):
I would recommend Broadway.
It's beautiful, um, I thinkit's.
It's a bit quieter than some ofthe more popular villages, but
it's still a popular village.
So there's lots of reallyreally good museums.
The Broadway Museum isfantastic.
There's also the Gordon RussellDesign Museum.
There are amazing restaurants.
There's a brilliant.
(40:17):
If you like burgers, I highlyrecommend Flipside Burgers in
Broadway and the Ligonards Hotel, which is like this incredibly
old coaching inn.
It's amazing.
So Broadway is a really lovelyplace to stay, not so well
connected by public transport,but it is a good base if you've
got your own car, and the otherone I would suggest would be
(40:38):
Stourer World as well, forsimilar reasons.
Lots of places to visit, lotsof accommodation options, lots
of restaurants, pubs, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Perfect.
Well, thanks so much, lisa, foranswering everybody's questions
and for again agreeing to comeon the podcast third time.
Now, honestly, it's brilliant.
So if you're listening andthinking I've got a question,
I'd love to connect.
Then you can leave a message onSpeakPipe, you can join our
Facebook groups, lisa's in ourFacebook groups and obviously
(41:08):
you can message Lisa if you wantto start.
You're inquiring about bookinga tour with her this year or
next year.
She's very responsive.
She'll get back to you andshe'll she'll let you know
what's available.
So thanks so much, lisa.
Oh, you're welcome.
It's nice to speak to you again.
Thank you for tuning in to thisweek's episode of the uk travel
planning podcast.
(41:28):
As always, show notes can befound at uktravelplanningcom.
If you've enjoyed the show, whynot leave us feedback via text
or a review on your favouritepodcast app?
We love to hear from you and,you never know, you may receive
a shout out in a future episode.
But, as always, that justleaves me to say until next week
.
Happy UK travel planning.
Dreaming of a trip to the Cotswolds, but not sure
what to include in youritinerary?
In episode 136 of the UK TravelPlanning Podcast, I chat with
Lisa Benjamin from GoCotswolds,who shares her top five must-do
experiences, from exploringcharming villages to uncovering
unique traditions.
Plus, we answer listenerquestions about visiting the
Cotswolds, giving you even moreinsider tips to plan an
(00:22):
unforgettable trip.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
Your host is the founder of theUK Travel Planning website,
tracey Collins.
In this podcast, tracey sharesdestination guides, travel tips
and itinerary ideas, as well asinterviews with a variety of
guests who share their knowledgeand experience of UK travel to
help you plan your perfect UKvacation.
(00:47):
Join us as we explore the UKfrom cosmopolitan cities to
quaint villages, from historiccastles to beautiful islands,
and from the picturesquecountryside to seaside towns.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Welcome to episode 136 of the UK Travel Plan and
Podcast, and this week I'mreally excited to be talking to
Lisa go Cotswolds, benjaminagain for the third time Now.
Lisa has been on the podcastwith me twice before to talk all
things Cotswolds.
And if you haven't heardepisodes 107 and 115, and are
not familiar with Lisa, she'salso in our UK Travel Planet and
London Travel Planet Facebookgroups and is very active in the
(01:33):
groups.
But if you don't know Lisa,would you just like to give us a
quick introduction to who youare?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Hi yes, I'm glad to be back on the podcast.
Tracy, my name is Lisa Benjamin.
As you said, I am one of theowners of Go Cotswolds.
Along with my husband, tom, werun a small group guided tour
company.
We're based inStratford-upon-Avon, just on the
edge of the Cotswolds, and wetake visitors from
Stratford-upon-Avon and alsofrom Morton-in-Marsh on the
(01:59):
beautiful day trips and theconspires.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
And you've taken quite a few of our listeners and
group members on tours alreadyand we've had some wonderful
feedback about your tours.
Yeah, we have.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
It's been a great response to the previous team
podcast that I recorded with youand, yeah, lots of UK Travel
Planning fans have been on atour with us, which has been
absolutely lovely.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And I asked my Facebook groups last night for
questions for you.
So at the very end of theepisode, after I ask you the
obvious question of what yourtop tip is, we'll go through the
questions from our Facebookgroup members.
And I also have a message, alsofor somebody left via SpeakPipe
Laura.
I'm just going to name dropthere and at the end of the
episode we'll go through thoseand we'll have a Q&A session.
(02:43):
So stay tuned to listen to allof Lisa's pearls of wisdom about
visiting the Cotswolds.
And thanks, guys, for leavingthose messages for Lisa as well.
That was great, right, shouldwe head straight into it?
Would you like to introduce theCotswolds and explain what
makes it such a special place tovisit?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I'd love to introduce the Cotswolds.
The Cotswolds is an area ofEngland.
It's the third largestprotected area of England.
So, after the Lake DistrictNational Park and the Yorkshire
Dales National Park, theCotswolds National Landscape is
the third largest protected areain the UK.
By protected area we mean thatit's a conservation area, so
(03:24):
building is very limited.
New building is very limited inthe Cotswolds and there are
special rules on what you canand can't build, what you can
and can't build with, and alsolots of environmental
conservation protection of thisarea as well.
It's an absolutely beautifularea of England.
There are places in the worldin England or Britain that have
(03:45):
far more spectacular or dramaticscenery places like the Lake
District, spring to Mind or theHighlands of Scotland.
But the Cotswolds is that kindof very quintessentially English
countryside, the kind ofcountryside that you've seen in
those British rom-coms therolling hills, the sheep in the
fields, cute little chocolatebox, picture-perfect villages,
(04:07):
that kind of thing.
So the Cotswolds is a very,very special place.
I absolutely love it and, yeah,lots of people who visit love
it as well.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And lovely people in the Cotswolds as well.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah yeah, it's a really agricultural area in the
Cotswolds, so you'll find that alot of the local people are
very, you know, salt of theearth, very down to earth, very
genuine people.
They love a chat and, yeah,it's just a really, really
friendly place to be.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It is, and it's a place that I continue to go back
to over and over again becauseI love the Cotswolds.
Now the theme of this episodebecause we've talked about the
Cotswolds a couple of timesbefore is actually the
experiences that you recommendfor people to have in the
Cotswolds.
So I kind of asked you your topfive experiences.
So let's start with the firstexperience you recommend to
(04:54):
truly immerse yourself in theCotswolds.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So I thought long and hard about this, but I think
really the best thing to do whenyou arrive in the Cotswolds is
just hang out.
I was listening to one of yourTrip Report podcast episodes
recently and it was a ladycalled Krista, I think, an
American lady who'd been to theCotswolds with her family, and
she said one of the things thatthey did partly because they had
children with them was theydidn't try and do too much.
They didn't run around tryingto see everything and tick off
(05:24):
every single box that they couldpossibly could, but they just
spent a lot of time hanging outin parks or in bars or
restaurants or pubs and and gotto have very authentic
experiences with local people,talking to local people and I
think that was a really good tipactually.
Um, my top tip would be go to avillage.
I.
(05:44):
My personal favorite in theQuetzals is the small town of
Chipping Camden.
It's not too touristy, it's avery genuine local town.
There's loads of pubs, which isgreat if you like to explore
the local ales and local wines,and there's lots of little
independent shops.
There's not really many bigchain stores or you know, no
(06:07):
huge supermarkets and thingslike that.
Lots of little independentboutique shops, local crafts,
handicrafts, and it's just areally great place to hang out.
There's a great playground forchildren.
There's lots of historic thingsto see and do.
The architecture is spectacular.
Chipping Camden reportedly hasthe prettiest high street in
(06:28):
England, so that's a nice place,just a really great place just
to wander and mooch about andpop into a tea room or pop into
a pub and just kind of have anauthentic experience of what
it's like to live here in theparts of Wales.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Brilliant, it is lovely, I have to say.
I also agree I love ChippingCamden.
It's a lovely little small townto visit Now if you enjoy
exploring what would be oneoutdoor or scenic experience
that people shouldn't miss.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
The Cotswolds is pretty much synonymous with
walking and hiking.
So as well as probably the twothings that the Cotswolds is
best known for are the beautifulvillages and the countryside,
but also walking.
It's massive.
In the Cotswolds there arelonger walking trails you can do
here.
So there's a 600 plus milewalking path called the
(07:17):
Monarch's Way which passesthrough the Cotswolds.
That was the escape route ofKing Charles II as he was
fleeing from Oliver Cromwell'sarmy.
But also there's the famousCotswold Way, which is 102 miles
national walking trail whichgoes from Tipping Camden I just
mentioned goes 102 miles southto Bath or vice versa, from Bath
(07:38):
to Tipping Camden.
So people come to the Cotswoldsto do walking trails like that.
Some people will just do littlesections at once.
They'll maybe do a few miles aday and then carry on the next
day, or they'll do it over aseries of weekends or just come
in and out and do little bits ofthe Cotswold Way Trail.
There are running events wherepeople run the whole thing in
(07:58):
one go, which is kind of bonkers.
The record, I think, is about19 and a half hours from start
to finish.
This guy ran the entireCotswold Way in less than one
day, which is crazy.
You don't have to do that.
Of course.
Even going for a short walk isreally good for the soul.
I think it's getting out in thecountryside.
It's a completely differentpace of life from you know, if
(08:20):
you've only visited London orbig cities in the UK.
It's just completely different.
It's relaxing, it's calming,it's beautiful.
And, yeah, we're so blessed inthe UK to have thousands and
thousands of miles of publicfootpaths and I think us Brits
take it, take them for grantedand we hardly ever use them or,
you know, we don't use them asmuch as we should do.
(08:41):
But those rights of way andthose rights of access over
farmland, over over countryside,it's really amazing.
And so, yeah, that's myabsolute top tip would be just
go for a walk.
It doesn't have to be a longone.
There are specialist walkingtour companies that can arrange
long hikes for you.
We've got a kind of what wecall an entry level walking tour
(09:03):
, which is great for beginners,and going with a guide is really
good if you aren't confidentwith map reading or, uh, you
know, never, never done itbefore, or perhaps you're on
your own and you don't fancygoing for a walk on your own, um
, but yeah, there's so manylovely walking trails that you
can do so.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, highly recommended and because I'm not
a hiker, as I'm sure most of ourlisteners will know.
But one thing I do enjoy doingis walking around some of the
cotswolds gardens and myabsolute favorite.
So my idea of just having awonderful day the cotswolds is
is to go to and then go togiftsgate, because opposite each
(09:38):
other, so they're really easyto do in the same day and oh, my
goodness, oh, just that'swonderful yeah, I agree, hidcote
is my favorite garden in thequadswards as well.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Of the ones I visited , there are so many, I'm sure I
haven't visited them all andhidcote is beautiful.
Um, it's any time of year aswell.
It's so nice.
It's different displays,different foliage, different
flowers are in blossom atdifferent times of year.
So it's wonderful.
It's not too big, it's, it'snot daunting to walk around.
So, yeah, it's lovely justgetting outside it is.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
It is really, really special place to go now.
What about a must-do experiencefor foodies out there?
So food and drink lovers, wherethey should they head to in the
cotswolds?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
that's a really interesting question.
Um, the cotswolds because thecotswolds is such a large area
and I talked about that beforeit's 800 square miles.
It's covers uh, five or sixdifferent counties.
There's no actual onespeciality of the cotswolds,
like there's no.
You know, if you go to cornwallyou're gonna have to have a
cornish pasty, or if you go touh link sorry, leicestershire
(10:42):
you're gonna have to have a porkpie.
The cotswolds haven't we haven'treally got that, but we're just
known here for just being verygood at producing food.
It's a really agriculturalregion still and has been for
centuries, so producing food issomething that we're really good
at.
There are amazing fruit andvegetables.
Asparagus in the sort ofnorthern tip of the Cotswolds is
(11:07):
massive.
If you visit the Cotswolds orvisit the north Cotswolds around
May, asparagus will beeverywhere, which is really
really delicious.
We've got places like I'm surelisteners will have heard of
Diddly Squat Farm Shop, jeremyClarkson's farm, and there's
also another one calledDalesford Organic Farm.
These are farm shops that arethey're so much more than farm
(11:28):
shops just kind of like wholelifestyle destinations where you
can just have the most amazingfood and drink.
There are restaurants on site.
So, yeah, it's kind of a foodiedestination, but there's not
one thing I would recommend youto try, with the exception being
, um, the local gin.
There's quite a few gins aroundCotswolds, if you like a gin and
(11:49):
tonic, and then the Cotswolddistillery produces whiskey and
gin.
There's, um also another littledistillery in Burford called,
uh, copper Lion Distillery,which produces delicious gin.
And oh yeah, the other one Iwas going to mention was, um
there's a village called GuitingPower where there's a little
delicatessen shop called theCotswold Guy.
So if you want to try DavidBeckham's favourite sausage
(12:13):
rolls, then that is the place togo.
David Beckham has a very fondlove of this particular sausage
roll that they make at theCotswold Guy, which is a little
deli.
So, yeah, there's lots and lotsof things.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh well, there's loads of possibilities there to
add to your to eat list in theCotswold.
One thing I did try when it wasthe lavender fields.
I think they do lavender icecream.
Yeah, they do.
Yeah, it's very nice, very nice.
That's something to say ifyou're there at the right time.
Yeah, I guess we're going tosee the lavender fields as well,
because they're really prettyyes, they are.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
If you, um, there's a short window of opening time
for the lavender fields andthey're only open when the
lavender is actually in bloomand then they close it because
they have to harvest thelavender for their products and
their ice cream and things likethat.
But yeah, um, the lavenderfields are gorgeous.
Yes, now.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Can you suggest an experience that showcases the
history or culture of theCotswolds?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
okay, and my top tip for this would be, if you visit
the Cotswolds and thankful a dayin May, go to Chippinghampton
and you can hike up the hill toDover's Hill and there is this
wonderfully bonkers festivalthat happens on Dover's Hill, so
so Dover's Hill is just a hillreally.
(13:27):
There's a lovely viewpoint.
You can see over the valley ofthe Vale of Evesham.
You can see for miles and mileson a clear day, so it's a
beautiful place to go anyway.
But on Maybank holiday there isthis event called the Cotswold
Olympics and it's kind ofinspired from the Greek Olympics
and the Cotswold version of theOlympics has been running for
(13:49):
over 400 years and it'scompletely bonkers.
There are lots of sports, as theOlympics is known for.
There are sports to participatein and things, but they're
traditional sports, so thingslike tug of war and there are
running races.
Traditionally there would havebeen things like hair coursing.
(14:12):
We don't do that so muchanymore Stick fighting other
things.
But the piece de resistance ofthe Cotswold Olympics is the
sport of shin kicking, which iskind of a primitive form of
wrestling whereby two people,two usually men I don't know if
any women have actually takenpart.
I don't think women are thatstupid.
(14:33):
But two men will grab eachother by the lapels and
basically kick each other's legsuntil one of them falls over or
can't take it anymore and it'sreally, really funny to watch.
It's very painful to watch andit's been going on for hundreds
of years, so that is crazy.
And that is followed the nextday, usually the next day in
(14:54):
Chipping Camden, by somethingcalled the Scuttlebrook Wake,
which is like a procession wherethere's the queen of the
Scuttlebrook Queen and herattendants and it's's, yeah,
just a big fun party in chippingcamden.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So that's brilliant that sounds a lot of fun.
Now, if people aren't visitingthat particular time of year
because that's a very shortwindow of opportunity to be able
to see and I've not, I've notexperienced that.
I shall add that onto my bucketlist of things to do.
Yeah, so that one, lisa.
So what about um kind ofhistoric?
About kind of historic, I'mthinking kind of castles or any
kind of particular monuments orbuildings that people should see
(15:29):
.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, there's loads, loads, loads of historic places
in the Cotswolds.
The ones that spring to mindare Seedley Castle, the royal
home former royal home ofCatherine Parr.
It's beautiful and the gardensare great as well.
Broadway Tower is another place.
There's not a lot there onceyou get there, but it's
beautiful and the gardens aregreat as well.
Um, broadway tower is anotherplace.
It's there's not a lot thereonce you get there, but it's
quite a quirky, interestingplace to go and it's this tiny
(15:50):
little castle on the hill and itlooks ancient but it's only
actually a couple of hundredyears old and there's some
really fascinating stories thatgo with that and there's lots of
arts and crafts history todiscover in the Cotswolds.
So the arts and crafts movementwas this kind of artistic period
in the late 19th century whereyou know we had the industrial
(16:10):
revolution, everything wasmachinery and heavy and dirty,
and this group of artists wantedto kind of bring back the art
of handicrafts and making thingsproperly and making things that
were functional, things likecutlery and furniture and
textiles, and they wanted tomake them beautiful rather than
just kind of churning out thiskind of mass-produced stuff that
(16:32):
started to happen at that time.
So again, chipping camden was abit of a center for arts and
crafts.
There was a chap called charlesashby who set up his um guild
of handicrafts in chippingCamden.
Other famous names that you mayhave heard of William Morris
was a famous textile designer.
He was based in the Cotswoldsfor some of his time.
(16:54):
And also Gordon Russell, afurniture designer, was probably
one of the most famous peopleto live in the village of
Broadway.
So there's lots of lovely smallbut very lovely and really
interesting little museums andgalleries, and it's quite a bit
of an artistic hub as well inthe Cotswolds.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So that's really interesting as well, definitely,
and it was William Morris, ofcourse, who described Bybury or
Arlington Way as the mostbeautiful road or street.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Arlington Way.
Yeah, it's William Morris'fault that it's so popular and
so busy.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, we can blame him.
We can definitely blame him.
What about hidden gems and thisis a difficult thing to say
because obviously the Cotswoldsare very, very popular.
But what about a lesser knownexperience or something that you
know?
I hate the term hidden gem, butI'm going to use it that people
may not be aware?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Well, there is lots and lots and lots of hidden gems
.
When people think of theCotswolds they only usually
think about a handful of reallypopular villages, but as I said,
it's such a massive areathere's lots and lots to
discover.
One of my favourites is a bitrandom and it's a bit funny, but
we have a little ministonehenge in the Cotswolds.
It's called the RollwhiteStones.
(18:10):
It's kind of located near to avillage called Longcompton,
great Rollwhite, littleRollwhite wonderful names,
wonderful English village namesand it's three Neolithic sites.
So there's a stone circle.
I mean I say it's a bit likeStonehenge.
You'll be underwhelmed if you'vebeen to Stonehenge, but it's a
little stone circle of littleancient stones.
(18:32):
And then there's also a coupleof other sites where there are
some standing stones and some ofthose stones this is the fact
that always blows my mind aboutthe Rollwright stones.
Hardly anybody has ever heardof it, but some of these stones
actually thought to be olderthan Stonehenge.
So that kind of blows my mind alittle bit, the fact that the
Cotswolds history it's not justwe talk a lot about the war,
(18:54):
trade, the medieval period onour tours and the history of
Victorian period and later on,but the Cotswolds history goes
right back to Neolithic times,which I find absolutely
mind-blowing so yeah, I highlyrecommend the Rollwright Stones.
It's a really fun place.
It's a nice place to takechildren.
You can can wander around thestones.
There's a legend thatapparently it's impossible to
(19:17):
count the same number of stonesaround the stone circle twice
and if you do then you will getyour heart's desire or something
like that.
There's some really fun mythsand legends associated with that
place as well.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Oh, that's really cool.
That's a really cool thing toknow.
Now, what about unique seasonalexperiences in the Cotswolds?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, there's lots going on.
I already mentioned theCotswolds Olympics, which is in
May.
There's cheese rolling, whichis another bonkers thing that
happens in the Cotswolds, butthey're day events.
There's lots going on.
There's I'm trying to thinkthat we've got um being, as the
is a big agricultural area.
There's the morton show, whichis a big agricultural uh show
(20:02):
that happens um in the cotswolds, which is a really fun day out
as well.
Um really we call it a reallyvillage experience.
There's lots of uh animals.
Farmers come to show theiranimals and you know
prize-winning sheep andprize-winning cows and and all
that kind of stuff um and lotsof fun activities for families
and children.
(20:22):
There's an opera festival in uhlongborough.
Uh, we have um a quite a bigmusic festival in the cotswolds
called the big feastival um,which is kind of a cross between
music festival and the foodfestival, which is very cool.
I mentioned Soudley Castle.
They have fabulous eventsthroughout the year, but my
favourite one is the WinterLight Trail around Christmas
(20:43):
time.
It's absolutely beautiful.
And then the Cotswolds Gardens.
Again, at pretty much any timeof year they're absolutely
beautiful because they'redifferent in different seasons.
So I really love BatsfordArboretum or Westonburg
Arboretum, especially in autumn,beautiful colours of the trees
and the flowers in spring yeah,just lots and lots to do.
(21:03):
It's definitely not just asummer destination.
There's lots to do in theCotswolds at any time of year.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, I totally agree with you, it doesn't matter
whatever time of year.
Yeah, I totally agree with you,it doesn't matter whatever time
of year.
We absolutely love it and wevisit like every season.
I'm happy to visit thecotswolds in any season.
What kind of travelers are thecotswolds kind of best suited
for?
Do you think there's aparticular?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I know you're going to get into the fact that it's
kind of associated, particular,maybe, with a one particular
type of traveler, but I know youfeel, and I agree, the
cotswolds is for everybody yeah,um, I would say so on our on
our tours that we run um, ourtypical customer is, um a couple
who, perhaps from north americaor australia, um in their
(21:44):
middle to senior age and they'reafter a tour of the cotswolds.
They're not not so keen ondriving around the cotswolds and
so are looking for a driver ortransport around the Cotswolds.
And I would say that is thekind of classic customer that we
get.
But I think it's wrong to sortof think about the Cotswolds as
a place that only older peoplelike or only older people will
(22:07):
enjoy, because there is so muchfor people of all ages.
I've got a seven-year-olddaughter Obviously she's a bit
biased because her mum and dadrun a Cotswolds tour company but
we take her out on tours youknow, sometimes if we've got
spaces in the school holidaysand she absolutely loves just
being out in the countryside,she loves riding on our minibus
(22:29):
and there's lots and lots forchildren and for families to do.
So I definitely want tochallenge the stereotype that
the Cotswolds is this verysedate sort of thing that only
older people will enjoy.
Or we get lots of women on ourtours, more than men as well,
which is another interestingthing.
But I think, yeah, there'ssomething for everyone in the
(22:49):
Cotswolds.
History books will absolutelygo mad.
It's lovely.
Sightseers, obviously, peoplethat love architecture and art
and history Walkers, runners,cyclists will all love the
countryside around here.
Car enthusiasts is one that I'vesort of started to wake up to
recently.
I'm actually planning a privatetour for a family at the moment
(23:11):
and they're big into vintagecars and there's actually quite
a lot of things to do in theCotswolds for car enthusiasts A
motoring museum, there's aclassic car hub, there's places
where people meet in theirclassic cars and their vintage
cars and get together and talkabout classic cars.
So there's lots and lots to do.
And also, I was going to saythe other thing is one thing the
(23:34):
cotswolds doesn't have is acoast.
We don't have coastline, we arelandlocked.
We don't have any ocean orbeaches, apart from at the
cotswold water park.
And there's a big area in, uhsort of the southern part of the
cotswolds called the cotswoldswater park and it's former
quarry that was um, has beenfilled in and turned into
beautiful lakes and it lookslovely.
(23:56):
It's a nice place to go, butthey have lots of quite
adventurous and adrenalinesports there, which is quite
interesting.
It's not what you wouldassociate with the Cotswolds.
So you can go wakeboarding, youcan do this big inflatable
assault course thing, you can gokayaking and do lots of
adventure stuff.
So that's something that youprobably wouldn't expect to
(24:16):
associate with the cotswolds butdefinitely shows that there's
something for everyone.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
I'm gonna say that, definitely, definitely gonna say
I'm gonna repeat it somethingfor everything for sure in the
cotswolds, um, what about um?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
practical tips for anybody planning to visit um, I
think I've touched on thisbefore when we've spoken, but
public transport or transport ingeneral in the Cotswolds, I
think this is probably thenumber one question that we get
asked as owners of a tourcompany how easy is it to get
around, especially if you don'thave a car and the answer is
(24:49):
it's not very easy to get around.
It is possible, there are buses,there are trains, but they tend
to only go to a limitedselection of places and you're
beholden to very infrequenttimetables.
Some villages only have likeone bus a week, for example.
So if you happen to stay inthat village and you haven't got
(25:10):
a car, then you know you're notgoing to be able to get
anywhere by public transportvery fast.
And the other thing I thinkagain, people that have perhaps
only visited cities in the UKkind of expect taxis and Uber to
be everywhere and it's not.
There's basically no Uber inthe Cotswolds.
Sometimes you can get lucky andget one, but it's kind of the
(25:32):
exception rather than the rule.
And a lot of the taxi companiesin this area are sole traders,
very small companies.
They only have one car or acouple of cars.
So if you want to go somewhereand you call their company and
say, hey, can you give me a ride, and they're like, well, no,
sorry, I've got another booking.
So you have to keep goingthrough a long list of taxi
operators to try and find onewith any availability.
(25:53):
So pre-booking taxis if you'regoing to use taxis is definitely
something that you need to do.
There's no uber and, uh yeah,transport can be quite difficult
.
So our suggestion, obviously,is to join a tour of the
cotswolds um, or, or to, or, tohave a car as well perfect.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And also also I know you've mentioned about adding
other places, rather than themost popular places, into your
itinerary.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
There are certain places in the Cotswolds that
everybody wants to go to becausethey are beautiful.
They're the places that you'veseen on the internet, on
Facebook, instagram and so on.
So I'm talking about placeslike Wharton-on-the-Water,
bybury, castle, coombe,stonewall, even and they are
very, very popular places.
They're busy.
(26:42):
They're popular for a reasonbecause they're beautiful, but
they do get very, very busy.
They're like the honeypotdestinations that draw the bees
in, so they can get very, verybusy.
I'm not saying don't go to thoseplaces, but there are lots of
places in the cotswolds that areworth seeing.
We have a secret cotswolds tourthat we launched last year,
(27:02):
which has been really popular,getting people a little bit off
the beaten track not going tocompletely quiet places, not
going to places that have nosoul or that are completely dead
, but going to places that haveno soul or that are completely
dead, but going to places thatare real, genuine places that
perhaps visitors wouldn't go tobecause they haven't heard of
them, but that are stillwonderful and I did the.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I did your Cotswold in a day to uh this year, I
think yes, it was this year andI I did the um.
I enjoyed the secret village,which I'm not going to reveal on
my Instagram.
I kept very stumped about whereI was, but you do actually get
with secret village on your, onyour consoles, and a day tour as
well, which is fun yeah, wecall it the secret village.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I mean it's not hard to find out where it is.
But yeah, we'd like to try andkeep that little bit of mystery,
just so that the the hordes ofof other tour companies and
other cars that you know, peopletraveling in their cars don't
don't congest that little tinyvillage, because it's really
small and it can't cope withmassive numbers of tourists
absolutely so what?
Speaker 1 (28:02):
before we go on to the q a, I'm going to ask the
one question I always ask at theend of every episode, which
everybody is always expectingwhat is the one tip you'd share
with someone who wants toexperience the cotswolds for the
first time?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
well, I've been, uh, running our guided tour company
for 10 years, so I've had lotsand lots of inquiries from the
visitors over the years um, thatthey want to try and do too
much.
And I don't know if this isnecessarily a cotswolds tip, but
it's a tip for planning travelin the uk, uh, and that is just
try not to do too much.
It's really tempting to try andsee everything, to tick every
(28:37):
box, but I think box ticking canultimately be unsatisfying.
In the Cotswolds there's loadsto see, there's loads to do and
we've mentioned it before, it'sa massive area.
So you can't although we have atour called Cotswolds in a day
that is slightly tongue-in-cheek, it's it's not possible to see
the Cotswolds in a day.
(28:57):
So I would say, slow down andalso be present.
Don't look at everythingthrough your camera.
Experience, don't just see, um,and that's where coming on a
tour with us, for example, is areally good thing to do, because
our, all of our guides arelocals and so you've got that
interaction with a local personwho can, you know, talk to you
(29:18):
about how it is, what, what lifeis like here, and you're not
just looking everything throughyour camera or through the
through a big coach window.
Um so I think that's that's mytop tip slow down in cotswolds.
The cotswolds is countryside,it's rural, it's a much slower
pace of life than big cities.
So do as the locals do and takeit a bit more slowly.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Definitely, and if you're considering, you know if
you've been in London for a fewdays and you consider going
somewhere to have a bit of aslower pace and a bit of a chill
out after the hectic time we'vehad in London, the Cotswolds is
the perfect idea absolutelyyeah, um, I saw recently on uh,
I think it came up on facebookor something.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I think it was an advert for some kind of ai
program on google or somethingand it was a video of um, this
young man, uh, who was stayingat a youth hostel in london.
He was an american guy stayingat a youth hostel in london and
it was dead.
This video was demonstratinghow amazing this ai app was on
his phone.
So he's walking around Londonand asking his phone hey, google
(30:21):
, whatever it was, what's thatstatue?
And the AI would tell him whatstatue was.
Hey, google, what's that museum, what's that building?
And he was just walking aroundLondon just talking to his phone
and part of me was thinkingwell, it's amazing what AI can
do, what AI knows and what AIcan tell, tell you.
But also, this guy hasn'tspoken to a single human being
on his whole trip and I thoughtthat was really quite sad and it
(30:43):
can be quite difficult to youknow, go and walk into a pub.
You can't just randomly go andstart talking to someone,
because that might be a bitweird.
But like coming going on a touror meeting local people, being
where locals are is such a niceway to get to know a place, I
think.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Oh, absolutely, I love tours and I've been out on
a few of your tours now and yourtour guides are amazing.
They're so friendly, soknowledgeable, they're so funny
and they're just.
I mean, I just have had so muchfun.
So, you know, I highlyrecommend booking going out with
you guys.
Go Cotswolds.
I've put a link in the shownotes and we have got a five
(31:23):
percent discount code as well,which I'll, which I'll, add in
as well.
Um, if you're booking with lisa, definitely, uh, go and check
out the link.
We inquire with lisa and getyourself booked in for at least
one tour.
You can do a couple of tourswith you guys.
You don't just offer cotswoldsin a day and the secret
cotswolds.
You're kind of, you're growingand doing more and more, aren't
you?
Yeah, we are.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
We have a Bath and Stonehenge tour.
We've got a Walks and Villagestour I think I mentioned earlier
, and, if you stay tuned, in thenext week or so we're about to
launch another tour which isBath and Southern Cotswolds as
well.
So stay tuned for that soexciting.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Now, I for that so exciting.
Now I'm going to go on to the qa, which comes from our I don't
know if you've had a chance tolook at them, so these might be
just going okay, so let's start.
So we've got a question fromjordan elizabeth wilkins.
Thanks, jordan, um, she saysshe's already booked tickets
with you guys, so that'sfantastic.
And she's going to stay inMorton and Marsh, so she's
wondering about things to seeand where to eat in Morton and
Marsh so Morton and Marsh is oneof those towns I mentioned
(32:25):
right at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
It's a good idea to just hang out in a town.
So Morton and Marsh is a verygenuine working town with and
it's got a lot of.
It's got a few hotels andairbnbs and accommodation,
because it's one of the fewtowns that has a train station
so it's very easy to get to andso, consequently, people are
visiting from london or oxfordor other parts of the uk find
(32:49):
themselves in morning marsh.
Morning marsh itself has gotlots of lovely independent shops
and tea rooms and bakeries andcafes, so it's a great place to
just wander and window shop andhave a cup of tea and have a
cream tea.
In terms of places to eat, oh,that's a good question.
There's my favorite for for anevening meal is a pub called
(33:13):
black bear.
Um, there's also a really goodthai called Siam Cottage and the
bakeries are great.
There's one called Otis andBell, there's one called Linwood
and Co.
There's some really amazingartisan bakeries.
So yeah, that's my tips.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Fantastic, so that's excellent.
Now I've got another questionfrom Karen Lee, so thanks, karen
, for this one.
So she wanted me to ask youabout the better days to visit
for ease of parking.
Now I know she wants to seequite a few of the Cotswolds
villages and towns, such asBurford, borton-on-the-water,
sirencester, stowe-on-the-wall.
Now she hasn't mentioned whattime of year that she's planning
to visit, but I know she wasplanning to visit.
(33:53):
She was hoping to visit midweekin her itinerary but she's
thinking it may not, it may be aweekend.
So she's kind of asking aboutparking and I know that's a bit
of a nightmare already.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, so if she's traveling in the winter or
spring or the autumn, sheprobably won't have a problem
parking at all in any of thoseplaces the very popular villages
and towns like Stonewall, likeOrton-on-the-Water.
They have big car parks sousually parking isn't a problem.
(34:24):
The only caveat to that is ifyou are travelling in the summer
on a weekend, particularly on abank holiday weekend, then you
may struggle to find parking.
Boughton-on-the on the water isparticularly challenging.
It gets very, very busy withpeople coming in their cars.
There was, unfortunately, um, arecent uh change that brought
(34:47):
on the water no longer allowscoaches to park in the village.
There was previously a bigcoach park which was very well
used by day trippers, but theyhave no longer allowed coaches
to park in the village.
So consequently that's caused afew problems because now
everyone comes in their cars soit gets very, very busy with
cars.
(35:08):
And the other problem it hascaused is that it's pushed the
coaches to other villages thatnormally have coach parking but
perhaps don't have such bigcoach parks and so tiny little
villages like Port Bybury aregetting overwhelmed with coach
tourism.
(35:30):
I don't have any answers to that.
We don't like to be part of theproblem.
We have small minibuses.
We can use coach parking.
We can use ordinary car parksas well.
So, yeah, it's challenging.
I wouldn't worry about it toomuch.
As long as you're not visitingon a bank holiday weekend in the
height of summer, then yeah,files are normally fine.
You might find that you need topark on street parking.
(35:50):
You might need on streetparking and pay attention to the
signs.
Double yellow lines mean youcannot park there.
Some people don't realize thatwhen you come from abroad, and
there are sometimes ticketmachines or parking metres and
that sort of thing, usually it'snot too much of a problem.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, you just have to keep an eye out.
I'm just thinking.
Last year I was at Guybury atthis time of year and on a
Sunday morning not the best timeto decide to go and visit we
gave up.
We ended up driving and wentand drove out again because it
was again, it was a lot of the,it was just so.
So it was a lovely winterweekend, but again weekend and
it was just.
It was overwhelmed actually andI was with my friend.
(36:29):
We drove through, went back outagain and went no, let's not.
And lower slaughter I also findcan be sometimes difficult.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah, lower slaughter doesn't allow coaches
or even minibuses of our sizethrough the village.
So again, you don't get the bigcoaches blocking the roads, but
you do get lots and lots ofcars.
Yeah, I do feel very sorry forpoor Bybrey.
At the moment it's the problemsin Boughton-on-the-Water have
kind of moved the problemsomewhere else and I'm not
(36:57):
really sure what the solution tothat is other than just don't
visit and don't park like anidiot.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
so yeah, you could share with you guys, and then
it's, it solves.
I think it's a bit like yeah, Ithink about the lake district
now and how 10 years, 20 yearsago in the lake district, I
remember we could not get parked, driving around there, and now
we don't.
We wouldn't even considertaking a car to the Lake
District because the publictransport is amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yeah, that's the problem that we have in the
Cotswolds the public transportis definitely not amazing so
yeah, I'm quite often in Friburythese days in the summer.
We will drop our customers andgo and then come back from later
.
That's kind of the only way wecan get around it yeah, but I
said that's.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
That's the advantage in the cotswolds, where, say,
public transport isn't good isif you don't want to drive and
you don't want to go through the.
You know the hassle maybe notbeing able to get part is is to
go with you guys and also thathas a less of a impact because
you have, you know, 15 people,or 16 people maximum, in your
minibus.
So that's the thing aboutmountain cars that are off the
(37:59):
road when they go out with youguys.
So yeah, yeah right, I have aone question through speakpipe
from laura adults and I'm gonnaplay this.
So thank you so much, laura,for this.
Let me play this see.
Hopefully this will work hi.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
If you were going to stay several days in the
Cotswolds, where would yourecommend someone stay to have
the best access for all theplaces to go and see?
Thank you from Laura inMassachusetts.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Thank you, Laura.
Well, I've kind of alreadymentioned it.
My topic for somewhere to stayin the Cotswolds is
Morton-in-Marsh.
As I mentioned earlier.
The Cotswolds has only a handfulof train stations.
In the Cotswolds, like maybefour or five, six different
villages have train stations andMorton-in-Marsh is one of those
(38:52):
towns.
So the really good thing aboutthat is that there is a direct
train line from London to MortonMarsh.
You can also get from Oxforddirectly to Moreton and Marsh.
It only takes half an hour fromOxford.
It's really really close,really quick, and so it's easy
to get to Moreton and Marsh,especially if you don't have a
car.
It's also one of the bettertowns for public transport.
(39:12):
If you're comparing theCotswolds to London, then
overall the Cotswolds publictransport is shockingly bad.
But Moreton and Marsh, beingthat hub with the train station
as well, does have a few usefulbuses that you can take to get
to various places of interest,including Bournemouth Water and
Stoneworld and Chipping Norn youcan get to by the bus as well,
(39:35):
and Blockley for the FatherBrown fans and Chipping Camorn
you can get to by the bus aswell, and Blockley for the Farth
of Brown fans and ChippingCamden as well.
So that is a good place to stayWith my biased hat on.
It is also the place where wepick up our passengers for our
tours of the Cotswolds, so it'sa really good place to stay.
Other places you can stay inthe Cotswolds, particularly if
you have your own car.
(39:56):
I would recommend Broadway.
It's beautiful, um, I thinkit's.
It's a bit quieter than some ofthe more popular villages, but
it's still a popular village.
So there's lots of reallyreally good museums.
The Broadway Museum isfantastic.
There's also the Gordon RussellDesign Museum.
There are amazing restaurants.
There's a brilliant.
(40:17):
If you like burgers, I highlyrecommend Flipside Burgers in
Broadway and the Ligonards Hotel, which is like this incredibly
old coaching inn.
It's amazing.
So Broadway is a really lovelyplace to stay, not so well
connected by public transport,but it is a good base if you've
got your own car, and the otherone I would suggest would be
(40:38):
Stourer World as well, forsimilar reasons.
Lots of places to visit, lotsof accommodation options, lots
of restaurants, pubs, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Perfect.
Well, thanks so much, lisa, foranswering everybody's questions
and for again agreeing to comeon the podcast third time.
Now, honestly, it's brilliant.
So if you're listening andthinking I've got a question,
I'd love to connect.
Then you can leave a message onSpeakPipe, you can join our
Facebook groups, lisa's in ourFacebook groups and obviously
(41:08):
you can message Lisa if you wantto start.
You're inquiring about bookinga tour with her this year or
next year.
She's very responsive.
She'll get back to you andshe'll she'll let you know
what's available.
So thanks so much, lisa.
Oh, you're welcome.
It's nice to speak to you again.
Thank you for tuning in to thisweek's episode of the uk travel
planning podcast.
(41:28):
As always, show notes can befound at uktravelplanningcom.
If you've enjoyed the show, whynot leave us feedback via text
or a review on your favouritepodcast app?
We love to hear from you and,you never know, you may receive
a shout out in a future episode.
But, as always, that justleaves me to say until next week
.
Happy UK travel planning.
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