Yes, it’s the Cotswolds. Yes, it’s full of second-home owners and people in Joules gilets. Go anyway.
Vibe: Romantic, slow, slightly smug
Area: The Cotswolds
Best for: Long-term couples / “we genuinely need to get away” energy
Budget: £££
Length: Weekend (2 days)
Here’s the thing – strip back the Instagram-cottage aesthetic and the Cotswolds is genuinely one of the best weekend escapes from London if you do it right. Two nights, a good car playlist, and the willingness to leave your phone in your pocket occasionally. That’s the brief.
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Getting there
Don’t faff about with the train connections. Hire a car, split the cost, and make the drive part of it – it’s under two hours from London on a good run and the A44 into Chipping Campden is frankly beautiful once you’re off the motorway. Make a playlist in advance. This matters.
Where to stay
If you’ve planned ahead – and for this one, you should – book through Canopy & Stars. They have a handful of genuinely special spots in and around the Cotswolds, including treehouses, and staying in one is the kind of decision that makes the whole weekend feel like a film. Personally inspected, no algorithmic nonsense, and the kind of places you’ll be thinking about on the commute home two weeks later. Book early – they go. Oh and some are dog friendly, just make sure you filter.
If you’ve left it too late for that, The Wheatsheaf in Northleach is independently owned, good food downstairs, and rooms that don’t try too hard. Or if you want a splurge and don’t mind a short drive, No.131 in Cheltenham has the kind of bar situation that tends to make you cancel dinner plans.
Saturday
Start in Burford. It gets written off as touristy but the high street tumbling down to the river is objectively pretty and the Saturday morning crowd is bearable before 11am. Get coffee and a pastry at Huffkins and eat it on the bridge like you’re in a film you’d never admit to liking.
From Burford, drive to Bourton-on-the-Water – yes, the one with the little rivers running through the village centre. It is as sweet as it looks and you will take photos despite yourself. Don’t stay long. The best thing to do is walk out of the village centre onto the wider footpaths and get ten minutes of actual quiet.
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Lunch at The Chequers in Churchill – a proper Cotswolds pub that hasn’t been hollowed out for the tourist trade. Sit in the garden if it’s not freezing. Order whatever the special is.
Spend the afternoon in Stow-on-the-Wold. The antique shops are good if you’re into that sort of thing, and even if you’re not, wandering in and out of them is a solid way to spend an hour. There’s a bookshop. There’s always a bookshop. You know what to do.
Dinner back wherever you’re staying, or drive to The Wild Rabbit in Kingham if you’re celebrating something. It’s a Bamford place so it skews a bit wellness-retreat-in-a-fleece but the food is excellent and the room is warm and dark and good.
Sunday
Get up early enough to actually earn breakfast. There are walks from almost every village – the Winchcombe to Sudeley Castle loop is under four miles and gives you a ruined castle, which is a strong return on investment for a Sunday morning.
Breakfast or brunch at 5 North Street in Winchcombe, which is small and needs a booking but is worth the planning. Or just find a farm shop with a cafe attached – there are several and they’re uniformly good.
On the way back to London, stop at Daylesford Organic in Kingham. It will cost you more than you planned to spend and you’ll buy bread and a candle and a jar of something you didn’t need. This is fine. It’s part of the experience.
A few notes
Wellies or proper walking shoes – not because we’re telling you what to wear, but because you’ll resent yourself otherwise. Book dinner on Saturday in advance. The good places fill up and the fallback options in tourist-heavy villages are grim. If you’re going in spring, the countryside between Chipping Campden and Broadway on the Cotswold Way stretch is worth building an afternoon around.
That’s it. Go.
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