Finding the best cotswolds england suitable for your needs isnt easy. With hundreds of choices can distract you. Knowing whats bad and whats good can be something of a minefield. In this article, weve done the hard work for you.
Reviews
1. The Cotswolds & Gloucestershire (OS Tour Map #8) 1:100K
Description
The OS Tour Map series is a must for anyone visiting Britain's most popular holiday destinations. These maps are packed with essential tourist information - from the best beaches to rural pubs, designed specifically with Tourists in mind. All county boundaries are clearly marked and as well as showing motorways and main roads, the maps also pinpoint many minor roads, national & regional cycle routes.2. Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds
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Secret Gardens of the CotswoldsDescription
Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds is a captivating photographic portrait of the greatest British gardens and the lords, ladies and gardeners who own and manage them, with a focus on the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It features 20 gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. The lively text explores the design and planting achieved and the rich tradition of garden making in this beautiful corner of England.
This is a very personal view by photographer Hugo Rittson-Thomas and journalist Victoria Summerley, both residents of this green pocket with more than its fair share of beautiful and interesting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savoured and enjoyed along with those who know them best.
3. OL45 The Cotswolds, Burford, Chipping Campden, Cirencester & Stow-on-the Wold 1:25K (OS Explorer Map)
Description
OS Explorer is the Ordnance Survey's most detailed map and is recommended for anyone enjoying outdoor activities like walking, horse riding and off-road cycling. The OS Explorer range of OL maps now includes a digital version of the paper map, accessed through the OS smartphone app, OS Maps. Providing complete GB coverage the series details essential information such as youth hostels, pubs and visitor information as well as rights of way, permissive paths and bridleways.4. Fodor's England 2016: with the Best of Wales (Full-color Travel Guide)
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Fodor s England 2016 with the Best of Wales Full color Travel GuideDescription
Written by locals, Fodor's travel guides have been offering expert advice for all tastes and budgets for 80 years.With its irresistible mix of storied heritage and cosmopolitan pizzazz, England attracts more than 3 million Americans each year.Fodor's Englandcaptures the most memorable sights and experiences in dazzling color, from fabulous historic houses and age-mellowed towns to cozy country pubs and London's cutting-edge galleries.
This travel guide includes:
Dozens of full-color maps plus a handy pullout map with essential information
Hundreds of hotel and restaurant recommendations, with Fodor's Choice designating our top picks
Multiple itineraries to explore the top attractions and whats off the beaten path
In-depth breakout features on The Tower of London, Stonehenge, and English gardens
Major sights such as Yorkshire Dales, Brighton and Its Seafront, Bath, Stonehenge and Avebury, Hadrian's Wall, London, Oxford and Cambridge, Coastal Cornwall, Cotswold Villages, and Lake District
Coverage of: London; The Southeast; The South; The West Country; The Thames Valley; Bath and the Cotswolds; Stratford-upon-Avon and the Heart of England; Manchester, Liverpool, and the Peak District; The Lake District; East Anglia; Yorkshire; The Northeast; Wales
Planning to focus on London? Check out Fodor's travel guide to London.
5. Cotswolds Memoir: Discovering a Beautiful Region of Britain on a Quest to Buy a 17th Century Cottage
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Used Book in Good ConditionDescription
The ultimate laugh-out-loud, good life, house-hunting, foodie, travel-tour, meet the eccentric locals, roller-coaster cliff hanger, fun memoir. A love note to the Cotswolds, one of the most beautiful regions ofEngland.After British-born, comedy actress Diz White found herself craving Yorkshire Pudding at every meal she knew her roots were pulling her back from Hollywood to her homeland.
It was time to buy a Cotswolds Cottage!
Her roller-coaster, often laugh-out-loud, search doubles as a travel-tour (travel guide included) that takes in every delight of the Cotswolds: historic sites, hog roasts, hiking the Cotswolds Way and pub walks with her husband, often bagging the walk in favor of a slightly boozy lunch. There were highs, heartbreaks and cliff-hangers as she scrambled between Hollywood, taking every wacky acting job offered, and the Cotswolds, looking for a cottage bargain. On the way she was charged by a bull named Chasin' Mason, auditioned for the hind end of a horse and was trampled by thirty children while wearing a bear suit. But the fondness she developed for this region and its vivid inhabitants gave her a feeling of community missing from her busy urban existence. Will this author's dream become a reality? Find out in this witty love note to the Cotswolds.
'Extremely entertaining, funny and beautifully written.'
Katie JarvisCotswold Life Magazine
'I fell about laughing at Diz White's book, her hilarious showbiz stories woven into her hunt for a cottage are a hoot.... her writing allows you to not only imagine you are there but to feel you have embraced the heart of the Cotswolds. A great holiday read or a great read anytime.'
Debbie McGeeBBC Radio Berkshire
'It's enchanting....very funny. Diz White paints a nostalgic and affectionate canvas.'
Steven Leigh Morris, Critic-at-LargeL.A.Weekly
CotswoldsMemoiris a rip-roaring new book'
TristanCork,Western Daily Press
'Wakes us up to the joys on our doorstep.'
Sue Bradley,Gloucestershire Echo
'More entertaining thanUnder the Tuscan Sun.'
William Greenleaf,Greenleaf Literary
'Cotswolds Memoir will hook you from the very first page. It's well researched with good information - it has a great travel guide at the end - but is also filled with entertaining anecdotes. If you haven't visited the Cotswolds - or even if you have - you'll want to pack your bags and go!'
Monica B. MorrisGoodnight Children Everywhere
'As enchanting as Bill Bryson'sNotes From a Small Island.'
Wanda Ventham
Actress/Cotswold resident,Midsomer Murders, Dr Who
6. The Cotswolds: Including Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford and Bath (Bradt Slow Travel)
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The Cotswolds Including Stratford Upon Avon Oxford and BathDescription
In this new, thoroughly updated edition of Bradt's The Cotswolds (Slow Travel series), resident expert author Caroline Mills shares more of her favorite places in a region that remains as popular as ever. The area covered includes: the Cotswold AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), the Cotswold escarpment, hills and valleys, the Wiltshire Cotswolds and the area known as the Four Shires, along with the lesser-known 'hidden' fringes of the Cotswolds. Also included are the three Cotswold 'gateways': Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath and Oxford. Caroline Mills has lived and worked in the region for over 40 years and writes in an entertaining and engaging first-person narrative combined with authoritative information.
Organized into locales to encourage you to slow down and make it easier to discover smaller areas in greater depth, the guide includes features such as interviews with locals who bring character to the region, activities to try with children, personally selected places to eat, drink and stay, coverage of the Arts and Crafts movement, and plenty of options for car-free travel: walking, cycling, river boats and local buses and trains.
Highlights of particular note include Highgrove Gardens, the home of HRH The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall; Oxford University; the Royal Shakespeare Company/Theatre; the Roman Baths, Bath (a UNESCO World Heritage Site); the American Museum in Britain (dedicated to colonial America and the only museum of its kind outside the United States); Bibury, in particular Arlington Row and villages such as The Slaughters, Snowshill and Castle Combe; UNESCO World Heritage Site Blenheim Palace.
Featured within the guide are quirky events such as the Cheese-Rolling competition and Tetbury's Woolsack Races; numerous and distinguished breweries and micro-breweries, including the famous Hook Norton Brewery, Bath Ales, Uley Brewery and Stroud Brewery; Oxford University, the world's oldest, and the source of England's longest river, the Thames.
The Cotswolds rich and diverse man-made heritage includes many famous castles and country houses: Blenheim Palace, Sudeley Castle, Chavenage and Kelmscott; well-known abbeys such as Prinknash, Hailes; and gardens and estates including Painswick Rococo Garden, Westonbirt Arboretum and Highgrove. Roman history is covered, too, notably in Bath and Cirencester, together with the Fosse Way, one of the most important Roman roads in the country.
The Cotswolds continues to endear itself to anyone who visits its harmonious combination of quintessentially English villages, charming provincial market towns, interesting and appealing countryside and a wealth of local food-and-drink producers makes it an all-year-round destination, whether for a day trip, a quiet weekend away or a multi-week holiday. The region offers an incredible array of accommodation from unique country-house hotels to delightful farmhouse B&Bs on working farms, luxurious self-catering cottages to glamping and camping in secluded countryside. Visitors that have a particular passion or interest for gardens, the Arts & Crafts Movement, historic buildings, walking, horse riding or rural pursuits are well provided for within the Cotswolds.