NEW FOR 2023 - SELF DRIVE TOURS
Self Drive Tours
detailed descriptive itineraries for driving yourself around the Cotswolds
A bespoke service that designs the perfect itinerary for you, meeting all your needs and requirements. We'll take your ideas and suggestions, combine them with our expertise and knowledge and throw in a few hidden gems to create the perfect self drive itinerary that will give you the confidence and know-how to explore the best of the Cotswolds at a pace that suits you.
Self drive itineraries include detailed driving directions, parking advice, descriptive summaries of locations and specific advice on what to see and do in each location. Bring or source your own vehicle or we can arrange hire cars for you. Please note; these itineraries are not suitable for vehicles with more or less than four wheels.
What's the correct etiquette for encountering another vehicle on a road as wide as doormat? How should one overtake a horse safely and efficiently? If a farmer asks you to give one of his sheep a lift to the vet, what should you do? These and many other situations are covered in a self drive itinerary.
All areas of the Cotswolds are covered and visits to attractions and how to get the best out of visits to each one are also included. Places like Stonehenge, Blenheim Palace, Sudeley Castle, Snowshill Manor and Hidcote Manor Gardens can be featured.
We'll work with you to create a tailor made experience that includes visits to popular places at less busy times, hidden gems on less beaten paths and detailed directions on how to get there, where to park and what to look out for along the way.
We can include accommodation in your package to suit any budget; traditional B&B's, luxury hotels, farmhouses, thatched cottages or even shepherds huts and yurts. Whether you want the hustle and bustle of a lively Cotswold town, the charm of a picturesque village or a secluded stay in a hidden valley - we'll have something that suits you.
example itinerary below
Self Drive Itinerary Example
Links to hints are in purple
Everything else isn't either of these two things
Main stops today are: Burford, Bibury and Bourton on the Water
First leg from your accommodation in Stow on the Wold is to Burford:
Approx 10 miles
Approx 20 minutes
Mostly A road; well marked, good surface, fast and straight, max speed 60mph, sweeping views
Take the A429 south from Stow and at the set of lights at the bottom of the hill bear left onto the A424 Burford Rd. It’s a straight road from here until you get to the roundabout just outside Burford. Head over the bridge into town and take the second left into Church Lane. Follow this narrow road around a couple of tight bends; first right, then left until you see a bridge straight in front of you which will take you into a free car park with bathrooms. Bathrooms cost 20p.
Burford
Your first stop is the Cotswold Gateway town of Burford, which appeared in Forbes magazine as one of the top ten places to live in Europe in 2008. Its country lifestyle and setting has attracted celebrities and the wealthy, many of whom own second (and third!) homes here.
The main high street is an impressive collection of residential properties and commercial buildings, all built with Cotswold stone and dating back hundreds of years. Burford High St is bustling, interesting and photogenic.
Shops in Burford consist of high quality clothing stores like the Oxford Shirt Company; worthy of a visit if only to be amazed at the sheer size of the place and a small Joules store; pricey, colourful and smart. Both stores stock a good range of practical country wear; essential to locals for everyday use but now also high fashion in other parts of the world.
You’ll also find the Oxford brush shop, which has a brush for literally everything, where you'll realise just how many brushes you don't have that you need. There's also a stove shop and a shop that sells nothing but welly boots - you get the picture; this is VERY much a town for locals.
There’s a small convenience store as well as an excellent cheese shop, traditional butchers, interior design stores and a bookshop that also sells hats, of course. Their motto is; 'reading is dreaming with your eyes open'. Then of course there’s Huffkins; established in the late 1800’s this tea room has been providing cream teas and baked goods of the highest quality for more than a century. Try the Lardy cake, sounds disgusting and looks a little unappealing but you won’t regret it. Oh, and the queen orders a consignment of Lardies from Huffkins on a regular basis.
What’s Kooky about it?
Although on the must-see list for visitors, Burford is very much a local’s town and you’ll witness Cotswoldians going about their daily business on the high street; complaining about the weather, parking horse boxes in the smallest spaces, spilling out of Range Rovers for hair appointments and eating Lardy Cake from Huffkins.
King Henry VIII’s barber is buried in the church of St John the Baptist along with murdered soldiers, sheep rustlers, a stone carving of the earliest alien visitors and a mean rich bloke called Sir Lawrence Tanfield. All worth investigating.
Burford is good for: experiencing local life, photographs, historical significance and architecture
Around Burford (see map 2)
Once you’ve parked up, head back to the bridge you drove in on, smile at the ducks, avoid the angry swan and don't fall in the river. Walk back down the road you drove in on until you reach St John the Baptist Church. Check out the exterior, interior (see notes above) and then leave through the kissing gate on Lawrence Lane that leads back to the High St. Yes, you may kiss whoever you are with.
Explore the High St on both sides and only cross at the pedestrian crossing halfway up the street – don’t be tempted to nip across the road anywhere else. I had to put that in because if you sustain injury through bad advice I gave you I'll probably be liable and that means a lot of paperwork.
Make sure you go right to the top of the hill to get a closer look at the residential properties (including the one that used to be a meeting hall for farmers with a door high enough to accommodate horses, about halfway up on the right) and see some of the most desirable real estate in the Cotswolds for yourself. Turn around and face back down the High St for a terrific view.
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Next up is Bibury; only thirteen minutes and ten miles away by the most direct route – which you WONT be taking.
Instead you’re about to embark on a route through deep countryside visiting a bunch of tiny residential villages that most people coming to the Cotswolds never get to see which will take you about an hour. And remember, getting lost is half the fun!
Burford to Bibury
Approx 18 miles
Approx 50 mins
All B roads; narrow, windy, hilly, condition mostly ok but road worn at the sides in places, amazing views
HINT – When driving the Cotswolds on narrow lanes always take it steady as there are lots and lots of bends and dips. Keep your eyes on the road ahead and if you see a car approaching just pull in to the nearest passing place. Passing place ettiqutte
ANOTHER HINT – keep your eyes on your rear-view mirror too. You’ll want to enjoy the scenery here and I encourage you to do so but don’t hold people up. You don’t want a farmer in a hurry up your behind.
To get to Bibury via a very convoluted route: (see map 3)
Drive back over the bridge in Burford you drove in on and go left at the Roundabout. Take the first left – yes that one onto the narrow lane and continue until you reach the small village of Taynton. Notice the new thatched roof on your right at the entrance to the village. Marvel at the properties and the tranquillity of the place and continue through the village and out the other side.
Keep driving forwards and you’ll eventually come to the first of the Barrington Villages; Great Barrington. Take your time driving through this one too.
The Barrington’s are two small villages in the Barrington Parish and you can do some further reading on this area here. As you drive through the village notice the difference in construction of the dry-stone wall on either side of the road – mostly at the entrance to the village.
At the end of the village bear left past the cross and continue down the hill, past the gates on the right to the large manor house you can catch a glimpse of as you pass, around the bend, across the bridge and into Little Barrington. Follow the road up through the village and out the other side.
On the bank on your right you may see groups of budding artists sketching the pretty scene laid out before you. A local artist offers watercolour workshops for groups, mainly from Japan and China, who spend the day learning technique and reproducing this idyllic and tiny Cotswold scene before them. Apparently, if one were to go to certain parts of China or Japan, one could find many watercolours for sale in local art galleries of the same scene.
Pull up on the road on your right and park to the side if you’d like to stop for a few moments to enjoy the scene and take a few photos.
Continue driving up the hill until you come to a busy and fast main road; the A40. Drive straight over this and continue up the narrow farm track directly opposite. Keep driving until you come to a crossroads, continue straight on. All around you you’ll see farm fields growing Rapeseed, Barley and Wheat.
Some fields may be being used as pasture land – at the time of writing this it’s not clear what the farmer’s intentions are. Crop rotation in the Cotswolds tends to be the three crops mentioned above, corn (sometimes) and pasture land before the cycle continues again.
Keep driving until you come to second crossroads and take the road going off to your right signposted ‘eastleach’. This road is VERY narrow so take it nice and slow and don’t panic – there are plenty of pulling in places. Follow the road around the sharp bend and continue. Keep driving until you reach the village of Eastleach – you’ll want to make a stop here.
As you enter the village you’ll see a good example of a Norman church on your left. Drive over the bridge and park up behind the weeping willow tree. Position your vehicle on the road parallel with the dry-stone wall with two wheels on the grass – this will allow anyone driving past you to get past. Chances are – you won’t see another soul here though.
Walk back over the bridge, stopping to admire the lovely topiary in the private garden to your left. Can you see a peacock (or two) and a caterpillar among the designs? At the bridge, do an about turn for a great view of the village. Then admire the view on both sides of the bridge looking out over the water. You should see a wild trout or two hanging out beneath the bridge and a family of swans lurking somewhere nearby.
Follow the churchyard wall around to the right, notice how all the gravestones only occupy the upper part of the graveyard – the river Leach has been prone to bursting its banks and flooding the cemetery grounds – so no bodies can be buried below a certain level.....
continues....