{"id":358871,"date":"2026-07-30T19:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/where-to-go-and-what-to-skip\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T19:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:15:19","slug":"where-to-go-and-what-to-skip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=358871","title":{"rendered":"Where to Go and What to Skip"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I lived in Bath for four years, right on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, and I\u2019ve been going back ever since. My brother lives in the region now, so this is an area I know reasonably well.<\/p>\n

The short answer to this guide is that all the Cotswold villages are beautiful.<\/p>\n

This is actually a problem if you only have two or three days and a rental car. So this guide is designed to help you figure out which ones earn a detour, which are only worth it if your route already goes that way, and which one you can skip without missing anything. That\u2019s a ranking of how far I\u2019d drive for each one, not of how pretty they are. There isn\u2019t a bad village on this list.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s what this is. Fifteen villages, each with a straight verdict, plus the two things that decide whether the day works at all: where you park, and what time you turn up.<\/p>\n

If you only have one day, go to Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold and Lower Slaughter. They sit close together in the northern Cotswolds, they\u2019re all quite different from each other, and you can do all three of them well in a day. If you have two days, add Bibury and Painswick. Three or four villages a day is the right number. It will mean you spend more time enjoying what\u2019s on offer and less time trying to find parking. Which is a real problem.<\/p>\n

The one I\u2019d personally skip is Shilton. More on that below.<\/p>\n

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Cotswold Villages at a Glance<\/h2>\n

Verdicts are mine. Prices, hours and parking rules come from the operators and councils themselves, and I\u2019ve said so where I couldn\u2019t confirm something instead of guessing at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Village<\/th>\nArea<\/th>\nVerdict<\/th>\nWhy<\/th>\nParking<\/th>\nBest time to arrive<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Broadway<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nBroadway Tower on the hill above, and the town holds up too<\/td>\nCash or card<\/td>\nBefore 10am<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chipping Campden<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a detour<\/td>\nThe 1627 Market Hall, and the start of the Cotswold Way<\/td>\nCard or app, no cash<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stanton<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nThe Cotswold Way runs through it, and the Mount Inn\u2019s view over the Vale of Evesham<\/td>\nFree<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Blockley<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nTwelve silk mills along the brook, and the Father Brown village<\/td>\nFree but limited<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stow-on-the-Wold<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a detour<\/td>\nThe yew door at St Edward\u2019s, open daily and free<\/td>\nCard or app, no cash<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bourton-on-the-Water<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a detour<\/td>\nThe Windrush and its bridges, plus three paid attractions<\/td>\nRissington Road, free before 10am<\/td>\nBefore 10am<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lower Slaughter<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a detour<\/td>\nThe mill stream, and nothing you have to queue for<\/td>\nNo bus, walk from Bourton<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Upper Slaughter<\/td>\nNorth<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nThe quieter half of the pair, a short walk up the valley<\/td>\nWalk from Lower Slaughter<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bibury<\/td>\nCentral<\/td>\nWorth a detour<\/td>\nArlington Row, free, and the reason the coaches come<\/td>\nNo council car park, trout farm \u00a310<\/td>\nBefore 10am<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Burford<\/td>\nCentral<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nA High Street that runs downhill to the river, church free<\/td>\nFree, every council car park<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shilton<\/td>\nCentral<\/td>\nSkip unless passing<\/td>\nA Norman church, a very old traditional river crossing (ford) and a pub, and that\u2019s the list<\/td>\nNot in the district\u2019s car park inventory<\/td>\nDoesn\u2019t matter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painswick<\/td>\nSouth<\/td>\nWorth a detour<\/td>\nRococo Garden, and the best village here to spend a night<\/td>\nStamages Lane, different council rules<\/td>\nEarly morning or evening<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Castle Combe<\/td>\nSouth<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nNo ticketed sight at all, which is rather the point<\/td>\nVillage car park, fills fast<\/td>\nBefore 10am, not a bank holiday<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lacock<\/td>\nSouth<\/td>\nWorth a stop<\/td>\nCranford, Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice, all on one street<\/td>\nNational Trust, \u00a35 a day<\/td>\nBefore 10am<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cirencester<\/td>\nCentral<\/td>\nNot a village, worth it anyway<\/td>\nThe Corinium Museum, and a market town that still works<\/td>\nCard or app, no cash<\/td>\nAny time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Most of the point of visiting the villages in the Cotswolds is just to see the village with its pretty houses and streets. There won\u2019t necessarily be a lot to \u201cdo\u201d, which is fine, but something to be aware of.<\/p>\n

And read that verdict column as a route-planning tool rather than a scoreboard. Six villages get \u201cworth a detour\u201d because six is a realistic number to build two days around, not because the rest are second best. Broadway, Lacock and Castle Combe are all lovely and all in here on merit. If your route runs past one, go.<\/p>\n

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Broadway<\/h2>\n

\"Broadway<\/p>\n

Broadway is worth a stop rather than a detour, and the reason to come at all is standing on the hill above the town.<\/p>\n

Broadway Tower is a folly of 1798 to 1799, designed by James Wyatt for the 6th Earl of Coventry as a present for his wife. It\u2019s about 65 feet tall, or 20 metres, and it sits on Broadway Hill at 1,024 feet above sea level, which makes it the second highest point in the Cotswolds.<\/p>\n

Those two numbers get run together a lot, so to be clear: 312 metres is the hill, 20 metres is the tower. The Saxon-revival styling confuses people too. It\u2019s a Georgian folly on a big hill, and it\u2019s a terrific one.<\/p>\n

The tower is open year-round. The nuclear bunker in the grounds runs on guided tours only, weekends and bank holidays from April to October, and the espresso bar opens at 9.30am if you\u2019ve come up early. Down in the town, the High Street is worth the walk before the day traffic arrives.<\/p>\n

Broadway also has a decent spread of places to stay<\/a>, and it\u2019s a reasonable base if you want to be within twenty minutes of most of the northern villages. Stopping and staying are different questions, and Broadway is better at the second one.<\/p>\n

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Chipping Campden<\/h2>\n

\"Chipping<\/p>\n

Chipping Campden is the one I\u2019d send a first-time visitor to if they could only pick one, and it\u2019s the northern end of the Cotswold Way.<\/p>\n

The Cotswold Way<\/a> runs 102 miles from here to Bath, which gives the town a nice bit of purpose that some of the smaller villages don\u2019t have. You\u2019ll see walkers setting off with proper packs on.<\/p>\n

The Market Hall was built in 1627 for Sir Baptist Hicks, cost \u00a390 at the time, and is now Grade I listed and owned by the National Trust. It\u2019s an open-sided arcade standing in the middle of the High Street, so there\u2019s no gate and no ticket, you just walk through it. In the 1940s it was nearly sold to an American buyer and the town raised the money to keep it.<\/p>\n

Go into St James\u2019s church while you\u2019re here and look for the fifteenth-century brass to William Grevel, described on it as the \u201cflower of the wool merchants of all England\u201d. That brass is the whole economic history of these villages in one slab of metal, and I\u2019ll come back to why in a bit.<\/p>\n

Parking is Cotswold District, so a contactless card works at the machine. Places to stay in Chipping Campden<\/a> are on the pricier side for the region, but it\u2019s a lovely town to wake up in.<\/p>\n

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Stanton<\/h2>\n

\"Stanton<\/p>\n

Stanton is worth a stop if your route already passes, and not a detour of its own.<\/p>\n

It sits on the lane between Laverton and Snowshill, so it falls naturally into a northern loop that\u2019s already taking in Broadway. There\u2019s nothing to buy a ticket for, which is a large part of why it stays quiet while Broadway fills up a few miles away. Twenty minutes and a walk to the end of the street is about right.<\/p>\n

The Cotswold Way comes down off the escarpment straight into the village, which is why you\u2019ll pass walkers here on a weekday morning when nobody else is about. Walk up to the top end and the Mount Inn sits on the rise above the houses, looking out across the Vale of Evesham to the Malverns. That\u2019s the view Stanton is actually for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blockley<\/h2>\n

\"Blockley<\/p>\n

Blockley works as a stop on the way to somewhere else, and I\u2019d only point you at it if you\u2019re heading over towards Batsford anyway.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a real village that happens to be in the Cotswolds rather than a village that exists to be looked at, and some people much prefer that, of course.<\/p>\n

And it earned that the hard way. Twelve mills once ran along Blockley Brook, and by the end of the eighteenth century most had been converted to silk throwing, with the throwsters brought down from Coventry to twist the thread. Cotswold District\u2019s own conservation statement calls the chain of mills an unusual example of the industrial revolution in the Cotswolds. The trade went into a long decline after the Napoleonic Wars and most of the mills were out of use by 1900, but the brook, the mill ponds and the leats are still there to walk along.<\/p>\n

The BBC has filmed Father Brown in the village since 2012, using the church and the vicarage, which is the other reason people come.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re on a tight two days, though, it isn\u2019t where I\u2019d spend them.<\/p>\n

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Stow-on-the-Wold<\/h2>\n

\"Stow-on-the-Wold<\/p>\n

\"Stow-on-the-Wold<\/p>\n

Stow is worth a detour, and you can\u2019t miss the door.<\/p>\n

The north door of St Edward\u2019s church is flanked by two ancient yew trees that have grown into the doorway until they read as part of the building. The porch went up around three centuries ago and the yews were planted as saplings at the time to frame it.<\/p>\n

The parish\u2019s own description of the church is that it\u2019s \u201cboth a tourist destination with its famous North Door and a faithful and prayerful worshipping community\u201d, and that \u201cpeople come from all over the world to take photographs of it\u201d. That\u2019s a pretty generous way of putting it when you\u2019re the ones sweeping up afterwards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s open every day, 9am to 5pm in summer and 9am to dusk in winter, and there\u2019s no charge to go in. The \u00a33 you\u2019ll see quoted is for a guided tour, not for walking through the door.<\/p>\n

Now, the Tolkien story. You\u2019ll read everywhere that this door inspired the Doors of Durin in The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. It\u2019s a lovely idea and nobody can substantiate it. Stow and District Civic Society says plainly that \u201cthis is still just a rumour, and nobody has so far authenticated it\u201d, and the parish\u2019s own news page puts it down to the vicar\u2019s hunch.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s one detail that settles it for me. In Tolkien\u2019s text, the Doors of Durin stand between two hollies<\/em>. Stow\u2019s are yews. The single thing the legend rests on doesn\u2019t match the book.<\/p>\n

Go and see the door anyway. It\u2019s remarkable and the story of how it actually got that way, with two saplings planted three hundred years ago by somebody who had no idea, is better than the made-up one. Parking is Cotswold District, card or app. Stow is my pick for a northern base<\/a>, since it\u2019s the most central of the towns up here.<\/p>\n

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Bourton-on-the-Water<\/h2>\n

\"Bourton-on-the-Water<\/p>\n

Bourton is worth a detour and it\u2019s the most crowded village in this guide, so the whole trick is timing.<\/p>\n

The River Windrush runs straight through the middle under a row of low stone footbridges, and at 8.30am it\u2019s about as lovely as England gets. By midday in summer, the coaches from London have landed and you\u2019re queuing to cross a bridge. I\u2019ll come back to the coaches further down, because Bourton\u2019s situation is more interesting than the headlines suggest.<\/p>\n

The practical detail worth having: Bourton\u2019s council car park on Rissington Road now charges from 10am to 8pm, any day including bank holidays, after the district council moved the window in March 2026. The window shifted later at both ends, which nobody reported, and it means parking at Rissington Road is free before 10am<\/strong>. That\u2019s the same hour you want to be there anyway.<\/p>\n

Three paid attractions sit within a few minutes of each other, and between them they\u2019ll fill half a day:<\/p>\n