A quick getaway to the Cotswolds

I spent the last bank holiday weekend of August in the stunning Cotswolds with my parents. We stayed in the tiny but dreamy village of Stanton. This idyllic village has the sort of buildings you would expect to find in a rom-com... or Midsomer Murders. The village no longer has any shops or amenities - all of these buildings have been turned into homes - but it's a short drive into Broadway where you can find plenty of food and cafes. The cottage where we stayed was in a converted barn - although you wouldn't know from how perfectly it had been finished.

I arrived on a Friday evening by train. It was an easy journey from Paddington Station and very achievable after work on a Friday. While you can easily get the train to Moreton-in-the-Marsh and Cheltenham, I wouldn't recommend visiting the Cotswolds without a car to use when you get there (I met my parents at the station with their hire car).

On Saturday, after a customary sleep in and a cooked breakfast, we set out for a hike from Broadway to Broadway Tower and back again. This was a fairly easy circuit walk and only took us a couple of hours. The view coming up to Broadway Tower was nice but I'd say this walk probably wasn't quite challenging enough for us. After arriving back at Broadway, we had a very English lunch of sandwiches and tea and then made our way to Broadway Museum and Art Gallery. I had seen this gallery online and not known a great deal about it but we struck gold! There was a visiting exhibition inside by Willard Wigan and the artist was there himself. Willard Wigan makes the most incredible microscopic sculptures. If you haven't seen them, you really should check them out. The sculptures are so small that many are within the eye of a needle and almost all of them need to be viewed using a microscope. They really are amazing!

Sunday absolutely poured with rain but we didn't let the weather hold us back. We first visited a beautiful old church in Winchcombe and then made our way to Cheltenham to visit Olive Clothing. This beautiful clothing brand is designed and partially made in the Cotswolds. While it is available online, the only physical store is in Cheltenham. We then drove down some of the historic streets of Cheltenham in the Montpellier area before driving to Cirencester.

Cirencester is an incredibly historic city. In fact, it dates back to Roman England. While you can't see much Roman architecture in the city today, I recommend a visit to the Corinium Museum, which is full of the history of this amazing area. It's hard to believe that beautiful Roman mosaic floors once existed in England! Like most towns and cities in the Cotswolds, Cirencester has an amazing wool church, the name given to the magnificent churches in this area that were paid for by the wealth that came from the mediaeval wool trade.

We then drove through Bibury, my favourite village that we visited. I had read about Bibury being the most beautiful village in England, but we almost didn't go there. I'm so glad we did! Arlington Row, a famous old row of rambling cottages, really is amazing to look at. The history of these old villages is something else. Aside from Arlington Row, there are also plenty of other beautiful buildings in Bibury to look at. We only stopped late in the day on our way to dinner, but it did look like a nice village to stop for afternoon tea.

We had a booking for dinner at The Old Butchers in Stow-on-the-Wold. I'm so glad we decided to go here for dinner - it was such a treat! This is the sort of restaurant you go to for one of the most incredible meals you've had in a while without a pretentious vibe. The Old Butchers have a lot of amazing seafood on the menu - we all had absolutely delicious fish for dinner. Prior to dinner, we also stopped for a quick drink at a historic pub across the road, The Porch House, which is England's oldest inn.

Monday was sadly the last day left in the Cotswolds for me. We decided to go on another hike in the morning, this time on part of the Cotswolds Way. We managed to get slightly off track, as tends to happen when you're meandering through farms, but somehow still got home within about 2.5 hours. This walk was more scenic than the circuit walk to Broadway Tower and took us through forested areas, across farms and past beautiful farmhouses.

After our walk, we made an excellent decision to have lunch at The Mount Inn in Stanton (the only food outlet in the entire village). As you can guess by the name, this pub is perched on a hill with spectacular views across the valley. Aside from the amazing view, we also had a delicious lunch. I highly recommend stopping at this pub if you happen to be going through Stanton.

We spent the last bit of the day exploring Chipping Campden, another historic town. Chipping Campden is known for an incredibly old market hall, which is on the main street. There are also a few craft museums in the town including The Gallery at The Guild and Court Barn Museum. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Court Barn Museum since we thought it was closed (and then it turned out it wasn't but was too late to go in). A least I have a good reason to go back to Chipping Campden!

I then made my way back to the train station in Moreton-in-the-Marsh and back to London. This was such a lovely weekend away, I will have the visit the Cotswolds again.