Wonderful tour company used to tour the Cotswolds from our stay at Thyme Manor Estate in Southrop. The driver was interesting, flexible to include our particular interests,& very knowledgeable. Highly recommend!
Bespoke Itineraries
Cotswold Escapes
Hand-picked accommodation, private touring with expert driver-guides and every transfer taken care of, from the moment you arrive until the day you leave.
“Every itinerary below is a starting point. Fully flexible, fully bespoke, built around you.”
Shaped Entirely Around You
From your first call to your final farewell, one local planner looks after everything. And we mean everything. The experiences that match your interests, from private garden tours to falconry. Tickets and timed entries, arranged before you ever think to ask. Lunch tables in centuries-old pubs and dinner reservations at the finest tables in the countryside, with your driver returning in the evening to take you there and home again. Theatre in London’s West End, or Shakespeare performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the town where he was born. A day at the races, international rugby, the events the English plan their year around. And the places only locals know: quiet lanes, hidden viewpoints, the corners of the Cotswolds the coach tours never reach.
You’ll have one phone number, one familiar voice, morning to night, from the moment you land to the moment you leave.
Everything You Need, All in One Place
Three things make a Cotswold Tour escape effortless. We arrange each one, together or separately.
Accommodation
From boutique countryside inns to 5-star spa hotels, we hand-pick every room through our local partnerships. Stay in one perfect base or split your time between two: a manor house in the north, a riverside inn in the south. We know the owners, the best rooms and which fires are lit in winter, and we’ll never book you somewhere we wouldn’t happily stay ourselves.
Private Tours
Daily touring with expert driver-guides who know every lane, viewpoint and quiet corner of the Cotswolds. Villages, palaces, gardens and filming locations: the same private tours you’ll find on our Tours page, woven around your pace, with pub lunches booked and doors opened along the way. No queues, no coach parties, no schedule but your own.
Transfers
We can collect you from anywhere: any airport, seaport, station, hotel or home address, with London and Heathrow our most popular pickups. From there we’re your wheels for the whole of your stay, from evening restaurant runs and spontaneous detours to a smooth onward transfer to your next destination or flight home. We have vehicles to suit every group size and luggage load, and all child seats are provided.
Four escapes to start the conversation, every one of them yours to reshape
What follows is a flavour of what’s possible, nothing more. No two escapes we build are the same, because no two guests are. Tell us what you love, whether that’s gardens or castles, walking or wine, Churchill or Downton Abbey, and your own Escape planner shapes the whole thing around you. Swap days, add nights, slow the pace, change everything. Nothing is fixed until it feels exactly right.
The Long Weekend
Example · 3 days · 2 nights · every day a touring day
For travellers with less time who want to see it all, often woven around a London stay. No wasted days: the journeys out and back are part of the adventure.
Day 1
London to the countryside, the grand way. We collect you from Heathrow or your London hotel, and within the hour you’re somewhere extraordinary. It might be Blenheim Palace: birthplace of Winston Churchill, seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, and one of the grandest houses in all of England, its 2,000 acres landscaped in the 1760s. Or Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, where you can stand in courtyards that taught 28 British prime ministers and walk the corridors that became Hogwarts on film. One, or both if you land early. Then on to your hotel, with dinner booked for your first evening.
Day 2
The classic north. This is the England you’ve imagined: hills of honey-coloured stone, sheep-dotted fields stitched with hedgerows, and villages that haven’t much changed since they grew rich on wool six hundred years ago. Chipping Campden’s curved high street of golden limestone; Broadway, the “jewel of the Cotswolds” that drew artists and writers for a century; Hidcote’s world-famous garden rooms in season; a proper pub lunch in Stow-on-the-Wold, the ancient hilltop market town whose yew-flanked church door is said to have inspired Tolkien; and to finish, the riverside footpath between Upper and Lower Slaughter, two villages so peaceful their name (from the old English for “muddy place”) is the only harsh thing about them.
Day 3
South, and home in style. The southern wolds on the way back to London. Arlington Row in Bibury, the huddle of weavers’ cottages William Morris called the most beautiful in England; you may recognise it from your passport if you’ve visited before, it’s that photographed. Then Roman Cirencester, once the second city of Roman Britain; Tetbury’s antique shops near King Charles’s country home; Castle Combe, voted the prettiest village in England so often it’s stopped being news; and a final lunch at Lacock, the medieval village preserved whole by the National Trust, whose abbey cloisters played Hogwarts’ corridors and whose streets stood in for Downton. Then a smooth run to your London hotel or Heathrow.
From £2,259 per person
based on two sharing · a party of four from £1,350 per person · guide price, varies with hotel choice and season
The Complete Cotswolds
Example · 5 days · 4 nights · Our most requested escape
The essential English countryside, done properly: the famous north, the quieter south, a day of Oxford and Blenheim grandeur, and every evening already arranged.
Day 1
Arrive in comfort, with time to spare. We meet you at Heathrow arrivals or your London hotel, name board up and luggage handled, and bring you west in comfort while England unfolds outside the window. Add a stop if you’d like one: Windsor Castle, the oldest inhabited castle on earth and the King’s weekend home, or Highclere Castle, the real Downton Abbey, on its open dates. Then check in, breathe out, and stroll to a dinner we’ve already booked.
Day 2
The classic north. Wool made this corner of England rich in the Middle Ages, and the merchants spent their fortunes on churches and golden-stone towns that time then politely left alone. Chipping Campden’s marketplace has stood since 1627; Dover’s Hill looks over the whole green patchwork of the Vale of Evesham; tiny Snowshill hides up a lane the coaches can’t manage. Lunch in Stow-on-the-Wold, then the Slaughters, where you can walk the riverside path between the two villages while we bring the car around, finishing among the low stone bridges of Bourton-on-the-Water, the “Venice of the Cotswolds.”
Day 3
The southern wolds. Bibury’s Arlington Row, the most photographed street in England, before the crowds arrive. Tetbury, where the antique dealers cluster near King Charles’s Highgrove estate. Castle Combe, England’s prettiest village by common consent, its market cross untouched since the 14th century. And a long, lazy stop in Lacock: lunch booked, then the National Trust’s perfectly preserved medieval village, familiar from Harry Potter and Downton Abbey both.
Day 4
Oxford, Woodstock & Blenheim. A morning among Oxford’s dreaming spires: colleges eight centuries old, the Bodleian Library, the covered market, punting on the river if the weather smiles. Lunch in Woodstock, a Georgian coaching town, then the afternoon at Blenheim Palace with your own guide. Churchill’s birthplace, a palace given by a grateful nation to the first Duke of Marlborough, and one of the few homes in the world grand enough to out-stage its own 2,000-acre park. Tickets already in hand.
Day 5
Departure, made to count. A leisurely breakfast, then home the interesting way if time allows, with Stonehenge’s 5,000-year-old stones, Georgian Bath, Highclere or Windsor en route, before a smooth drop at your London hotel or Heathrow. (Or a straight, unhurried run if your flight calls for it.)
From £3,450 per person
based on two sharing · a party of four from £2,125 per person · guide price, varies with hotel choice and season
The Grand Tour
Example · 7 days · 6 nights
The full countryside immersion: the north and the south from two different hand-picked hotels, gardens and grand estates, Oxford’s spires and Bath’s Georgian crescents.
Day 1
Arrival & the north. Met at Heathrow or your London hotel and brought to your first base, a country house in the northern wolds that’s yours for three nights, with a stop en route if you’d like one: Windsor Castle, Highclere, or simply lunch in a village pub. Dinner is booked for your first evening; the only thing on your list is to unpack once and relax.
Day 2
The classic north. The postcard England: Chipping Campden, the view from Dover’s Hill, hidden Snowshill, lunch in ancient Stow-on-the-Wold, the riverside walk between the Slaughters, and Bourton-on-the-Water’s little stone bridges.
Day 3
Gardens, manors & estates. The Cotswolds at their most cultivated. In season, Hidcote, the garden that taught the twentieth century how to garden, laid out as a series of outdoor “rooms”, and Kiftsgate beside it, three generations of women gardeners’ work. Or Sudeley Castle, where a Tudor queen lies buried in the chapel, and Broadway Tower, a folly on the second-highest point of the Cotswolds with views across sixteen counties. A proper pub lunch between them.
Day 4
Oxford, Woodstock & Blenheim. Colleges and courtyards eight hundred years old, punting if you fancy it, lunch in Woodstock, and a privately guided afternoon at Blenheim Palace, Churchill’s birthplace and England at its most magnificent.
Day 5
South through the wolds. Moving day, done the interesting way: Bibury’s famous weavers’ cottages, Tetbury’s antiques, Castle Combe’s impossible prettiness, arriving at your second hotel in the softer southern wolds by late afternoon. Two hotels, one seamless week; your luggage travels without you lifting a finger.
Day 6
Bath. A city so beautiful the whole of it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Roman Baths, still steaming after two thousand years; the Abbey where the first King of England was crowned; the Royal Crescent’s great Georgian sweep, the finest street of its age in Europe. Jane Austen lived here and set two novels here. Lunch is booked in a Georgian townhouse, and there’s an hour to yourselves in the honey-stone streets.
Day 7
Departure, made to count. A relaxed morning, then home with one last wonder if time allows. Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral, home of the Magna Carta, sit right on the route to your drop at London or Heathrow.
From £4,650 per person
based on two sharing · a party of four from £2,900 per person · guide price, varies with hotel choice and season
Cotswolds & Beyond
Example · 9 days · 8 nights
For travellers who want the lot: everything in the Grand Tour, plus Shakespeare’s home town, a proper castle, and two days shaped entirely around you.
Day 1
Arrival & the north. Met at Heathrow or London and brought to your northern country-house base, with a stop en route if you’d like one: Windsor Castle, Highclere, or a quiet village lunch. Dinner arranged for your first evening.
Day 2
The classic north. The postcard villages: Chipping Campden, Snowshill, Stow-on-the-Wold, the Slaughters and Bourton-on-the-Water, the golden heart of rural England.
Day 3
Shakespeare & castles. Stratford-upon-Avon is barely half an hour from your hotel; most visitors trek two hours from London for what you’ll do before your morning coffee wears off. The house where Shakespeare was born, the thatched cottage where he courted Anne Hathaway, his grave in the riverside church. Then an afternoon at Warwick Castle, a fortress in continuous use for over a thousand years. Or quieter Kenilworth, Elizabeth I’s favourite, if you’d rather have the ramparts to yourselves.
Day 4
Oxford, Woodstock & Blenheim. As grand as England gets: the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and Churchill’s birthplace palace, privately guided.
Day 5
Your day, the first. Shaped in advance with your Escape planner. Downton Abbey country: the real filming village of Bampton is twenty minutes from your hotel, Highclere Castle on its open dates. Or a full day of gardens. Or a slow morning, a walk with alpacas, and a long pub lunch. Whatever a perfect day looks like to you.
Day 6
South through the wolds. The scenic move to your second hotel: Bibury, Tetbury and Castle Combe, the southern Cotswolds at their gentlest.
Day 7
Bath. Two thousand years of beauty in one small city: Roman baths, medieval abbey, Georgian crescents, Jane Austen’s streets. Lunch booked, and time to wander.
Day 8
Your day, the second. Hand it back to us: a spa morning, filming locations, a return to the village you fell for on day two, or something we’ll dream up together.
Day 9
Departure, made to count. A long breakfast, then one last stop if time allows; Stonehenge and Salisbury sit on the route home. Then your drop at London, Heathrow or your next destination.
From £5,950 per person
based on two sharing · a party of four from £3,725 per person · guide price, varies with hotel choice and season
Every escape includes
Not included: international flights, meals and drinks themselves, gratuities, travel insurance.
A note on our prices. Book direct with a local company who live here and know the area better than anyone: the vehicles, the driver-guides and the team behind your escape are all Cotswolds-based. Per-person prices fall as your party grows.
Shorter or longer? Escapes can run from a single night to a fortnight, so tell us your dates and we’ll shape something around them.
Arriving by train? Every escape except The Long Weekend can begin at a Cotswold station instead: direct trains run from London Paddington, we’ll meet you on the platform, and the price comes down accordingly.
Stay Your Way
Where you rest matters as much as where you roam. Through our local partnerships we hand-pick every stay to suit your taste, and we never book anywhere we wouldn’t happily stay ourselves. An exquisite country manor with log fires and centuries of history. A five-star spa hotel for slow mornings and treatment-room afternoons. A quiet boutique bolt-hole where the owner knows your name by breakfast. A private cottage with roses around the door, all yours. Or a centuries-old country inn above a village pub, falling asleep to absolute silence. One perfect base, or two: a manor in the north, a riverside inn in the south. Tell us your style and we’ll match it; we know which rooms have the views and which fires are lit in winter.
Moments We Can Build In
A few of the experiences our guests weave into their escapes. If it exists in the Cotswolds, we can usually arrange it.
Private garden tours in full bloom
Picnics and views at Broadway Tower
Stand among 5,000 years of history
Wander Oxford’s colleges and courtyards
Riverside strolls in the Slaughters
Festive stays in decorated inns
Dinner by firelight in ancient inns
A day of grandeur at Blenheim Palace
How Your Escape Comes Together
It starts with getting to know you. Everything else follows from there.
Rather talk it through?
Most escapes begin with a conversation. Tell us when suits and we’ll call you.
Your Questions, Answered
Everything that makes the trip effortless: your driver-guide and vehicle for the whole stay, your hand-picked hotels with breakfast, all transfers, entrance tickets to the headline attractions on your itinerary, and every reservation we make for you, from lunches and dinners to theatre and experiences, with evening transfers to dinner included. International flights, meals and gratuities are the only things you’ll pay beyond the package, and your quote itemises exactly what’s in, so there are no surprises later.
We don’t book flights or trains, but we plan everything around them, and we’re happy to advise on the easiest routes in and out. We can collect you from any UK airport, seaport or station, and we track your arrival so a delay never causes a problem.
In hand-picked inns, hotels and country houses that we know personally. Once we understand your style and budget, we’ll recommend a shortlist and book your favourite.
The best rooms in the Cotswolds go early, particularly for summer and Christmas, but we have arranged wonderful trips at much shorter notice, so do ask and the team will do everything they can to accommodate you.
Yes. Your itinerary stays flexible before and during your trip. If you fall in love with a village and want to linger, we’ll rework the day around it. Hotel changes are subject to the terms of each hotel, which we’ll share with you in advance.
Our vehicles seat up to [X] guests in comfort. For larger parties we run multiple vehicles with coordinated itineraries, as we often do for weddings and family gatherings.
Confirm with a 25% deposit and pay the balance 60 days before your trip begins, or simply pay in full, whichever you prefer. Bookings made within 60 days of travel are payable in full. We accept American Express, all other major cards, and wire transfer. Full details, including our cancellation policy, are set out in our booking conditions.
Just tell us when you enquire. We book restaurants to suit your needs, plan routes around walking ability, and love arranging surprises for birthdays and anniversaries.
In Our Guests’ Words
Really top class service from Paul Charnick and the team. Good advice on best choices of vehicles, pick up times etc.
Paul adjusted some pick up times once he knew the state of the traffic etc. He knows the area so well we took his advice on journey times and were pleased we did. very nice new and spotless vehicles.
Everything like clockwork on the day, around 8 different cars each with a separate itinerary. No problems on our big day and Paul always took a personal interest in getting it all correct.
Fantastic service. Paul and the team were exceptional throughout and saved our holiday when our own rental car arrangements fell through! Paul and the team were attentive, supportive, and provided a number of fantastic recommendations for us during our stay. Highly recommended to all. Big thanks!
Cotswold Tour werr the best! They were accommodating, professional, knowledgeable, and fun to be with. Their cars and drivers were on time and patient with all our needs. We would definitely use this company many times again! Thank you, Paul and Richard!
We can’t say enough good things about our experience with Cotswold Tour. The owner Paul was friendly, responsive and helped us create a fantastic itinerary. We spent 5 days touring the Cotswolds with Rich. He was a great driver, great company, and brought us to many charming, beautiful villages off the beaten track as well as well known towns and National Trust sites. His restaurant recommendations were spot on. We would do it all again in a heartbeat!
We’re so happy to have hired Cotswold Tour for our recent trip in the Cotswolds. Their service was amazing. Paul helped us plan our itinerary prior to arriving and we spent two full days touring the area with Richard, who was fabulous. He was very knowledgeable and we got to see everything we wanted and more. I highly recommend them, you won’t be disappointed.
Our experience with Cotswold Tour was outstanding. Their efforts to accommodate our interests and schedule were above and beyond. We had a very experienced and knowledgeable guide who made sure we saw much more than the main attractions of the Cotswolds. The company addressed all of our needs whether for local transportation or sightseeing. Every one of their staff from the scheduler to our guide and drivers to London were great.
On my recent visit to the Cotswolds, I hired Cotswold Tour to drive me for 3 days, plus pick up at Heathrow and drop off at my hotel in London. The drivers were very safe and knowledgeable and the cars were very clean and comfortable. I had no set agenda, and it was nice to be able to go wherever and do whatever I wanted (hiking, shopping, sightseeing, etc.) and not worry about parking, etc. I highly recommend them.
Just spent the most incredible few days exploring the Cotswolds. We booked so last minute, and couldn’t be more thankful to Cam for making it work and sending us an executive car within an hour. Rich, our driver was just wonderful. Excellent driving, a fountain of knowledge, and just a really lovely guy. We really really enjoyed ourselves and couldn’t recommend enough.
Wonderful tour company used to tour the Cotswolds from our stay at Thyme Manor Estate in Southrop. The driver was interesting, flexible to include our particular interests,& very knowledgeable. Highly recommend!
Paul and Rural Rides are knowledgeable, accommodating, responsive, and delightful. They designed and mapped wonderful walks in the beautiful Cotswold countryside for us and suggested excellent pub stops along the way. Truly memorable; we look forward to our next visit.
Rural Rides was an absolute delight to work with. Our driver Rich was perfectly on time for all three transfers and provided a really comfortable experience. We were able to add a 2 hour stop from our transfer from London to the Cotswold’s which allowed us to enjoy a site we wanted to go to for lunch. Rich was super knowledgeable of the area and even provided some nice history points along the way. I would highly recommend and plan to book with Rural Rides on every return.
Start Your Cotswolds Escape
Tell us how long you’re staying, the pace you’d like and the places that matter most, and we’ll come back with a personalised itinerary and a clear quote.