Where to stay in Bourton-on-the-Water

Hotels and inns in the village

The Dial House on the High Street, in the middle of Bourton, has 13 rooms, a restaurant, free parking for its guests behind the hotel and three electric car chargers. On Victoria Street, Chester House has 22 rooms, its own restaurant, L'Anatra, and 18 parking spaces, first come, first served; small dogs stay in its ground-floor coach house rooms for £10 a night, and check-in is after 3pm, check-out before 11am. The Old Manse has 15 rooms, three of them for dogs, and a few parking spaces; check-in is from 2pm and check-out by 11am. The Mousetrap, a nineteenth-century inn at Lansdowne, has eleven rooms and a small car park, first come, first served. Its three ground-floor twin rooms take dogs, at £15 a dog, and check-in runs from 3pm to 8pm.

Guest houses

The Lansdowne on Lansdowne Road is an adults-only guest house with 14 rooms, plus cottage rooms and suites, free parking outside and no pets.

Parking and getting here

Parking is the pinch point. The council's Rissington Road car park is free before 10am and charges from then until 8pm, so ask your hotel about parking before you book. Without a car, take the train to Moreton-in-Marsh and the Pulhams 801 bus, about half an hour; it runs every day, hourly on Sundays. For other bases, see where to stay in the Cotswolds.

At Rissington Road, Blue Badge holders park free for up to 10 hours, there are eight charging bays, and the public toilets, with an accessible toilet and baby change, are in the same car park (50p).

From your door

Staying in the village puts the Model Village and Birdland, where the penguins are fed at 11am and 3pm, a few minutes' walk away. The field path to Lower Slaughter is about a mile and a half, and Upper Slaughter about a mile beyond, and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's Greystones Farm reserve, five minutes' walk from the village, has level trails with no stiles. Our Cotswolds weekend with children gives both a Saturday afternoon.

When to book

Summer weekends and bank holidays fill early, when the county council puts visitors at around 10,000 a day. A weekday stay out of the school holidays is quieter and easier to book.

A short drive away, the Lamb Inn at Great Rissington is a Brakspear pub with rooms, and in the village the Cotswold Perfumery on Victoria Street, founded in 1966, runs one-day perfume-making courses. For the day, see things to do in Bourton-on-the-Water and things to do in the North Cotswolds, and for meals, places to eat in the North Cotswolds.