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A week in the Cotswolds by car: two bases, three regions
Seven days in the Cotswolds by car from two bases: four nights in Stow for the north and the Cotswold Edge, a day down the Coln by Bibury, then three nights in Malmesbury for Westonbirt, Castle Combe, Biddestone and Lacock. Start on a Saturday.
- 7 days
- By car
- Bases: Stow, then Malmesbury
- About 210 miles (340km) driving
- About 20 miles (32km) on foot
- Start on a Saturday
Day 1: Campden, Broadway Tower and Sudeley
The wool town and the tower in the morning, the castle on the Edge after lunch
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9.30am
9.30am Market town 1.5 hours here
Chipping Campden
About 25 minutes from Stow. The High Street from the Market Hall of 1627 to St James's. Market Square: 20 minutes free, then £1 an hour (2026).
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11.15am
11.15am Things to do 1 hour here
Broadway Tower
About 10 minutes. The folly of 1798 on Beacon Hill, with a deer park. Opens 10am (10.30am on weekdays from November to March). Car park £3 for 4 hours (2026).
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12.30pm
12.30pm Market town 1.25 hours here
Lunch in Broadway
Five minutes down the hill. Park at Church Close or Milestone Ground. The Tavern at the Lygon Arms serves from midday to 3pm.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 2 hours here
Sudeley Castle and Gardens
About 20 minutes. Katherine Parr's tomb and ten gardens. Daily mid-March to early November, last admission 3pm. Adult £24 (2026). Free parking.
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4.30pm
4.30pm Places to stay The night here
Stow-on-the-Wold for four nights
About 30 minutes. The Kings Arms on the Square has its own car park, which is rare in Stow, and a restaurant open every day.
Day 2: Bourton, the Slaughters and Chedworth
The water villages on foot, lunch in Stow, the Roman villa
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9am
9am Village 15 minutes here
Bourton-on-the-Water
About 10 minutes. Rissington Road car park is free before 10am, then charged. Leave the car there for the morning.
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9.15am
9.15am On foot
Walk to Upper and Lower Slaughter
A 6-mile (9.7km) circuit with a few stiles, up to Upper Slaughter's ford and down the River Eye past Lower Slaughter's mill.
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Midday
Midday Market town 1.5 hours here
Lunch in Stow
About 10 minutes. The market cross and St Edward's church, open daily. The Porch House serves food every day.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 1.5 hours here
Chedworth Roman Villa
About 30 minutes. Mosaics, two bath suites and a water shrine. Adult £15 (2026). Hours change through the year. Assistance dogs only.
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4pm
4pm Market town 45 minutes here
Northleach church
About 10 minutes. The wool church of St Peter and St Paul, with brasses to the wool merchants. Park in the Market Place.
Day 3: Hidcote, Batsford and Moreton
The Arts and Crafts garden at opening, the arboretum, the market town
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10am
10am Things to do 3.5 hours here
Hidcote
About 30 minutes. The garden rooms Lawrence Johnston began in 1907, at opening. Hours change through the year, so check the Trust's calendar. Adult £20 to 1 November, £12 after (2026). Lunch in Winthrop's Café.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 1.75 hours here
Batsford Arboretum
About 15 minutes. A wild garden of 1886 turned arboretum, with a Japanese rest house. Last entry 4pm. Adult £12 (2026). Dogs on short fixed leads.
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4pm
4pm Market town 45 minutes here
Moreton-in-Marsh
Five minutes. The Curfew Tower, whose bell of 1633 rang the curfew until 1860, and Redesdale Hall on the High Street. On Tuesdays the street market fills the town.
Day 4: Winchcombe and Belas Knap
Up the Cotswold Way to the long barrow, then the steam railway on its running days
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9.30am
9.30am On foot
About 30 minutes from Stow. Park in Back Lane. A 5.5-mile (8.8km) loop up the Cotswold Way to the Neolithic long barrow and back by Sudeley. Two stiles.
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12.30pm
12.30pm Places to stay 1.25 hours here
Lunch at the Lion
In the middle of Winchcombe, with food from 8am to 9pm Monday to Saturday, and dogs welcome throughout the pub.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 2.5 hours here
The steam railway, on its running days
From Winchcombe station to Toddington and Broadway. Day rover £28 (2026). Trains run on set days from spring to late autumn and not in January or February.
Day 5: The Coln valley to Malmesbury
A river walk to Arlington Row, lunch at the village inn, Roman Cirencester, and south
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9am
9am On foot
About 35 minutes from Stow. Park near the village shop before 11am. A 6.5-mile (10.6km) loop up the Coln to Bibury and Arlington Row, back over the wold. Stiles and mud.
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12.15pm
12.15pm Places to stay 1.25 hours here
Lunch at the New Inn
The village inn at Coln St Aldwyns where the walk ends, open every day from midday, with food at lunch and in the evening.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 1.5 hours here
Corinium Museum, Cirencester
About 20 minutes. Roman Corinium's finds, from a town and district where more than 90 mosaics are known. Open daily, 10am to 4pm. Adult £8.70 (2026). Council car parks are card or phone only.
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4pm
4pm Places to stay The night here
Malmesbury for three nights
About 30 minutes south. The Old Bell beside the abbey, a building with parts that may be monastic, with dogs welcome in many rooms.
Day 6: Westonbirt and Malmesbury
The National Arboretum in the morning, the abbey town in the afternoon
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9am
9am Things to do 2.5 hours here
Westonbirt, the National Arboretum
About 15 minutes. Opens 9am every day but Christmas Day. Dogs run off the lead in Silk Wood, go on leads on the Downs and are not allowed in the Old Arboretum. Adult £14 to £22 by season and day (2026). Book ahead in autumn.
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Midday
Midday Things to do 1 hour here
Lunch at Westonbirt
The restaurant serves from 9.30am to 4.30pm and is dog friendly, with dog ice cream at the pantry by the play area.
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1.45pm
1.45pm Things to do 1.75 hours here
Athelstan Museum and Malmesbury Abbey
Back in town. The free museum, open from 10.30am Tuesday to Saturday and closed on Mondays, then the abbey's Norman nave, free and open to visitors until 4pm Monday to Saturday (12.30pm to 3.30pm on Sundays).
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4pm
4pm On foot
A 2.5-mile (3.9km) loop from Cross Hayes, past Daniel's Well, along the Avon by the old silk mills and back under the abbey. Mostly level, some stiles.
Day 7: Castle Combe, Biddestone and Lacock
The By Brook valley early, lunch on the green, the abbey to finish
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9am
9am Village 1.25 hours here
Castle Combe
About 20 minutes. Park on Dunns Lane at the top and walk down to the bridge. Drivers are fined for parking in the village. The White Hart opens at 9am for coffee.
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10.45am
10.45am Village 1.75 hours here
Biddestone
About 10 minutes. A large green, a duck pond made in 1661 and a Norman church. Free car park behind the village hall.
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12.30pm
12.30pm Eat and drink 1.25 hours here
Lunch at the White Horse
The pub on the green serves lunch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12.30pm, and is closed on Mondays. Dogs and muddy boots welcome.
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2pm
2pm Things to do 2.5 hours here
Lacock Abbey and village
About 15 minutes. Abbey rooms March to October, last entry 3.45pm. The cloisters and Fox Talbot Museum all year. Adult £21 (2026). Car park £5 for non-members.
In more detail
A week is enough to see three Cotswold regions at a walking pace from two bases. Sleep four nights in Stow-on-the-Wold for the north and the Cotswold Edge, move south on day five by the Coln valley, Bibury and Cirencester, and sleep three nights in Malmesbury for Westonbirt, Castle Combe, Biddestone and Lacock. It is about 210 miles by car over the week, never more than about 35 minutes at a time, with five walks of an hour to three hours.
The plan follows the week set out in our Cotswolds itineraries guide, with one change explained below. Every place, walk and inn has a page of ours with hours and prices checked in October 2026.
Why this route
The north and the south are different country, and a week is long enough for both without hurrying either. The north has the famous villages, the wool towns and the escarpment, and four nights there leaves room for a garden day and a walking day on the Edge. The south is flatter and quieter, with the National Arboretum, an abbey town and the villages of the By Brook, and three nights there is enough. The middle day, down the Coln, gets you from one to the other with a river walk instead of a motorway.
Start on a Saturday and the days fall right. Sudeley opens daily in its season, Batsford every day, the Athelstan Museum is open on a Thursday and closed on Mondays, and the White Horse at Biddestone serves lunch on a Friday but not from Monday to Thursday. The one change from our guide is Sudeley, which goes on the afternoon of day one, when the Edge is an easy drive from Broadway, so that day four is a walking day.
With five days, five days in the Cotswolds pairs the north with the Five Valleys, from Northleach and Painswick.
Where to base yourself
In the north, Stow, at the top of the Fosse Way, within about 30 minutes of every stop. The Kings Arms on the Square has ten rooms, its own car park and a restaurant open every day. Some rooms are up the steep original staircase, and the inn says they do not suit guests who are less mobile. Dogs stay in two of the rooms for a charge. It is listed on Booking.com with check-in from 3pm and check-out by 11am. Northleach, 15 minutes south, is the other choice, at the Wheatsheaf.
In the south, Malmesbury. The Old Bell is beside the abbey, with afternoon tea every day and dogs in many rooms at £25 a night (2026); Hotels.com lists it with free parking on site, check-in from 3pm and check-out by 11am. In Tetbury, 15 minutes away, the Close has a walled garden and a small car park for residents.
Days one to four: the north and the Edge
Day one is Chipping Campden's High Street, Broadway Tower and lunch in Broadway, then the drive round to Sudeley Castle at Winchcombe, where Katherine Parr has lain in the chapel since 1548. Be there by 2pm for the 3pm last admission. Day two is the water villages on foot from Bourton, lunch back in Stow and Chedworth Roman Villa in the afternoon.
Day three is the gardens: Hidcote at opening, before it fills from mid-morning, then Batsford and Moreton-in-Marsh. Day four is the Edge on foot, the 5.5-mile loop from Winchcombe to Belas Knap, a long barrow built around 3000 BC, with lunch at the Lion and the steam railway in the afternoon if it is a running day.
Days five to seven: the Coln and the south
Day five leaves Stow early for Coln St Aldwyns, where the loop up the river to Bibury reaches Arlington Row along the river, and comes back over the wold to lunch at the New Inn. The Corinium Museum in Cirencester fills the afternoon, and Malmesbury is 30 minutes south.
Day six is Westonbirt in the morning, two hours or more among the trees, and Malmesbury in the afternoon: the Athelstan Museum, the abbey and the river loop before dinner. Day seven is Castle Combe early, before the street fills, Biddestone for the green and lunch at the White Horse, and Lacock for the abbey and the Fox Talbot Museum, or Bath if you would rather end in a city.
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Swaps for rain or a quieter day
In rain, keep the museums and houses: Chedworth, the Corinium, the Athelstan and Lacock Abbey are all under cover, and Sudeley's castle rooms are dry. Swap the Belas Knap walk for the level Winchcombe and Sudeley loop, and day three's gardens for Snowshill Manor and Court Barn in Campden. For a quieter day five, walk from Bibury itself on the 4-mile River Coln loop and skip Cirencester.
The Cotswold Way instead
The other way to spend a week is to walk the Cotswold Way, 102 miles in 15 sections from Chipping Campden to Bath along the escarpment, for which the official guidebook suggests seven to ten days at 10 to 15 miles a day. That is a different trip: book the inns along the trail before the train, and see our pages on the trail and its sections.
The honest limits
Seven days by car still means a lot of time on narrow lanes, and the plan is full. Sudeley closes from early November to mid-March, Lacock's abbey rooms from November to February, and the steam railway runs no trains in January and February, so a winter week needs our winter weekend for ideas. The Old Bell and the Kings Arms charge for dogs, Chedworth and Sudeley's gardens do not admit them, Hidcote takes them on short fixed leads outside the Old Garden and the manor, and Westonbirt lets them off the lead in Silk Wood but keeps them out of the Old Arboretum.