Coaches and groups in the Cotswolds

A coach can set passengers down in most of the famous Cotswold villages but park in few of them. In Bourton-on-the-Water it stops for five minutes on Meadow Way and parks at Pulhams' depot for £15, booked ahead. In Bibury it has ten minutes at the bus stop and nowhere to park, and in Lower Slaughter it may not enter at all. Castle Combe keeps coaches in its car park at the top of the hill, Stow-on-the-Wold sets down by the Square and parks at Maugersbury Road, and Broadway has coach bays at Milestone Ground. Civil enforcement officers ticket coaches on yellow lines. This page is from the councils' own pages, checked on 27 October 2026; two arrangements are trials.

Bourton-on-the-Water

Coaches have had nowhere to park in the village since the private Bourton Vale car park on Station Road stopped taking them in December 2023. Gloucestershire County Council's experimental order (opens in a new tab) gives a bus-only bay on Meadow Way for two coaches, 9am to 4pm, for as long as passengers take to get on or off and never more than five minutes, with no return within 30 minutes. From there the coach goes to Pulhams' depot on Bourton Business Park (GL54 2HQ), which the county told operators in July 2025 charges £15 (ask Pulhams for the current charge); book by email to [email protected] or on 01451 820369, whose office is open 9am to 5pm on weekdays, because the depot staggers arrival times. The county's Bourton parking and transport review (opens in a new tab), surveyed to 6 September 2026, is still weighing the coach arrangements, and an experimental order can run for at most 18 months.

Bibury

Since a trial began on 23 May 2025, Bibury has had no coach parking. Coaches use the bus-stop clearway (opens in a new tab) in the centre, two at a time, for ten minutes, and share it with the 855 bus. The county asks coaches to come in from the east by the Burford road, to set down westbound and pick up from the trout farm side, and to leave and turn at the Cirencester roundabout, which adds 15 to 20 minutes; there are lay-bys towards Barnsley. The county consulted from November to December 2025 on making the change permanent, with the coach bays removed for good, and in March 2026 committed £175,000 to its wider Bibury scheme. A village of 627 people sees up to 20,000 visitors on a peak weekend, by press estimates, so a quieter alternative is kinder for a group that can walk: Coln St Aldwyns is two miles up the river by the walk from Bibury, though the coach still sets down in Bibury.

Castle Combe, Broadway, Stow and the Slaughters

Coaches may not drive into Castle Combe. They park in the designated coach spaces in Wiltshire Council's car park on Dunns Lane in Upper Castle Combe, where the council charges coaches £5.60 for up to three hours or £8.80 all day, 7am to 7pm every day, and passengers walk down the hill into the village. In Broadway the six coach bays are in Wychavon's Milestone Ground car park (WR12 7HA), charged 8am to 6pm every day. In Stow, coaches set down and pick up outside the police station on the High Street, reached from the Square by turning along the side of St Edward's Hall, for ten minutes and enforced, as the town council (opens in a new tab) directs, then park in the five coach bays in Cotswold District Council's Maugersbury Road car park, where charges apply. A 1995 traffic order bars buses and coaches of nine seats or more from Lower Slaughter, except local service buses and drop-offs at the hotels, and Upper Slaughter's lanes are no better. Set your group down in Bourton and let them walk the river path to the Slaughters, a mile and a half each way.

The care code for groups

Fifty people arriving at once in a village of a few hundred is the visit residents notice most. Our care code applies twice over to a group: arrive before 10am or after 5pm, keep to the pavements and the footpaths, use the toilets in the car parks before you walk in (Bibury has one block, the Slaughters none), and spend money in the village you came to see.

Quieter places that take a coach

The market towns handle groups better than the villages. Winchcombe has a coach space in the Back Lane car and coach park (GL54 5PZ), a short walk from Sudeley Castle and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. In Cirencester coaches set down at the coach points on Old Tetbury Road (GL7 1FP), a level five minutes from the Corinium Museum; the remodelled Market Place is no longer a drop-off. Stanway House, Westonbirt, the Cotswold Wildlife Park and Berkeley Castle have coach parking of their own. For lunch, the Sherborne Arms at Aldsworth caters for coach parties in a room for 30 seated, and Huffkins in Stow asks groups of up to 30 to book.

Booking attractions for a group

Most attractions want groups to book, and several have a group rate. Cotswold Farm Park asks groups of 20 or more to phone. Cotswold Lavender wants groups of more than 15 and every coach to book ahead. Bourton House Garden takes groups of ten or more by email, and the Broadway Museum has a rate for ten or more. Chavenage House prices groups of 21 or more, Berkeley Castle 20 or more, and the Cotswold Motoring Museum in Bourton charges groups £8.95 a head in 2026. Each listing has the contact.