Getting to the Cotswolds

The quickest way into the Cotswolds from London is the train, and the station to aim for on a first visit is Moreton-in-Marsh: about an hour and a half from Paddington, in the middle of the town, with the 801 bus to Stow and Bourton leaving from the forecourt. Kingham is one stop nearer London on the same line; Kemble, about 70 minutes from Paddington, is the station for Cirencester and the south. By car the M40, M4 and M5 bring you to the edges in about two hours from London and an hour from Bristol or Birmingham, after which the roads are single carriageway and the car parks are small. All times here were checked on 27 October 2026 against the operators' timetables.

The Cotswold Line from London Paddington

GWR's Cotswold Line runs from Paddington through Oxford to Hanborough, Charlbury, Kingham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Honeybourne and Evesham on its way to Worcester and Hereford, with 21 trains on a weekday from Paddington from 5.53am to 10.51pm, 16 on a Saturday and 15 on a Sunday, roughly hourly from 7.36am. Hanborough and Honeybourne are the stops most often missed. From Oxford the run to Moreton takes about 33 minutes, hourly on Sundays.

Hanborough, about an hour from Paddington, is the station for Woodstock and Blenheim Palace: the Stagecoach S7 stops outside the station about every half hour from early morning to late evening, and is at the Blenheim Palace gates in Woodstock about ten minutes later on its way to Oxford; the other way it runs to Witney.

Charlbury, about an hour and ten minutes from London, is a small station with 158 parking spaces. Thames Travel's X9 runs from here to Chipping Norton and Witney; for Burford, 8 miles away, it is a taxi.

Kingham, 1 hour 20 minutes on average and 1 hour 17 at best, is the nearest London station to Stow-on-the-Wold (4 miles) and Daylesford, but there is no timetabled bus we can confirm from the station to Stow in 2026, so it is a taxi, a bike or the walk to Bledington. Book the taxi before you travel: National Rail lists no taxi rank at the station. The station car park has 140 spaces. If you bring a bike, reserve its space on the GWR train. Cycling in the Cotswolds has the routes.

Moreton-in-Marsh, 1 hour 28 minutes on average and 84 at best, is the station that makes a car-free visit work. Pulhams' 801 leaves from outside it for Stow (about 19 minutes), Bourton-on-the-Water (about 30) and Cheltenham, about hourly every day of the week, and Stagecoach's 1 and 2 go the other way to Chipping Campden and Stratford a few times a day. The car park has 128 spaces, and the station has an accessible toilet, open only while the ticket office is. The times are on the buses page.

Honeybourne, about 1 hour 40 from Paddington, and Evesham, about 1 hour 46, are the stations for Broadway and the north end of the Cotswold Way. Honeybourne is 7 miles from Broadway and 5 from Chipping Campden with no useful bus, so it is a taxi booked ahead; from Evesham the R4 bus leaves from opposite the station four times a day from Monday to Friday and reaches Broadway in about 20 minutes, and Broadway is about 6 miles by taxi.

Kemble, Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham

Kemble is the station for Cirencester, Bibury and Tetbury: about 1 hour 10 minutes from Paddington, 68 at best, with 20 trains on a weekday from 5.23am to 10.28pm, 16 on a Saturday and 14 on a Sunday. Weekend engineering work can change the trains, so check them for the day you travel. Kemble has a 220-space car park, a taxi rank, and Stagecoach's 882 to Cirencester (about 20 minutes) on about five runs a day from Monday to Saturday; for Bibury, change at Cirencester onto the 855. The rest of the time it is a taxi, about 7 miles to Cirencester.

Stroud, about 1 hour 25 minutes from Paddington on the same trains, puts you in the middle of the Five Valleys with the Cotswold Way on the hill above the station: the 66 bus to Painswick (about 10 minutes, hourly Monday to Saturday and two-hourly on Sundays), the 63 to Nailsworth and the 620 to Minchinhampton and Tetbury all leave from Merrywalks, a short walk downhill. Stonehouse, the next stop, is the station for the Stroudwater canal; Cam and Dursley, on the Gloucester to Bristol line, is the one for Dursley, Uley and the southern Cotswold Way, with a taxi from there.

Gloucester (about 1 hour 43 from Paddington) and Cheltenham Spa (about 1 hour 59, direct, 16 trains a day) are where the Bristol and Birmingham trains come in too: from Bristol Temple Meads the CrossCountry trains take about 38 minutes to Cheltenham and run all day on Sundays. Cheltenham's bus station at Royal Well is in the town centre, a bus or taxi ride from the railway station, and from it the 801 goes to Bourton and Stow and the X52 to Northleach and Burford. Pulhams' 606 to Winchcombe and Broadway (Monday to Saturday) leaves from North Place, and Stagecoach's 51 to Cirencester from the Promenade, both a short walk from Royal Well. For the Cotswold Edge, Cheltenham is the better base than anywhere on the Cotswold Line.

Bath Spa serves the far south. It is about 1 hour 18 minutes from Paddington with a train about every half hour and about 20 on a Sunday, and from Bath Stagecoach's 620 bus reaches Tetbury and Westonbirt five times a day from Monday to Saturday. For Castle Combe and Lacock the station is Chippenham, one stop before Bath on the same line: Faresaver's X34 reaches Lacock in about 15 minutes every half hour on weekdays, and Faresaver's 95 and 95A reach Castle Combe about five times a day from Monday to Saturday. Malmesbury has Coachstyle's 99 from Chippenham, roughly hourly, with no Sunday bus.

From Birmingham

Birmingham reaches the north Cotswolds through Worcester: a train from New Street to Worcester Shrub Hill, then the Cotswold Line to Moreton-in-Marsh, which takes about 37 minutes from Worcester with 14 trains on a Sunday. The other way is Chiltern from Moor Street to Oxford and GWR on to Kingham or Moreton; compare the two on the day. From Stratford-upon-Avon, Stagecoach's 1 and 2 (and their 1A and 2A variants) cross the hills by Chipping Campden to Moreton station a few times a day, and Stagecoach's 50 runs to Shipston-on-Stour and on to Chipping Norton.

By car

Allow about two hours from central London to Stow-on-the-Wold (84 miles / 135km by the M40 and A40 or A44), about 1 hour 10 from Birmingham to Moreton (53 miles / 85km by the M40 or M5 and A44), about 55 minutes from Bristol to Cirencester (38 miles / 61km by the M4 and A419), about 50 minutes from Oxford to Stow (30 miles / 48km by the A44 or A40 and A424) and about an hour from Bath to Cirencester (34 miles / 55km by the A46 and A433). The M40 brings London and Birmingham traffic to the A40 at Oxford or the A44 at Chipping Norton; the M4 serves Bath, Malmesbury and Tetbury from junctions 17 and 18; the M5 runs down the western edge with Cheltenham, Stroud and Dursley off it; and the A429, the Roman Fosse Way, runs straight up the middle from Cirencester through Northleach, Stow and Moreton.

The times are for a clear road; summer Saturdays on the A40 at Burford and the A429 through Stow add half an hour, and a bank holiday adds more. The harder problem is the other end: the famous villages' car parks fill by late morning, Bibury has no council car park, and the Slaughters have little or no parking. Parking in the Cotswolds has the charges, the postcodes and the hours each one fills. If you drive an electric car, charging an electric car in the Cotswolds has the rapid chargers at Burford, Moreton and Cirencester.

By coach

National Express's 444 is the scheduled coach from London into the Cotswolds. It leaves London Victoria 8 to 11 times a day depending on the day, calls at Heathrow Central Bus Station, and on most runs stops in Cirencester by the Beeches car park about two and a half hours out of Victoria before Charlton Kings, Cheltenham Royal Well (about three hours) and Gloucester. Seats must be booked in advance on nationalexpress.com (opens in a new tab) or by phone, and fares vary by day and time; coaches are outside the £3 bus fare cap.

From the airports

Heathrow is the nearest airport to the north and south Cotswolds alike, and the 444 coach from its Central Bus Station is the simplest way in: Cirencester in about 1 hour 45 minutes, Cheltenham in about 2 hours 15. By train, RailAir's RA1 coach runs from the terminals to Reading station up to every 20 minutes in about 40 minutes, and from Reading the Paddington trains to Kemble, Stroud and Cheltenham, and most of the Cotswold Line trains, call on their way west; check the one you want stops there. By car it is about 73 miles (117km) and 1 hour 35 to Stow by the M25 and M40. Flying in from overseas, read visiting the Cotswolds from abroad for the ETA and driving on the left.

Birmingham Airport is best for the north: Birmingham International station is linked to the terminal by the free Air-Rail Link shuttle, about two minutes, with trains to Birmingham New Street for the Worcester and Moreton route, and CrossCountry trains south to Cheltenham. By car it is about 42 miles (68km) and an hour to Moreton by the M42, M40 and A44, or 46 miles to Stow. Bristol Airport suits the south and west: the Airport Flyer A1 bus runs to Bristol Temple Meads around the clock, up to every eight minutes at busy times, in about 25 minutes, and from Temple Meads the trains reach Bath Spa, Gloucester and Cheltenham. By car it is about 46 miles (74km) and 1 hour 15 to Cirencester by the A38 and M4 or M5. The nearest airports to the Cotswolds adds Gatwick and Luton and follows each connection in more detail.