Cotswolds Day Trip from London, England
Is it possible to visit the Cotswolds on a day trip? Yes!
Here’s everything you need to know about taking a Cotswolds day trip from London.
The Cotswolds is a picturesque region to the northwest of London. The Cotswolds has been designated as an AONB, or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in England. The region is characterized by its rolling hills and picture-perfect villages. It’s exactly what you picture when you imagine the English countryside.
And the great thing about the Cotswolds is it’s not too far from London!
I absolutely love the Cotswolds, and I think it’s one of the best destinations in England.
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Best Cotswolds Day Trips from London:
Can You Visit the Cotswolds on a Day Trip?
It’s definitely possible to visit the Cotswolds on a day trip.
If you have the time, though, I’d highly recommend staying for at least a few days. I spent a week in the Cotswolds and never ran out of places to explore. But I know that not everyone has that much time.
Luckily, a day trip to the Cotswolds is doable if you have limited time and you’re staying in London. You can absolutely get a taste of this beautiful region on a day trip from London.
However, getting to the Cotswolds from London can be tricky. It’s not like some of the other popular London day trips where you can just hop on a train and be there in an hour. The Cotswolds are a bit further away, and it’s not just one destination — it’s dozens of towns and villages in the countryside.
In order to get a sense of the Cotswolds, you’ll want to visit a few different destinations.
Best Way to Visit the Cotswolds on a Day Trip from London
What’s the best way to visit the Cotswolds on a day trip from London?
You have three different options when it comes to taking a Cotswolds day trip:
- Driving yourself
- Taking the train
- Organized tour
I’ll go into the pros and cons of each of these methods below…
Option 1: Driving Yourself
The first option for visiting the Cotswolds on a day trip from London is driving yourself. However, this would actually be a suggestion I don’t recommend much for several different reasons.
First, getting a rental car can be surprisingly pricey. This is definitely not a good option if you’re a solo traveler. You also might have to pay an additional fee if you want a rental car with an automatic transmission instead of a manual transmission. Plus, you’ll have to factor in gas and parking costs.
Also, driving in the UK can be challenging if you aren’t accustomed to it. For Americans and many other nationalities, it can be stressful driving on the opposite side of the road if you aren’t used to it.
The traffic getting in and out of London can also be bad. Between the time it takes to pick up a rental car and get out of the city, you might waste a couple of hours of your already limited time.
However, the biggest pro to getting a rental car and driving yourself is that you control your schedule for the day. Having a car gives you the maximum amount of flexibility to explore the Cotswolds. One thing you will want to keep in mind, though, is driving times. Google Maps can be misleading in the Cotswolds.
Because of the narrow, winding roads, it can actually take longer to get from town to town than what Google Maps estimates. So you’ll want to allow for more driving time than you might expect.
If you choose this option, you can find the best deal on a rental car through DiscoverCars.
Option 2: Taking the Train
Another option for visiting the Cotswolds on a day trip is taking the train.
I also don’t recommend this option very much, although it can work in some scenarios. But just know that public transportation in the Cotswolds is very limited, making it difficult to get around.
Only a few towns in the Cotswolds have train stations, including Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham, and Charlbury, as well as towns just outside the Cotswolds like Cheltenham and Stroud.
Of these, I think Moreton-in-Marsh would be the best destination for a Cotswolds day trip. It’s just under 1.5 hours by train from London, and it’s a charming, quintessential Cotswolds town. You can also get to several other villages (Stow-on-the-Wold, Upper Slaughter, and Lower Slaughter) fairly easily.
There’s a bus that comes (very infrequently, around every two hours) that you could take, or you could rent bicycles in Moreton-in-Marsh. However, there’s no car rental and very few taxis.
So as you can see, taking the train can be a challenging option too. If you do choose to visit the Cotswolds by train, be sure to book your tickets well in advance. I use Omio to get the best price on train tickets.
Option 3: Organized Tour
The easiest way to visit the Cotswolds on a day trip from London is on an organized tour.
This is the least hassle, and you don’t have to worry about transportation and logistics yourself. You can maximize the amount of time you spend in the Cotswolds by taking an organized tour.
The tradeoff is that you don’t have any flexibility in the schedule or itinerary. However, there are some great tours that will give you a taste of the Cotswolds and visit the most popular villages.
These are the three tours I recommend. All of these tours include pickup and drop-off at a convenient central location in London, transportation by comfortable coach bus, and a guide.
- Full-day Cotswolds tour: This is the longest tour, giving you the most time to explore in three of the best villages in the Cotswolds: Burford, Bibury, and Stow-on-the-Wold.
- Small-group Cotswolds tour: This tour has a smaller group (limited to 15 people), and you visit four different villages. This means you’ll have slightly less time at each stop, but in addition to the three villages above, you’ll also visit the incredibly charming Bourton-on-the-Water.
- Oxford and Cotswolds tour: This tour is a little different. It combines scenic driving in the Cotswolds and two shorter stops (in Burford and Bourton-on-the-Water) with a couple of hours in Oxford. If you want to see Oxford and get a glimpse of the Cotswolds, this is a good option.
Tours like these are the best option for solo travelers who want to visit the Cotswolds, or anyone who doesn’t want to worry about the logistics of getting a rental car or dealing with train and bus schedules.
I normally prefer traveling independently, and there are plenty of day trips from London where you can do that, but the Cotswolds is one destination where I think a tour really makes the most sense.
Day Trip from London to the Cotswolds
This guide showed you how to take a Cotswolds day trip from London.
Visiting the Cotswolds is a great way to spend a day outside the city. If you can spare the time to visit for a few days, that would be my top recommendation, but if you’re short on time, a day trip to the Cotswolds is still an excellent way to get a taste of what this beautiful region has to offer.
Although it’s possible to drive yourself or take the train, I recommend booking an organized tour to the Cotswolds if you only have one day. This is the easiest and best way to discover the Cotswolds.
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