Cotswolds.

[Maillot Rouge]

I see that the Cotswolds covers a large area and four counties.If you could only go once and wanted a pretty cycling and walking area which part would you choose?

[AndyK]

For pretty villages, lots of quiet country lanes and fairly easy-going cycling, the area east of Cirencester is fantastic, up as far as Burford and over to the Oxfordshire borders. Filkins, Eastleach, Bibury, the Coln Valley, Chedworth, the Windrush valley - it's all magical.
North around Stow and up towards Moreton and Broadway is also pretty, though with more and bigger hills. (And a flat bit east of Moreton just for variety.)
For dramatic valleys and spectacular views, the western edge: Dursley/Nailsworth/Stroud. Great for hiking; some challenging hills for cycling and a bit harder to avoid the traffic if you're on-road. It has some bike paths on old railway lines.
The Oxfordshire Cotswolds are nice too but again harder to avoid the traffic.
I also like the southwest around Malmesbury where it spills over into the rolling hills of Wiltshire.
Oh, everywhere really. It's all good. Except for Bourton-on-the-Water.

[Mike_Ayling]

What's wrong with Bourton on the Water?

[PT1029]

If you want the better bits, I'd say aim to keep within a line drawn
Malmsbury - Cirenecester - Burford - Enstone - Banbury - Wellsbourn - Broadway - Cheltenham - Stroud - Wooton Under edge - Malmsbury.
Villages to the west in the Vale of Evesham can be good too.
A very crude guide, and you will find perfectly fine bits outside this zone.

East of a line Faringdon - Witney - Woodstock - Bicester the roads are a lot more busy.
Bourton on the Water is very nice aprox October - March. Otherwise it is very busy on a weekend.
The Rollright Stones is a good dark sky area (low light pollution, Dara O Brein took some city dwellers there once for a TV program to show them the night sky.

[Oldjohnw]

I had a wonderful couple of days around Sherborne near Northleach. It is on a cycling route and has a marvellous village shop and cafe. Great walking a very quiet compared with Stow or Bourton etc.

I was planning a revisit last year cycling from Birmingham via Leamington (where my daughter lives), Burford, Woodstock and Oxford for a couple of days meeting up with wife and daughter (my daughter works there at The Queens, my wife attended LMH over 40 years ago).

[Maillot Rouge]

There’s plenty to go at thanks.
I’m all for avoiding the honeypot villages and towns.

[Richard Fairhurst]

You're spoilt for choice really - there are countless tiny country lanes. The high Gloucestershire Cotswolds roughly in a sweep down from Snowshill to Northleach, Stroud, Cirencester and Tetbury have the quietest, but they can also be strenuously hilly. The Oxfordshire Cotswolds are more rolling with fewer really sharp hills.

As luck would have it a couple of new routes were signposted last week - one from Chipping Campden down to Tetbury, another from Tewkesbury over to Northleach, picking up the existing route from there to Minster Lovell, and then crossing over towards the Cherwell valley via Charlbury. They're so new they haven't fully made it onto OpenCycleMap or cycle.travel yet, but you can see them on Waymarked Trails (at https://cycling.waymarkedtrails.org/#?m ... 85!-1.9512, they're the ones marked NB for National Byway, and CC for Cotswolds Cycleway).

The idea behind them is to combine with the existing NCN to make more circular routes - lots of possibilities there.

(I live in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds so am happy to offer any advice on particular routes!)

[leftpoole]

I now live close to the lower edge of the Cotswolds having moved from Bournemouth. I wish that I had stayed where I was. Although where I live is relatively level, if I so much as turn towards the main area of Cotswolds, hills upon hills!
I miss those undulating rides of the New Forest area and towards Dorchester.
But if you want Cotswolds then, in my opinion the advice given by PT1029 would be a great choice.

[De Sisti]

For pretty villages, quiet country lanes and fairly easy-going cycling, Filkins, Eastleach, Bibury, Coln Valley, Windrush valley, Hatherop, Quenington.

I particularly like these areas.

[Oldjohnw]

Bibury if you can get close!

[Traction_man]

I see that the Cotswolds covers a large area and four counties.If you could only go once and wanted a pretty cycling and walking area which part would you choose?

for me my favoured scenic and quieter bits of the Cotswolds for cycling (and walking) is west of the Fosse Way and close to the scarp edge, so a line approx from Ilmington (Warwickshire) to Tetbury (Gloucs), the old Salt Way is a bridleway and has some lovely sections (https://www.cotswolds.info/blogs/tracks-and-roads.shtml), avoid the Fosse Way itself though!

cheers,

Keith

[AndyK]

What's wrong with Bourton on the Water?

Oh, nothing really, I'm just being snarky. It's just the ultimate Cotswold tourist trap - usually (in non-Covid times) jam-packed with cars, motorbikes, tourist coach parties shopping in Edinburgh Woollen Mill. There are a couple of sneaky routes in and out though, it is very pretty, and it's got a wide selction of cafes and pubs. Just a bit of a let-down when you've spent the rest of the day on quiet lanes through peaceful villages.

[Mike_Ayling]

What's wrong with Bourton on the Water?

Oh, nothing really, I'm just being snarky. It's just the ultimate Cotswold tourist trap - usually (in non-Covid times) jam-packed with cars, motorbikes, tourist coach parties shopping in Edinburgh Woollen Mill. There are a couple of sneaky routes in and out though, it is very pretty, and it's got a wide selction of cafes and pubs. Just a bit of a let-down when you've spent the rest of the day on quiet lanes through peaceful villages.

I cycled through there in about 1970 and I don't recall it being a tourist trap then.

Mike

[Oldjohnw]

What's wrong with Bourton on the Water?

Oh, nothing really, I'm just being snarky. It's just the ultimate Cotswold tourist trap - usually (in non-Covid times) jam-packed with cars, motorbikes, tourist coach parties shopping in Edinburgh Woollen Mill. There are a couple of sneaky routes in and out though, it is very pretty, and it's got a wide selction of cafes and pubs. Just a bit of a let-down when you've spent the rest of the day on quiet lanes through peaceful villages.

I cycled through there in about 1970 and I don't recall it being a tourist trap then.

Mike

I have visited most years recently: always unbelievably busy. A lot can happen in 50 years!

[rogerzilla]

When you cycle round it you realise most of it, outside the towns, consists of enormous estates. The landed gentry are still alive and well. It always used to be deserted in the week as so many cottages are second homes but I imagine many owners are WFH there at the moment.