A weekend in the Cotswolds

I was a Cotswolds virgin. I had heard of the place and knew roughly where it was. But never before had I set foot in the rolling hills, the twee villages and the endless pubs.

This was until last month when The Dragon and I finally borrowed a car to substitute our scrap-destined Peugeot 306 estate, or Hotel 306 as it was affectionately known on account of our more budget overnight beach staycations.

It’s a good job someone kicked the wing mirrors off to put the final nail in the coffin, we agreed as we rolled into Stow-on-the-Wold in a loaned Smart car.

In amongst the Range Rovers and drop-tops, we felt accepted finding our way through the tiny streets around the quaint square, a tumbledown picture of prettiness.

Our resting place after the escape from Bristol was the Grapevine Hotel, a 17th century stone house which blends into the higgledy-piggledy high street and (astonishingly) has a genuine grapevine growing inside its glazed restaurant, forming a green canape over the dining room.

Like the rest of the homes and shops in the town, the hotel is built with the distinctive local limestone, and stone slates which give the area its unique appearance.

Facades all over town crumble and crack while cartoon wonky roofs undulate around the main square with tiny off-shoot streets pocketed with antiques shops.

Everywhere we stepped there was either another antiques shop or a flea market selling every type of vintage, by-gone trinket. I was half expecting to bump into Lovejoy between the grannies and men in gillets. But alas, not a rough mockney dealer in sight.

I feel like you could probably walk around the tiny streets stopping for cream teas and the odd pint of local ale for decades and not notice anything change.

It’s a good job we didn’t though, not least because we would have inevitably ended up wearing matching gillets, but because the best part of the trip was away from the towns and into the tumbling hills of the countryside proper.

There are no shortage of walks of all levels and difficulties starting and finishing in all the postcard perfect towns. Most of the walks will, at some point, combine with the Cotswolds Way, a 102-mile walking route which snakes up the range of rolling hill from Bath to Chipping Campdon.

Most will also take in stunning views either looking up into the hills or down from the top of the escarpment, known as Cotsowld Edge, into the Severn Valley. The deeper into the hills you get, the smaller and more quaint the villages become.

Relics of a prosperous past of wool production, many are pristinely kept windows into history. Many of them also have pubs.

We stopped in at the Snowshill Arms in Snowshill for a swift half on our way round a four-hour circular walk with views over Evesham across to Wales, finishing in Stanton.

For the evening, to put our feet up, we headed to one of the jewels in the Cotsowlds Crown, Bourton-on-the-Water.

The light stone cottages, shops and pubs here follow a shallow river where ducks can stand knee deep (if ducks have knees?) under the tourists posing on the many small bridges. Cross back and forth here and you will always be facing a pub, gift shop, tea rooms or, you guessed it, an antique dealers.

Set back a little from the water is the oldest house in the village, which also happens to be the hotel where we stayed.

The Dial House is as glorious as all the other buildings from the outside, but to stay inside it adds another dimension.

Just sitting in the bedroom or dining room and looking out onto the village through the stone window frames is worth the visit.

But for those who fancy a little extra the hotel also has a hot tub in the garden and one of the best restaurants in town.

It is also a whole lot better than staying in the back of a car, take it from me.

Where to stay and eat:

The Grapevine Hotel, Stow-on-Wold

Double rooms from £99 including breakfast

Three-course meal in the restaurant from £19.95 per person

Dial House Hotel, Bourton-on-Water

Double rooms from £119, including breakfast

Dinner from the a la carte menu in the restaurant from £45 per person