The Cotswolds is a long, soft line of limestone hills running across several counties, and the villages that sit along it are built from the same honey-coloured stone as the walls that divide the fields. A weekend is enough to see a handful of them properly, on foot, with a pub lunch in the middle.
Bibury
Arlington Row, a terrace of old stone cottages beside the River Coln, is the picture everyone knows. Go early, before the coaches, and walk the water meadows on the far bank.
Lower and Upper Slaughter
Two small villages linked by a short, flat walk beside the River Eye. The name has nothing to do with bloodshed: it comes from an old word for a muddy place. It is an easy morning, with a mill and a good tea room at the far end.
Burford
A single wide street running down a hill to the River Windrush, lined with old shops and inns. Good for an afternoon of looking in windows.
Painswick
A steep, grey-stone town above the Stroud valleys, known for the yew trees in its churchyard and for a great deal of good walking on the hills around it.
Chipping Campden
A graceful market town with a curved high street, and the starting point of the Cotswold Way, the long-distance path that runs about 100 miles south to Bath. You do not have to walk all of it. The first few miles are the best.
Stow-on-the-Wold
Sits high on a hill at the meeting of several old roads, with a big market square and more antique shops than you could visit in a day.
What to pack
Good socks, a layer you can take off and a pair of boots that do not mind mud. Our gifts for the country walker and country clothing collections cover most of it, and the Cotswold Companion has more on the landscape itself.