The Cotswolds: Exploring England's Classic Countryside

Our Cotswolds sojourn begins this afternoon in Oxford with a guided walking tour of England's most famous university town. Admire the architecture and heritage of the 15th-century Bodleian Library and several of the colleges that comprise Oxford University, founded by King Henry VIII in 1546. Leaving Oxford, we head west into the heart of the Cotswolds. This rural region, whose name comes from the Old English "cot" for sheep enclosure and "wold," meaning hill—“sheep pens among rolling hills”—spans 800 square miles and is protected as Britain’s largest National Landscape. Our destination for the next two nights is Tetbury, where a welcome dinner awaits at our inn. Tetbury lies among gently rolling hills on the site of an ancient hill fort, and during the Middle Ages, it became an important market town for Cotswold wool and yarn, which was the main source of the town’s wealth.

This morning, take a private guided tour of Westonbirt National Arboretum. A vital location for research and conservation, Westonbirt holds one of the most important plant collections in the world. Its more than 2,500 tree species include rare and intriguing flora from the farthest corners of the globe. The magnificent botanical collection got its start in 1829 by wealthy Victorian landowner Robert Holford, whose passion for nature and botany grew in tandem with the expansion of the British Empire, when naturalist explorers were bringing back new and exotic species from far-flung lands. Holford financed plant-collecting expeditions around the world, and the arboretum still contains many of the original specimens brought back from these forays. After lunch, join a local falconer for an interactive birds of prey experience. We’ll meet several raptors—typically a hawk, owl, falcon and eagle—which we get to handle and watch fly as we learn about the history of British falconry.

This morning, enjoy a private guided tour of the gardens at Highgrove House, the country residence of HRH King Charles III, who is an ardent supporter of rural landscapes and wildlife conservation in Britain. Such was his love for the landscape, history and people of the Cotswolds that Charles chose to make this 1796 manor house his personal home. The gardens, more than 35 years in the making, reflect great diversity, from the genteel setting of the Sundial Garden to the unstructured beauty of the Wildflower Meadow.

Following lunch at Highgrove, head to Prinknash Abbey, home to a Benedictine monastic community devoted to a live a life of prayer, work and study. The abbey is the starting point for a scenic walk on woodland trails to Painswick Beacon, an Iron Age hill fort offering 360° views over the Severn Valley and across to Wales. From here, we continue to Painswick Rococo Garden, tucked into a hidden valley just off the famous Cotswold Way footpath, for a private tour with the head gardener. Designed in the 1740s for the owner of Painswick House, it was restored in the 1980s to evoke its original sense of fanciful whimsy and joie de vivre. “Rococo” refers to a period of art fashionable in Europe in the 18th century, characterized by ornamental decoration. England’s upper middle classes loved to show off their wealth by indulging in the flamboyant and frivolous, and gardens like this one were an elaborate entertainment space to delight their guests. Today, it is England’s only surviving rococo garden. Highlights of our tour may include heritage roses, fiery day lilies, an orchid-filled wildflower meadow, and a focus on butterfly conservation

Please note: On occasion, unexpected changes in the King’s schedule may force us to alter or cancel our visit to Highgrove House and Gardens today, since it is his personal residence. When that is the case, we will try to go on another date, or we will substitute an alternate activity.

This morning, we tour a very special private garden at Througham Court that offers a window on the influential Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain. By the early 20^th century, the Cotswolds had become an important center for the movement, which favored the handmade and vernacular over industrial mass-production. Headed by poet and designer William Morris, the approach sought to marry practicality with artistry through traditional craftsmanship. In addition to its influence on interior decoration, the philosophy shaped garden design, and we witness that heritage at Througham Court. Off limits to the general public, the 6-acre grounds are garden designer Christine Facer Hoffman’s private estate, hidden away in a remote Cotswold valley. In addition to stewarding the original 1930s Arts and Crafts landscape designed by famed Cotswold architect Norman Jewson—known for its manicured yew topiaries and dry stone wall terracing—Hoffman has expanded her garden for use as a personal “laboratory” to experiment with new concepts. An esteemed scientist before she became a landscape architect and horticulturalist, Hoffman’s contemporary garden areas are inspired by scientific principles and theories found in nature. Explore the universe in the Cosmic Evolution Garden, with stone spheres representing the planets, and follow Fibonacci’s Walk in the meadow, enlightened by Hoffman’s personal interpretation.

Continue to the village of Slad where we have lunch at the famous Woolpack Pub, a favorite of novelist and poet Laurie Lee. The Cotswolds' most famous author, Lee was raised in this tiny town that remains largely overlooked by tourism. Afterward, a walk through the Slad Valley reveals an idyllic vale untouched by development, with four small nature reserves to explore. This region was once the heart of England's wool industry in the Middle Ages, which generated so much wealth for the Cotswolds.

Just up the road lies the Sapperton Valley nature reserve, a narrow, steep-sided valley containing a mix of woodland, marsh and wet meadows along the River Frome. A stretch of the Severn and Thames Canal, built in 1789 but disused since the early 20^th century, runs through the reserve. Explore it on a walk among the tall trees, lush vegetation, wild herbs and wildflowers that grow in season, learning about local conservation efforts to restore butterfly populations. Afterward, continue to a local pub for lunch.

The afternoon holds a stroll through one of the Cotswolds' most enchanting settings. The River Eye, more of a sleepy stream, joins the tiny villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter, names that derive from the Saxon word slothre or sloh, meaning "slough" or "marshy place," rather than any grisly heritage. Connected by a peaceful mile walk along the riverbank, the villages look straight out of a fairytale with their tiny cottages, steepled churches, stone walls, trailing roses and picturesque old mill. Our walk concludes in the tiny hamlet of Upper Slaughter, where we find the luxurious country house hotel that will be our home for the next three nights.

Rise early for a sunrise bird walk with a local naturalist, who helps us identify the songbirds we hear as they greet the morning in an exuberant dawn chorus. Return to the inn for a hearty English breakfast, then set out to explore a collection of small Cotswolds villages, starting in Stanway, which is famous for its Jacobean manor house with a gravity-fed fountain that reaches heights of nearly 300 feet. Neighboring Stanton is considered one of the most picturesque towns in the Cotswolds. Many of its cottages were built in the mid-1500s, and the church dates to the 9th century. Continue to Snowshill, built of golden Cotswold limestone, which lies near two long-distance footpaths, the Winchcombe Way and the Cotswold Way.

As we weave our way through the bucolic landscape, we observe how the traditional rural heritage of the Cotswolds has shaped the region over the centuries. More than 80% of these rolling hills is agricultural land. Nature here has been managed and conserved by the farming community, which continues its commitment to careful stewardship today. At Honeydale Farm, learn about sustainable agriculture in the Cotswolds. Committed to ecological farming and public education, the FarmED program on the 107-acre site seeks to reconnect people to the land in ways that will nourish them and the Earth both. Our private guided tour covers the heritage orchard, kitchen garden, meadows and woodland as we learn about natural flood management, regenerative agriculture, the micro dairy, and the heritage wheat the farm grows for artisan bread making. This evening, enjoy a dinner featuring local farm-to-table fare at an inviting country inn.

This morning, watch a live sheepdog demonstration at Mickleton Farm, where we learn about the communication between the dogs and their handlers and witness the remarkable way the sheep respond to the dogs’ movements. Then we enjoy another village-to-village walk, connecting our lunch stop in Ebrington with our garden tour at Hidcote, as we amble across the rolling hills of the northern Cotswolds. Following paths through grassy fields along ancient farm tracks and quiet lanes, traverse open countryside with expansive views. The route over the limestone terrain rises and falls gently, with a few steady climbs that offer more reward than challenge. Each season unveils its own natural beauty: spring unveils fresh green meadows and hedgerows strewn with wildflowers, summer offers dry, sun-warmed trails beneath lush, shady canopies, and autumn paints the countryside in rich golds and russets.

At Hidcote Gardens, we have private tour of this National Trust property regarded as one of the finest displays of flora in England. Hidcote's designer, Lawrence Johnstone, sourced plants for the gardens from around the world and donated the site to the National Trust in 1948—making it the first of many significant British gardens the Trust would acquire. This evening, a festive farewell dinner awaits as we gather around the table one last time.

An early morning transfer is included from our hotel in Upper Slaughter to London's Heathrow Airport, about a two-hour drive, for those who are flying home or headed to other travels. If you choose to remain in the region for further exploration on your own, you can leave any time before scheduled checkout from our hotel—consider a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Blenheim Palace, Sudeley Castle, the Roman city of Bath, or Shakespeare's childhood home of Stratford-upon-Avon—all are nearby.

Please note: While all activities listed on our itinerary will be included, some may take place on days or times that are different from what is shown, depending on local schedules.