THE COTSWOLDS
Ah, The Cotswolds. The fresh green lap of this fair isle.

 In the Summer 2013 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on May 1st and runs through October 31st –
The Cotswolds Tour takes place on the following dates: 

Sunday, June 30 (meeting time is 9 am)
 
Sunday, July 14 (meeting time is 9 am)
 
Saturday, July 20 (meeting time is 9.45 am)
 
Sunday, July 28 (meeting time is 9 am)
 
Sunday, August 11 (meeting time is 9 am)
 
Sunday, August 25 (meeting time is 9 am)
 
Saturday, October 5 (meeting time is 9.45 am; and, yes, this one's The Cotswolds in Autumn)
 
Meet Richard* by the main ticket office (it's by Platform 1)
of Paddington Railway  Station.
 
*Yes, that Richard. He of the honeyed voice and just-stepped-out-of-the-pages-of-Gentleman's-Quarterly mien (as always, he'll be topped to the north with that distinctive red cap).

Ummm. Yes. The achingly beautiful Cotswolds. The Cotswolds of  thatched roofs and honey-coloured stone and cottages wreathed in wisteria and honeysuckle. The Cotswolds of stone bridges and old mills and millponds. The Cotswolds of storybook villages and matchless flower gardens. The Cotswolds of... well, of rural England at its best.

Okay, that's enough mood music. Here's the nitty gritty.
 
We explore, on foot, four exquisite Cotswolds villages. They're not canned, glimpsed-from-a-coach visits – they're walking tour visits. Proper, richly particular, take-our-time, do-the-place-justice visits. Up close and personal visits. Hear the bird song visits. Smell the honeysuckle visits. See the piquant details visits. Synch with the tempo visits.
 
And then there's the bass line – the Cotswolds countryside we move through.
 
Now as for the practicals...  We travel to The Cotswolds by comfortable, high speed train. You want the tourism equivalent of factory farming – the coach, the London gridlock, the mindlessness of the motorway – you've come to the wrong shop. We do things differently. We go by train.
 
It's fastly superior. Quicker and far more comfortable. Coach-time for us is just a tiny part of the day – as opposed to most of the day. Coach-time for us is a bagatelle – just a couple of very pleasant intervals when we're up in The Cotswolds. Which is by way of saying, Richard charters a local coach to get us over the ground between some of the villages that we tour. Charters a local coach because the villages aren't "train connected". That said, a couple of them – Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter – are close enough to each other – it's the merest gentle stroll – that we walk it. It's a country walk. A Cotswolds country walk. Fields and stiles and lanes and paths. Bliss. Though if anybody doesn't want to – or if the heavens have opened – well, "the wheels option" is there. It's the best of both worlds.
 
Basically the light use of the coach – the light touch – gets the balance right. It's very little coach time indeed, but it's there for us when we need it. We're not on a long-distance, cross-country Costwolds trek, we're on a tour of The Cotswolds and in particular those four villages. The coach takes care of those intervening miles.
 
And "takes care of" translates into "care's been taken". Which is by way of saying, those  "intervening miles" are something to be relished rather than endured. For the very good reason that because we've got the timing right – because we haven't thrown three to four hours down the maw of London traffic and the motorway just to get up there – Richard's route through the Cotswolds is a masterclass in how it should be done. It's a gorgeous, back country roads route – a best of the Cotswolds countryside route. In short, the coach time isn't down time, isn't to-be-endured, got-to-be-got-through, grin-and-bear-it time – it's another absolutely delightful strand to Richard's Cotswolds tour. A plus not a negative.
 
Bottom line. This Cotswolds tour isn't just different in degree, it's different in kind. And that different in kind is the reason this one grades out as by far the best Cotswolds Tour going. Anything else? Yes. By all means check out the little video of our Cotswolds Tour. You'll like what you see. Who wouldn't?

Here it is – the taster – it's a lovingly shot little film of day, destination, and guide (ah, Richard! cynosure of guides, golden of voice, red of cap, pink of courtesy! Not to mention platinum of well connected, etc. etc.). And here's another (it's a little photo-essay).

For a photograph of the meeting point – and even more precise directions – click here.

 Tariff:  c. £39