Adventure in the Cotswolds: two-day cycling route

the Cotswolds is the best choice for cycling

If you want to travel to the quintessential England, with its old limestone churches, green rolling hills dotted with sheep, and cosy pubs, the Cotswolds is what you need. Its web of quiet undulating lanes between dispersed villages ensures that this ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ is the best choice for cycling. In just a few hours of admiring its rose bushes and old stone churches I found myself short of synonyms to the word ‘nice’ and just kept exclaiming ‘look, how cute!’ every ten minutes.

People from the Cotswolds say that tourists often wander into their gardens and even houses, mistaken their homes for museums. Despite being inconvenient, the mistake is well grounded: the villages are too cute, too well-kept, too good to be true human abode. Everything in the Cotswolds looks like a postcard (except maybe a queue to the local bakery). There is a lot to enjoy besides the villages: dramatic views of rapeseed fields in yellow bloom, refreshing shadow of tree tunnels, and an occasional bridleway to practice off-road cycling or to take break from riding and enjoy a short walk.

The Cotswolds cover a large area, without a well-defined centre, and it’s hard to find a hiking route that goes through many villages in one day. I imagine that driving a car may feel uncomfortable on those narrow roads; there also might be few parking spots in ancient villages designed for horseback riding. Travelling there is easier and probably more enjoyable for cyclists, especially now, when cycling is the best way to hang out with friends and still practice social distancing. So I developed a two-day cycling route from one train station to another, going through the heart of the Cotswolds and passing some cutest villages. Our cycling group really enjoyed it, and I decided to share the route.

At a glance

Level: medium-advanced
Time: two days
Distance: 110 km, total elevation gain ≅ 1000 m
Map: download a free offline map on maps.me and import our cycling route for day 1 and day 2
Eating: not all villages have a pub or a restaurant, so plan ahead and pack some snacks
Water: you can ask to refill your bottle in a pub
Sleeping: inns or BnB’s near Bibury
Transportation: train, bike
Start: Cheltenham Spa train station
Finish: Moreton-in-Marsh train station (might be done in reversed direction)

In details

About the route

This route is a combination of several overlapping cycling routes from a Cicerone guide book “Cycling in the Cotswolds”. I love Cicerone guides and have used them extensively for hiking in the UK as well as in other countries. I would gladly just pick any route from the book and follow it, but it is not easy to transport yourself and a bike to any starting point in the Cotswolds without a car. So we had to improvise and were not disappointed.

My favourite villages from this trip are Bibury and Lower Slaughter, but there are tons of small cute villages and old churches on the way. Don’t miss the Model Village museum in Bourton-on-the-Water. There is also a trout farm in Bibury, where you can allegedly catch and barbeque your own trout (we visited only their cafe, it was nice).

On the first day you will see more nature and rolling hills, and there will be more villages and small towns on the second day.

Lower Slaughter looks more friendly than its name suggests.

Model Village Museum in Bourton-on-the-Water is the place where you can finally photograph every cute house without worrying about invasion of privacy. You can leave your bike on a pram parking near the museum entrance.

You can always chain your bike to a bench (it will be fiiine 🤞) and walk around a village to explore its gardens and chimneys. That’s what our team did in Bibury — one of the cutest villages in the Cotswolds.

There are countless views on the road, too: make sure your camera is easy to grab during a short stop.

Level

While this route is certainly not for the beginners, don’t be discouraged by its ‘advanced’ part. If you are generally fit and prepared to cycle steep uphill or downhill most of the day, you can do this route. The hardest part is in the very beginning, where the route starts with the long exhausting 150 m ascent (with some rewarding views on the way), and it will be easier from then on. It might help to have a lightweight bicycle with lots of gears that allow you to climb the hills at your own pace. It doesn’t have to be a mountain bike — in fact, our group had only hybrids or road bikes (and even one folding bike) and managed pretty well. There are a couple of bridleways, but one of them is easy enough to ride through, and one is short enough to walk your bike and has a short detour option if you want to avoid it. We were lucky with the warm and sunny weather, but I would allow some extra time in rainy days, because I assume that safe descent will take more time on wet surface.

My bike provided gears low enough to ride with walking speed, which helped me on especially steep ascents.

One of the bridleways proved to be usuitable for road bikes, so we dismounted and walked the bikes — it was a nice short distraction from the day of riding.

There are a couple of fords on the way, and our group enjoyed to cross them back and forth. However, if you don’t want to get your shoes wet, you can walk your bike by the pedestrian bridge.

Time and distance

The route is more or less evenly split: we tracked 60 km the first day and 50 km the second. Overall ascent was 632 m on the first day and 462 m on the second, however, there is a huge discrepancy in elevation gain numbers between different trackers, so don’t rely on that information much.

Starting early allows you to have lots of stops and travel without a rush. It took us around 5-6 hours to cycle each day, with all the short stops for pictures and snacks. However, eating in a restaurant takes at least 1.5 hours, plus you’ll need time to walk around a lovely village or two, and it will be a shame to miss the Model Village museum, so the whole day might take up to 10-11 hours. Together with trains from London and cycling to/from the train station, we were busy and entertained for two full days.

Though most of the route goes through open fields, you are often riding in cool shade of trees alongside the road. Still, don’t forget your sunscreen!

There are countless view spots along the road, so don’t hesitate to stop for a couple of pictures.

It is hard to simply cycle past a church like this 700 years old Northleach Church of St Peter and St Paul. Even in the pandemic time, when all churches are closed to visitors, it is pleasant to walk around them and admire the architecture.

Food and drink

The restaurants are few and far between, especially during the first day. So plan accordingly, and bring snacks and plenty of water. Prices in the Cotswolds are very high, and the service is slow, so better relax and enjoy the garden view (or the cosy fireplace).

Our stops were:
Day 1: breakfast at home, lunch in Cheltenham (lots of restaurants and take-aways), dinner in Bibury at the Swan Hotel restaurant (expensive but excellent food);
Day 2: small breakfast at the inn, brunch at Bibury trout farm cafe, quick snack with what was left over by hungry tourists at Bakery-on-the-Water, and snacks along the way (we were a bit in a hurry and decided to skip lunch in a pub, otherwise there are a couple of cafes in Bourton-on-the-Water).

You can ask to refill your bottle in pubs and restaurants, but since there are not many of them, better carry extra water with you.

Snack stop transforms easily into picture stop, especially when rapeseed fields are in full bloom.

Breakfast for two in the Keepers Arms Inn. There’s also a kettle and a good selection of teas in the room.

Our lunch in Bourton-on-the-Water consisted of a few pecan tarts that were left in the local bakery. While the tarts were amazing, don’t repeat our mistake and get up earlier than nine o’clock to explore lovely villages of the second day and still h… — Our lunch in Bourton-on-the-Water consisted of a few pecan tarts that were left in the local bakery. While the tarts were amazing, don’t repeat our mistake and get up earlier than nine o’clock to explore lovely villages of the second day and still have time for a decent lunch.

Sleeping

We wanted to stop in Bibury for the night, but there were no places available for our budget, so we cycled to the Keepers Arms in Quenington, which is around half an hour from Bibury. Our prices were £90 for a room, with breakfast that allowed us a couple of hours to explore Bibury before getting hungry again. A part of our group stayed at the New Inn (no breakfast served) in Coln St Aldwyns, which is a bit closer to Bibury.

Our bikes enjoy a well-deserved rest at the Swan Hotel restaurant.

The owners who don’t have ivy overgrown on their houses have just two month to fix this issue or face permanent expulsion from the Cotswolds (I’m joking, but think of it, why is there ivy on every house?)

Getting there and back

The hardest part in planning the Cotswolds trip was resolving the train problem. There are few train stations in the area and some of them can only be reached with rail replacement buses, which do not allow bikes (as of August 2020). Going from London, we had to make a loop through Bristol to get to Cheltenham Spa. From Moreton-in-Marsh there are direct trains through Oxford to London Paddington. Most of the trains go once an hour, which is quite flexible.

GWR and Cross Country, the train companies that we used to get to and from the Cotswolds, require bookings for bicycle spaces on their train. The booking is free; however, there are only four bike spaces on GWR trains, and only two on Cross Country trains. Yes, that means you can take only two bikes on that train. So our company with four bikes had to split to get to Cheltenham by two trains that are an hour apart (you don’t have to book a space for folding bike).

That said, there are people who flout these rules, and they still get to their destinations. When we had to split and ride two different trains, there were six bikes on our train with only three places, and no one could do anything about it. I myself boarded a train from Moreton-in-Marsh without reservation, when we were late for our planned train. However, I didn’t like the feeling of being in the way, and I advise you to reserve the bike spaces in advance, especially since it is quite easy to do via Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp.

When your train arrives, look for a bike sign on the coach walls. There are bike racks behind the entrance marked with that sign. Don’t worry much if you can’t find it immediately, the driver sees you and won’t depart without you. Sometimes they will go out on the platform to help you find the suitable space. Don’t forget to pack your mask and wear it on the train!

There are two couches with bike racks on GWR trains. Look for a bike sign near the couch door. To use the rack, lift your bike and hang it by the front wheel on the hook.

On our CrossCountry train all the available places were taken, and we had to stay with our bikes despite the booked places. It was fine, because we travelled for just one stop from Bristol to Cheltenham Spa.

Bikes are the safest way to travel with friends during pandemic. Keeping the safe distance never felt so fun. Totally worth some time spent on booking the train places.

That’s it, I hope this information will help you to plan your journey and enjoy your cycling in the Cotswolds! If you have questions, drop me an email: martreya@gmail.com. See you on road :)