Are you on the look out for a staycation this year?

Situated close to London, a few hours drive from the city-centre, lies the Cotswolds, a pictureque, quaint area in the British countryside with bountiful places to stop, things to do and to keep everyone in the family entertained.

Here is our staycation story from a weekend in the Cotswolds.

If you need some tips and tricks for where to go and places to look out for, look no further.

One of our Marketing Team recently went there and made a quick and simple blog of their trip with some photos. 

Where to start?

There are a few more central hubs across the Cotswolds, with some bigger towns. Most of the Cotswolds is small villages and meandering tracks and foopaths, but if you're looking for a slightly busier town, then you have a plenty to choose from, here is my pick:
- Stow-on-the-wold

- Bourton-on-the-water

- Broadway 

- Burford

These are some of the larger, yet still lovely places where you'll find a wider selection of restaurants, hotels and shops.

Stow-on-the-wold was the hub of our weekend, and we stayed in a small village not far from there called Evenlode.

If you are planning a trip to the area, my suggestion would be to have a hub in mind, you can move around of course, but for us it helped to know roughly the area we wanted to try out, as the Cotswolds spans 6 counties and is much larger than most people think.

My favourite Walk

There are many to choose from within the Cotswold Area, but my favourite spot is the Broadway Tower.

You can walk from the Broadway Tower from the centre of Broadway, and its a stunning but relatively steady hill climb to the beacon at the top. A few hours round trip is all you need to complete this walk, and with lovely views, and a snack van at the top serving hot chocolates, teas and snacks, what more could you want? Its dog friendly and is well paved so you cant really get lost, if you do, just keep heading up the hill!

Looking for a hidden gem?

The cotwolds is very popular area for visitors, and can often be quite busy, so if you're looking to get away from the crowds, here are a set of smaller villages that might suit your fancy:

- Lower Slaughter

Just outside Stow-on-the-Wold, this village has a lovely river running through and is a classicly quintessentially British Cotswold location.

- Bibury

This can be slightly busier than the others, but is still not as busy as the main towns such as Bourton on the Water. 

- Evenlode

We stayed in this village and was perfect for a quiet cottage stay and a peaceful few days of walking and relaxing.

The BMW M440i xDrive Coupe.

I was lucky enough to have the new BMW M440i xDrive Coupe for the duration of the trip and car performed brilliantly. The Cotswolds is a driver friendly area, with lots of nice country roads to stretch the legs and test out the handling, the 4 Series was responsive and handled sharply around the corners and the TwinPower Turbo 6-cylinder engine, which also comes with M Adaptive Suspension and M Active Differential, gave me a perfect balance of power and handling.