Bath and The Cotswolds Self Drive 4D/3N

photo courtesy of England Tourist Board Travel the back roads of England touring ancient Roman towns, historic castles, thatch-roofed cottage villages and countryside seeped in history. Combine two or more of our selected itineraries to create your own trip back in time

Bath The Romans established the City of Bath in AD 43 and this city, awash with architecture, history and culture, has been welcoming visitors ever since. Many of Bath’s great buildings date back from its renaissance in the 18th century when it again became a fashionable spa town and played host to royalty and the cream of aristocracy, who visited the city to ‘take the waters’. Today visitors can walk around the old Roman Baths, enjoy the splendor of Bath Abbey or simply take in the breathtaking Georgian architecture of this beautiful city, which somehow managed to escape the ravages of industry and the Luftwaffe. Jane Austen lived and based many of her books on Bath, and on Gay Street, near where she once lived, visitors can find the Jane Austen Center, which displays her life and times. For an authentic feel of life gone by, period decorations and furniture have been reinstated in No1 Royal Crescent, so that the house appears as it might have been as a fine 18th-century townhouse. Though architecturally Bath is something of a period piece, it is also a very modern city; its restaurants and pavement cafés packed full of local businessmen and artisans. The International Music Festival marks the beginning of summer and adds to the city’s lively, festive atmosphere and its Theater Royal is one of the country’s leading provincial theaters, attracting big names and pre-West End runs.

photo courtesy of England Tourist Board The Cotswolds region in England personifies country quaintness. With names like Chipping Campden, Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold, the Cotswold towns and villages have a fairy-tale-like air, with small bridges over shallow rivers, colorful gardens leading up to thatched cottages and Morris-dancing in the town square. Here, life doesn’t seem to change much over the centuries, and the inhabitants of its cottages and manors appear to retain a pastoral naivety. It’s hard not to feel the rural tranquility, and visitors may well feel as though they’ve stepped into one of Constable’s paintings. Due to their proximity to Stratford-Upon-Avon and Oxford, Cotswold Bed-and-Breakfasts are a popular choice with tourists.

SELF DRIVE PROGRAMS - Probably, the best way to independently travel in Europe is by self-drive car as it allows you to be mobile at all times, to stop whenever you want, to visit to your heart’s content! A limitless number of itineraries are possible, as you can combine any of the different regions and cities to create “your own” program. All our self drive example itineraries will be customized with your choice of car and with accommodation at selected hotels, villas, boutique properties, manor houses or castles as per your preference. Take them as they are, lengthen, shorten, combine them as you desires or just use them for ideas in creating “your itinerary” to discover Europe “as you want”! If you like the tour and decide to further customize it, just let us know of your needs and desires, we will prepare the exact itinerary you are looking for.

photo courtesy of England Tourist BoardSketch Itinerary

  • Day 1 London to Bath - Pick up your car this morning and drive southwest to Salisbury and visit its magnificent Cathedral. Continue via prehistoric Stonehenge and Longleat House to Bath. Overnight in Bath.
  • Day 2 Bath to Morton-in-Marsh - Morning is available to visit Bath. Continue in the afternoon into the Cotswolds via Castle Combe, Burton-on-Water, and the Slaughters to Morton-in-Marsh. Overnight in Moreton-in-Marsh.
  • Day 3 In the Cotswolds - Full day available to visit Stratford-upon-Avon with Shakespeare’s birthplace and Anne Hathaway’s cottage, Broadway, and many of the quaint villages of the Cotswolds. Overnight in Moreton-in-Marsh.
  • Day 4 Morton-in-Marsh to London - Drive today to the pretty village of Woodstock to visit Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Continue to the university city of Oxford before returning via Henley-on-Thames to London where your tour terminates in the late afternoon.

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Also tagged with: Independent Journeys, Europe, Self Drive, United Kingdom, Educational, Cultural, Art / Architecture, Module