Experience the best of Cotswolds

The Cotswold hills run from south-west to north-east across Gloucestershire and into Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, rising gently from the east and falling in a steep escarpment to the west. Medieval wool made the area rich, and the merchants' money built grand churches and villages of honey-coloured limestone, from Bibury, where the cottages of Arlington Row front a trout stream, to Burford, Chipping Campden and Bourton-on-the-Water.

Market towns such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Cirencester and Tetbury have antique shops and old coaching inns, and the Cotswold Way, a long-distance footpath of about 100 miles, follows the escarpment from Chipping Campden to Bath. Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe, Blenheim Palace by Woodstock on the eastern side and the Roman museum at Cirencester add history.

Roast Cotswold lamb, game and Double Gloucester cheese are typical of the pub menus, with local ales, and cider and perry come from the orchards to the west. The hills are green and walkable from spring to autumn, and the stone villages are quietest in winter.