Picture the scene: the automotive is packed, your canine companions are safe and also you set off for a dream weekend within the Cotswolds. When you arrive, you’re welcomed and introduced with a totally bespoke itinerary in your keep, tailor-made precisely to you and your doggy’s necessities, the place all you could do is flip up on the proper place, on the proper time, and the remainder is taken care of. Restaurant reservations confirmed, too. Sound heavenly?
SoGlos obtained the lowdown from Gemma Conway of Cotswold Cottage Gems — a luxurious vacation cottage firm based mostly in Bourton-on-the-Water — on creating the dream Cotswold nation escape that is excellent for each you and your furry buddies too.
Where to remain
With over 700 sq. miles of countryside
and quaint honey-hued villages, the Cotswolds is an Outstanding Area of Natural Beauty and the ultimate staycation for you and your four-legged buddies to discover. Cotswold
Cottage Gems has 12 fantastically appointed cottages, that are all pet-friendly
to make sure you can convey alongside the entire household. It even provides canine-friendly treats on arrival, by locally-produced Cotswold
Choice, together with canine bowls, blankets and poop baggage to make use of all through your keep.
With a self-catering cottage, friends have the flexibleness to loosen up in a home away from home, with out worrying about different friends and strict check-in and check-out occasions, realizing that the services can be 100 per cent dog-friendly. And so as to add to this comfort, the beautiful properties owned and managed by Cotswold Cottage Gems are all on the doorstep of some lovely scenic walks, native sights, pubs and eating places that each one welcome dogs.
Cotswold Cottage Gems has cottages situated all through the Cotswolds, in gorgeous places reminiscent of Bourton-on-the-Water, Moreton-in-Marsh, Longborough, Cold Aston and Stow-on-the-Wold. It even affords a pet-sitting service, for canine homeowners who have to attend occasions reminiscent of weddings however do not need to depart pups for lengthy durations of time.
Where to eat
For breakfast: The Hive in Stow-on-the-Wold opens at 9am and serves dishes like a full English breakfast, bacon sarnies, smashed avocado on sourdough and smoked salmon on pumpernickel. Well-behaved dogs are welcomed into the entrance of the restaurant. In Bourton-on-the-Water, The
Croft is a riverside cafe providing quite a lot of cooked breakfasts, poached eggs on sourdough and pretzel subs, amongst different scrumptious dishes.
For lunch: The Feathered Nest Inn at Nether Westcote close to Chipping Norton is an award-winning conventional Cotswold pub with a 350-year-old historical past, serving tasty eats such fish and chips, Longhorn beef burger, lobster thermidor and steamed halibut. Over within the sleepy Cotswold hamlet of Kineton, The Halfway is a Seventeenth-century inn with oodles of conventional allure. Owned by the University of Oxford till 1975, the inn is now run by two cooks who’ve each labored in Michelin-starred eating places, so diners can count on lunchtime dishes reminiscent of double-baked cheese souffle, braised blade of beef and Brixham wild bass to be cooked to perfection.
For dinner: The Porch
House is a quintessentially charming old Cotswold inn at Stow-on-the-Wold that dates again to a tremendous 947 AD. Diners can tuck into dishes reminiscent of crispy salt and pepper squid to begin, an 8oz picanha Brazilian-cut rump steak for a principal course and a baked triple chocolate brownie for pudding.
And for pre and post-dinner drinks: the bar at Moreton Wine Merchants in Moreton-in-Marsh has a beautiful choice of wines to style, in addition to a delicious charcuterie board to graze on. While Smiths of Bourton is famend for its cocktail menu, with impressed concoctions reminiscent of a Heimlich Manoeuvre (blackcurrant leaf syrup, Plymouth gin, contemporary lime juice, Suze aperitif, absinthe mist and orange oil) and a Nervous Breakdown (Becherovka natural liqueur, Cotswolds dry gin, lemon and lime sherbet, contemporary lime, IPA and Scrappy’s grapefruit bitters).
Where to go to
Pull the wellies on and take a calming stroll round Greystones Farm Nature Reserve in Bourton-on-the-Water. With 66 hectares of wildflower-rich meadows to discover, the reserve is home to otters, water voles, swallows, home martins and owls, amongst many different great native species. Dogs are very welcome right here however Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust asks that they be saved on a lead when close to grazing livestock.
Broadway Tower and nation park has over 200 acres for four-legged buddies to zoom round in. While dogs aren’t permitted within the tower museum, there’s a lot for pooches to do right here, together with walks, a devoted canine playground — that includes paw-some agility obstacles — and a dog-friendly cafe and restaurant for a spot of lunch or a day tea.
Painswick Rococo Garden is a magical place for the entire household — particularly the four-legged members. While it is a must-see vacation spot in the summertime when the gardens are in full bloom, in autumn the scarecrow path leads you round lovely woodland because the timber show magnificent wealthy reds and oranges; and the enchanted gentle path by night time in December and January showcases lovely willow sculptures all aglow for the festive season.
Another venue that’s notably particular within the autumn is the 60 acres at Batsford Arboretum when its distinctive assortment of a number of the world’s most uncommon timber, shrubs and bamboos are turning for the season to show a tremendous array of colors.
For a extra floral expertise, a wander across the pick-your-own flower fields at Chippy Flower Farm in Chipping Norton is pleasant, maybe topped off with a cease for lunch at The Chequers pub within the close by picturesque village of Churchill — its backyard is the right suntrap for heat autumnal afternoons.
For a style of award-winning English wine, the Little Oak Vineyard in Chipping Campden welcomes dogs with open arms, whereas their homeowners can take pleasure in a wine tasting and find out how Cotswold wine is made.
And for a deal with that is simply in your excellent pooches, The Cotswold Grooming Co in Stow-on-the-Wold is a doggy salon the place pups can select from a full groom for as much as three hours or a wash and fluff for as much as one and a half hours. It even affords a facial scrub and a remaining luxurious ending cologne spritz, so pets can depart feeling and looking like royalty. After a pamper, pups and their homeowners can browse the massive assortment of doggy equipment, garments, meals and toys within the store, maybe taking home a bit memento of their excellent weekend within the Cotswolds.
The finest canine walks
There are an abundance of beautiful walks within the Cotswolds, however Cotswold Cottage Gems and its four-legged staff, Woody and Mr Bojangles the pug, advocate 5 of their favorite countryside stomps, every with a pub alongside the best way for these all-important doggy treats and hearty lunches.
Bourton-on-the-Water to the Slaughters round walk — 5.4 miles — two to 3 hours: taking in a number of the prettiest villages within the Cotswolds, this walk takes you alongside the banks of the rivers Windrush and Eye, previous historic church buildings, cottages and manor homes — pubs alongside the route embrace Lords of the Manor Hotel in Upper Slaughter; The Slaughters Country Inn and The Slaughters Manor House in Lower Slaughter.
Naunton to Notgrove round walk — 6.2 miles — two to 3 hours: taking you thru a number of the prettiest woodland within the Cotswolds, this walk is ideal for a cease at The Plough Inn at Cold Aston.
Westcote and Icomb round walk — 6.3 miles — three to 4 hours: exploring the 4 Cotswold villages of Bledlington, Nether Westcote, Church Westcote and Icomb, this loop begins and ends at the Kings Head Inn at Bledington, a Sixteenth-century pub in a picturesque setting.
Cirencester Park round walk — 6.9 miles — two to 4 hours: relying on how far you want to roam across the lovely Bathurst Estate, a stroll in Cirencester Park will take you thru historic parkland, woodland, previous a lake and by a deer park. There is an on-site cafe contained in the park, or stroll previous the Cicely Hill park gates into Cirencester for a plethora of pubs and cafes to select from.
Cowley to Colesbourne and Upper Coberley — 6.5 miles — three hours: this walk begins at The Green Dragon, a hidden gem of a pub tucked away in Cockleford within the coronary heart of walking nation. Park within the pub automotive park and meander by way of the fields from Cowley village by way of the Colesbourne property and on to Coberley, looping again to the pub for a well-earned relaxation and refuel.
