Cotswolds & Oxford

As quintessentially English as afternoon tea…

We’ve been showing off the Cotswolds for over twenty years. It’s a permanent fixture in our tour calendar and we know it well. We know its quiet country lanes, we know the best country pubs and its pretty, chocolate-box villages and its bustling market towns.

Beyond the chocolate-box villages and rolling Cotswolds hills, there is good reason why this tour is a permanent fixture – and that’s its gardens. The Cotswolds is home to some of England’s finest and most influential gardens, including world-famous gardens like Hidcote Manor, highly acclaimed contemporary gardens like Broughton Grange and historically important gardens like Rousham House.

All these beautiful gardens, plus a whole day exploring the delights of Oxford and a week criss-crossing one of England’s most iconic and idyllic landscapes make for a superb tour and, to cap it all, we stay at The Slaughters Country Inn, an excellent hotel in Lower Slaughter, as pretty and picturesque a village as you could ask for!

D1 Friday, 15 May

Waterperry Gardens & Burford Garden Co

Tim will collect you from the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, immediately north of Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport, at 10:00. We’ll then drive west for lunch and the early part of the afternoon at Waterperry Gardens, the gardens of the famous, former School of Horticulture for Ladies, founded in 1932 by Miss Beatrix Havergal. Among many other things, the gardens include one of the finest herbaceous borders in the country.

From Waterperry we continue west, stopping at Burford Garden Company, for a cup of tea and a look around this extraordinary garden and plant centre. Onward, into the heart of the Cotswolds, to Lower Slaughter and the Slaughters Country Inn, our home for the next six nights, where we’ll arrive in good time to check in and relax, before drinks and dinner at the hotel.

Today's total driving is about 100 miles/160 km

D2 Saturday, 16 May

Kelmscott Manor & Buscot Park

We start our day in Burford, one of the Cotswold’s principal market towns and one of its finest, before a morning visit to Kelmscott Manor, the one-time Cotswold retreat of William Morris, quite possibly the 19th-century's most celebrated designer and a key figure in the Arts & Crafts Movement.

We will have lunch at Kelmscott before the afternoon at nearby Buscot Park, the late 18th-century home of Lord Farringdon and his fabulous art collection. It sits within an English landscape together with the ever-colourful Four Seasons garden, a splendid Harold Peto water garden and extensive woodland walks.

We return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D3 Sunday, 17 May

The Coln Valley & NGS Open Gardens

As is befitting for a Sunday, we start with a lazy meander along the Coln Valley, stopping at Coln Rogers, to visit its Saxon church, and Bibury, to visit Arlington Row, a row of 17th-century weavers' cottages.

After lunch, at some suitable eatery, we’ll spend the afternoon in other peoples' private gardens courtesy of the National Garden Scheme (NGS).

In most years some 3,000 to 4,000 gardens, across England & Wales, open their gates to the public and donate the entrance fee to the NGS. The NGS raises these funds for nursing, health and gardening charities. To date, since people first opened their gardens to the public in 1927, the NGS has raised over £74m.

We’ll and the day in Broadway for a traditional Sunday Roast at Russell’s of Broadway.

Today's driving is about 80 miles/130 km

D4 Monday, 18 May

Upton Wold & Kiftsgate Court

Our day starts with a private guided tour of Upton Wold, an exceptional private garden created by its owners, Ian and Caroline Bond, from little else other than farmland, two ancient yews, an imposing holly, some old apple trees and a very beautiful view.

We’ll visit Moreton-in-Marsh for lunch and a good look around this lovely north Cotswolds market town, before heading to the northern edge of the Cotswold Hills, for the afternoon at Kiftsgate Court. An Arts & Crafts garden, enjoying far-reaching views over the Vale of Evesham, Kiftsgate is a feminine garden, twice passed from mother to daughter, from Heather Muir, who created the garden, to her daughter, Diany Binny, to Diany’s daughter, Anne Chambers, who, with her husband, Jonny, gardens Kiftsgate today.

We return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 50 miles/80 km

D5 Tuesday, 19 May

Kelmscott & Buscot

We start the day in Chipping Campden, a beautiful, honey-stoned Cotswold market town, exploring the town and visiting St James' Church, a fine example of a medieval wool church. Then to Hidcote Manor, the world-famous Arts & Crafts gardens created by Lawrence Johnston, an American anglophile who settled in Britain with his mother. He bought Hidcote in 1907, was gardening by 1910 and had 12 gardeners by the 1920s! Hidcote was his life's work and remains one of England's most influential 20th-century gardens.

After lunch at Hidcote, we visit Broughton Grange, a stunning contemporary garden set amongst some 350 acres of parkland. The gardens were brought into the modern era by the current owner, Stephen Hester, who commissioned Tom Stuart-Smith to transform the six-acre walled garden, now widely recognised as one of the most significant private contemporary gardens in Britain.

Dinner at The Halfway, halfway home to our hotel.

Today's driving is about 80 miles/130 km

D6 Wednesday, 20 May

Oxford

We spend the whole day in Oxford, a busy, historic city most widely associated with its university. The University of Oxford can trace its teaching to 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It also has the world’s largest university press and the largest academic library system nationwide.

Important though the university and its 39 colleges are, Oxford is much more than that. From Alice in Wonderland, Inspector Morse and Harry Potter to boutique shopping, exceptional heritage and the birthplace of the Mini, there is a great deal to occupy a day in Oxford. To get you started, undergraduate guides from Footprint Tours will show off some of the highlights on a morning walking tour.

There is plenty of time to explore and visit colleges and museums in the afternoon, before we meet for tea and scones at the Old Parsonage Hotel, after which we will return to Lower Slaughter for dinner.

Today's driving is about 60 miles/100 km

D7 Thursday, 21 May

Rousham House

It’s the final day and it starts at Daylesford Farm, an organic farm shop like no other, where we pick up supplies for our picnic lunch. Then to Rousham House, an historically important, 18th-century landscape garden designed by William Kent, and one of the few gardens of this period to have escaped significant alteration. To one side of the house are two large walled gardens, complete with herbaceous borders, parterres and an original pigeon house – and a picnic table.

The Sheraton Heathrow Hotel is just over an hour away, where the tour ends and where we plan to be by 14:30, in good time for evening flights home. If you are staying in the UK and don't need, or wish, to return to London or Heathrow, then please let us know your onward travel plans, so that we may assist you in getting to your next destination.

Today's driving is about 90 miles/145 km