The Wolds
COTSWOLDS
THIS IS A COMPLETE TRAVEL GUIDE
The Cotswolds move at the pace of the seasons and see no reason to apologise for it. Honey coloured villages, market towns and miles of quiet countryside, all within two hours of London. This is where the city comes to remember how to slow down.
STAY
Lucknam Park, Emblems Collection
Set at the end of a mile long avenue of beech and lime trees, in 500 acres of listed Wiltshire parkland on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, six miles from Bath, Lucknam Park is a Palladian mansion dating from 1720 that joined Accor's Emblems Collection in 2025 without losing an ounce of its country house character. The 42 rooms and suites are spread through the main house, from four poster Master Suites overlooking the drive to nine cottages dotted across the estate with log burners and residential ease, taken by those who come for a week rather than a weekend. Dining is led by Restaurant Hywel Jones, which marked twenty consecutive years with a Michelin star in 2025, one of the longest held stars in the country, with the Walled Garden Restaurant handling relaxed, seasonal dining by day. The spa runs a 20 metre indoor pool and an indoor outdoor hydrotherapy pool looking onto the arboretum, alongside saunas, thermal cabins and a full treatment programme, while the estate's equestrian centre puts guests on horseback through the parkland before breakfast. For those who want the full English country house, done properly and without theme, this is the address.
Lucknam Park, Colerne, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN14 8AZ, United Kingdom
No 131
Set across a trio of white Georgian townhouses on the Promenade, facing Imperial Gardens in the smartest stretch of Cheltenham, No.131 is the flagship of The Lucky Onion, the founder led group owned by Superdry's Julian Dunkerton and fashion designer Jade Holland Cooper. Behind the clipped topiary and stiff Regency facade the interiors turn playful, dark floorboards and velvet chesterfields hung with a serious collection of British art, including works by David Hockney and Sir Peter Blake. The 36 rooms are individually designed, moving between country house charm and something more urban, with spiral staircases and rooftop quirks that come with buildings of this age. Food and drink carry the place, from all day dining on the Terrace under festoon lights to YOKU, the gilded Tokyo style restaurant with a dress code and wagyu on the robata, while Gin and Juice, once voted the best gin bar in the country, keeps the ground floor loud into the small hours. For a Cotswolds base with a pulse rather than a fireplace.
131 The Promenade, Cheltenham GL50 1NW, United Kingdom
Hotel Indigo
Set across fourteen honey coloured Georgian townhouses on South Parade, a quiet terrace laid out in the 1740s by John Wood the Elder, the architect who shaped Bath, Hotel Indigo Bath opened in 2020 after a four year restoration of the Grade I listed row, whose past lodgers include Sir Walter Scott and William Wilberforce. The 154 rooms play with the building's history rather than preserving it under glass, Georgian references sitting alongside bold colour and modern flourishes, with Hypnos beds and Egyptian cotton throughout, and vaulted subterranean suites cut into the original rough stone below street level. Dining runs through Brasserie Beau, the all day British brasserie with a terrace, and The Elder next door, the independently run restaurant from Mike Robinson built around wild food and game, one of the most quietly serious kitchens in the city. The Roman Baths, the Abbey and Pulteney Bridge are all within a five minute walk, and Thermae Bath Spa covers what the hotel's vault gym does not. For Bath's history with none of its stuffiness, this is the address.
2-8 South Parade, Bath BA2 4AB, United Kingdom
Dumbleton Hall
Set within a 16 acre estate of lake, woodland and walled gardens beneath Bredon Hill in the North Cotswolds, between Broadway and Cheltenham, Dumbleton Hall is a Grade II listed manor built in 1830 that once hosted Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, and reopened in 2026 after a two year, £25 million restoration under new ownership. The design leans into the hall's golden age, Belle Époque and 1920s references carried through antique furnishings, William Morris prints and chinoiserie, with each of the 34 rooms and suites styled individually in soft greens and warm earth tones like chambers of a private country house. Days revolve around the fireplaces of the Drawing Room, the Library Bar and the velvet dressed Pheasant Lounge, while dining sits with executive chef Dean Westcar at Cedar 1905, a menu of estate game, day boat fish and Cotswolds produce served with a view of the cedars the room is named after, ahead of The Orangerie, a fine dining room with an open kitchen arriving later this year. Afternoon tea in the Drawing Room looks out over parterres and topiary. For the manor house fantasy played completely straight, this is the address.
Dumbleton, Evesham WR11 7TS, United Kingdom
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EAT
Club Ocho, Imperial Square, Cheltenham GL50 1QB, United Kingdom
Set inside Club Ocho, the private members' club on Imperial Square, Mirari opened in early 2026 as Cheltenham's most confident new arrival, a Basque inspired fine dining room now open to the public behind the club's discreet Regency frontage. The name comes from the Basque word for miracle, and the philosophy follows, seasonal British ingredients handled with the fire, smoke and acidity of northern Spain, moving from pintxos and tapas through to refined plates built for sharing. The evening begins at a horseshoe shaped bar surrounded by serious artwork before moving down into a moodily lit dining room that feels reserved for people who already know about it, which for now is largely true. Menus shift with the seasons rather than holding still, so no two visits read the same. For getting there before the rest of the county does
Church Street, Kingham OX7 6YA, United Kingdom
Set in a wisteria draped Georgian building of Cotswold limestone in one of the region's prettiest villages, The Wild Rabbit is the inn of the Daylesford estate, which means almost everything on the plate was grown, reared or made a few fields away on the Bamford family's organic farm. The open kitchen works to a menu that changes daily or weekly with what has been harvested, hearty dishes alongside more refined plates, from the rabbit raviolo to estate game and handmade Daylesford cheeses, with a tasting menu and cellar wine pairings for those settling in properly. The dining room is high ceilinged and elegant without ever losing the feel of a village pub, log fires in winter, terrace in summer, antique filled bedrooms upstairs for those who take the hint. For the farm to table idea executed by the people who own the farm.
37 Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53 7HG, United Kingdom
Set behind an unassuming frontage on Bath Road, Prithvi has spent over a decade quietly proving that one of the best Indian restaurants in Britain lives in a Cheltenham terrace. Founded by local restaurateur Jay Rahman and named for the Sanskrit word for Mother Earth, the kitchen is led by Michelin trained chef Thomas Law, whose tasting menus take classic Indian flavour and rebuild it with modern technique and locally sourced ingredients, deconstructed, precise and unlike anywhere else in the county. The room matches the food, softly lit and dressed in crisp linen and silver, with a first floor lounge for a drink before dinner. Three AA Rosettes and a Michelin Guide listing back up what locals have known for years, and tables go accordingly. For proof that serious cooking does not need a London postcode.
Church Road, Churchill, Chipping Norton OX7 6NJ, United Kingdom
Set among honey coloured cottages in the village of Churchill, a few minutes from Kingham station and the Daylesford estate, The Chequers is the Cotswold pub done exactly right, part of Country Creatures, the small Oxfordshire family behind The Double Red Duke and The Swan at Ascott under Wychwood. Inside it is all flagstone floors, scrubbed beams, candlelit antique tables and an open fire, with modern cocktails sitting comfortably next to locally brewed ales at the bar. The kitchen deals in elevated pub classics, the twice baked cheddar soufflé that never leaves the menu, battered market fish, a Cornish lobster roll and steaks cooked over the Josper grill, all of it generous and unpretentious. A private feasting room upstairs handles bigger tables. For the long Sunday lunch that every Cotswolds weekend is secretly built around,
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