Cotswolds Overview

September 2024

I figured I would start out by explaining what these next few blog posts would really be about, as I don’t want to just jump into a fairly unique experience without context.

This September, Court and I joined my parents for a long vacation in England which consisted of several days hiking from town to town in the Cotswold region and then finished in London for a few days. The credit to this idea goes to my mom, PJ, who has always been so supportive of my hiking goals and decided she wanted to experience some of the hiking life as well (conjecture on my part).

To be fair, she was certainly one of the main contributors in my early life to my ultimate obsession with the outdoors and hiking, so certainly I jumped at the chance to share it with her later in life as well.

For reference, the Cotswold region of England lies to the west of London and is almost 800 square miles of protected lands and historic villages, criss-crossed by public pathways and trails. The English footpath and public right of way system means that you are allowed to cross private land, providing that you keep to the path (which is often invisible, simply a dotted green line on a map).

We did a circular loop in the north, starting at the town of Cheltenham. We hiked for 6 days and stayed at bed and breakfast inns or hotels each night. Each day we walked between 6-10 miles through the English countryside. Much of the time it was chilly and rainy, but that just made the experience all that more unique. In the end, Court and I hiked around 45 miles in total, while my mom did a little less. It wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows through grassy meadows, there was some real hiking in there too. I’ll post a blog for each day and document the journey.