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It’s hard to remember a time when the Cotswolds weren’t the gold standard for a British countryside holiday: the pub-going, hill-walking, Clue-playing kind that draws travelers hand over fist and has yielded some of the best hotels in the UK (more on that later). From the less developed swoops and dells in the south Cotswolds, to the postcard villages in the north, there are plenty of locally treasured restaurants to sniff out.
Some such spots: The Killingworth Castle Pub (a favorite of Alex Eagle, creative director of her eponymous brand who has a house in Woodstock) and Juliet for oysters (recommended by Luke Edward Hall, an artist, designer, and creative director of Chateau Orlando who rents a cottage on the border of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire). Don’t miss the very many independent shops, either–Carole Bamford, founder of Bamford and Daylesford, recommends Borzoi Bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold “for unusual and specialist titles from small publishers.” You could devote an entire trip to walking the Cotswold Way, over a 100 miles of ridges and vales, or to sifting, shop after shop, in Tetbury, a haven for antique dealers (go to Lorfords and Brownrigg first, then Top Banana after lunch).
Vogue’s Favorite Hotels in the Cotswolds:
- For a Homey Stay: Thyme
- For a Wellness-Oriented Spot: Estelle Manor
- For a London Escape: The Bull, Charlbury
- For Bucket-List Dining: Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons
- For a Rustic Atmosphere: The Wild Rabbit
Attractions are so bountiful these days that the Cotswolds might be in danger of calcifying in its own success, were it not for a persistent undercurrent of hustle and artistry. “The Cotswolds have been my home for almost forty years,” says Bamford, “and you never quite know who or what you might stumble across next. There’s a spirit of enterprise. That’s part of the magic.” Those sentiments are echoed by Edward Hall. “I do think,” he says, “beneath the surface, there is a lot going on that people don t always see or take much notice of. It s worth doing a bit of digging.”
Below is a Vogue guide to the best hotels in the Cotswolds, which all make an ideal base to explore the area.
Thyme
Family-owned Thyme is both a home and a business for the founder, Caryn Hibbert, who raised her family at Southrop Manor, the principal house in the village of Southrop, before converting a handful of run-down farm buildings on the surrounding estate into a thriving hotel, restaurant, and cooking school. Today, Caryn’s daughter Camilla is the general manager, and her eldest son Charlie is the chef director of Thyme’s fine dining restaurant, The Ox Barn, and its lively village pub, The Swan. The feel of the hotel is unsurprisingly homey, with palmy, quintessentially English interiors: buttoned wool armchairs, roll-top tubs, and botanical-print textiles produced by Bertioli, an interiors and lifestyle company run by Caryn and Camilla. The estate ranges over 150 acres of gardens, farmland, water meadows and riverbanks, which guests are welcome to explore.
- Amenities: Restaurant, Bar, Pub, Spa, Pool, Cooking School, Workshops
- Bonus tip: Even if you aren’t staying at the hotel, book a table for dinner at The Ox Barn; the kitchen uses ingredients from the estate for a Mediterranean-inspired menu, and its soaring dining room, in a former Victorian oxen house, is one of the most beautiful in the Cotswolds.
- Address: Southrop Manor, Thyme, Gloucestershire GL7 3NX
Estelle Manor
Guests waited years to check into Estelle Manor, the Grade-II listed, Edwardian stately home propped in 3,000 acres of parkland on the eastern reaches of the Cotswolds. The four-square mansion used to be known as Eynsham Hall, before hotelier Sharan Pasricha began a meticulous five-year overhaul to create a pertly glamorous hotel and private member’s club. The joyful design of the main house, conjured up by the New York-based architectural firm Roman and Williams, is a medley of more is more is more: glistening chinoiserie wall paper and slinky velvet sofas made for rubbing ankles over nightcaps; hand-painted murals, ebony four-posters, and a morning fry-up with hash browns on a silver platter.
Special attention has been paid to bathing: An 82-foot heated outdoor swimming pool extends from the manor’s south side, surrounded by striped parasols. There is also a vast, Roman-inspired bathhouse (called Eynsham Baths) equipped with plunge pools of varying temperatures, and a hay sauna. Though you can wear whatever you like (there is no dress code at this club), Estelle Manor is less of a tweedy country estate, more of a glittering urban outpost in the wild.
- Amenities: Four Restaurants, Bar, Pool, Bathhouse, Spa, Gym, Garden Tours, Private Members Club
- Bonus Tip: A specialty of the Glasshouse restaurant is the Chicken Panzanella, a sharing platter of roasted chicken over toasted bread and hothouse tomatoes. It’s impossible to oversell it.
- Address: Estelle Manor, Eynsham Park, Oxfordshire OX29 6PN
The Bull, Charlbury
The market town of Charlbury is close enough to London to be a prized commuter hub, and that makes The Bull–a first rate pub with rooms–unusually reachable as a weekend destination. It’s a single train from London Paddington, and a 10-minute walk from Charlbury station to get here. On arrival, you’ll find a pared-back restaurant with exposed beams and bright open fires, plaster walls, and, if it’s the weekend, a roaring bar. Like the ambiance in the pub, the ten bedrooms are bracingly simple, with little artificial light and a neutral color palette. There are creature comforts like standalone baths, radios, woolen blankets, and rainfall showers. A short walk down the road, there is also a two-bedroom cottage in a redeveloped bakery (Loaf Cottage), where families can stay; kids aren’t allowed in the other bedrooms. The Bull was founded by Phil Winser and James Gummer, the team behind two ballyhooed London pubs, The Pelican in Notting Hill and The Hero in Maida Vale, and as you would expect, traditional British food (much of it grown on a nearby farm in Chipping Norton) is the main draw here. Book in for dinner at least once.
- Amenities: Restaurant, Bar
- Bonus Tip: The Bull is known for its pies. Order one with a heaped bowl of roasted potatoes and a green salad on the side.
- Address: Sheep Street, Charlbury, Chipping Norton OX7 3RR
Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons
Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons is the long-reigning restaurant with rooms in the UK; chef Raymond Blanc opened for business in 1984, and has maintained two Michelin stars ever since. The food is French with British ingredients (lamb from the Lake District with sheep’s curd and basil; Scottish salmon with apples from the hotel’s orchard), many of which are grown yards from the kitchen in the exquisite potager garden, which also hosts workshops on planting and growing. Bedrooms are upstairs in the main house and scattered throughout the formal gardens that envelope the property; they’re good looking and comfortable above all else, designed as ideal places to flop after a long meal in the restaurant. This is bucket-list eating; Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons is a restaurant that guests plan trips around. But after 40 years, there are plans afoot: from January 2026, the property will close for an 18-month renovation, with a grand reopening scheduled for the summer of 2027. So if you don’t want to wait, get your skates on and make a booking for the next three months.
- Amenities: Restaurant, Garden, Gardening School, Cooking School
- Bonus Tip: The full and half day gardening classes, which take place in Le Manoir’s gardens and glasshouse, are practical, hands-on courses with topics like fruit tree pruning and seed collection. It’s a memorable way to experience the property without staying overnight.
- Address: Church Road, Great Milton, Oxford OX44 7PD
The Wild Rabbit
In 2013, Carole Bamford opened The Wild Rabbit in Kingham, the first Daylesford pub with rooms in a blue-chip stable that would go on to include The Three Horseshoes in Asthall, the Bell in Charlbury and The Fox in Oddington. The Wild Rabbit was a proof of concept for the unknockable Daylesford aesthetic: rustic natural materials with plenty of texture (wide oak floors, bare stone walls, exposed beams, pitched ceilings with tongue and groove paneling), buttery textiles, and a deliberately narrow color scheme of creams, grays, and browns. The effect is grounding and restful, combined with its location in honeypot Kingham, The Wild Rabbit still requires some forward planning to get a reservation. Downstairs in the open-kitchen, destination restaurant, the food is more refined than you might expect (organic côte de boeuf for two; sweetbreads with an optional supplement for truffle), but the pub at the front is come-as-you-are. You can find seats beside the log fire, or out on the terrace in good weather.
- Amenities: Restaurant, Bar
- Bonus Tip: The pub is a hub for community events; look for local bands playing every Tuesday evening, and supper clubs with themes like foraging and seasonal game.
- Address: Church Street, Kingham, Chipping Norton OX7 6YA
