BEAUTIFUL COTSWOLD VILLAGES: BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER
Our last stop when I went to the Cotswolds in 2012 as a day trip from London was this beautiful village of Bourton-On-The-Water. My eyes feasted on the quaintness of this town and I told myself that if I’m ever going back to the Cotswolds, I’d stay for a night here. And so I did, eight years later I was back and fulfilled that promise.
Bourton-On-The-Water is a beautiful town which holds that English charm that we all so love. It’s located in Gloucestershire with much of the town designated as a UK Conservation Area.
The High Street is flanked with a series of low bridges over the river filled with swans and ducks while traditional Cotswold buildings stand back from the river. It’s a photographer’s dream location, everywhere you look is picture-perfect.
There are quite a few things to do and see here despite its small size, there’s the Model Village – which depicts Bourton on a much smaller scale using authentic building materials; there’s the Motoring Museum with vintage car collections; the Modern Railway Exhibition with an operating indoor model railway layout and of course the Birdland – a bird zoo with an impressive collection of penguins.
I didn’t really have a particular itinerary when we were in Bourton because I wasn’t sure how tired we’ll be when we arrive there. The plan was to just walk around the village and enjoy it as much as we can and so we did. We arrived late in the afternoon and immediately checked-in at our accommodation for the night – The Lansdowne Guesthouse.
The location of the property is perfect, just a few minutes’ walk to the High Street. I wasn’t really crazy about our room though because it was right next to the main door and we could hear everything from inside the room. It was just for a night though so we didn’t really make such a big fuss out of it.
After all the driving and the walking that we’ve done in the past few days, we were extremely tired when we arrived at Bourton so the husband requested for a few minutes of naptime. I joined him. Lol. We’re old. :p
Afterwards, we peeled ourselves from the comforts of our bed and walked around the village which was empty! All the tourists have gone and we had the place to ourselves.
It was rainy and cold but it didn’t dampen our visit. Most of the restaurants were closed from around 3pm to 7pm so there was even less activity around. We were looking for a place to have dinner for that night but everything seemed to be full. Thank goodness we had that fabulous meal at The King’s Arms at Stow-In-The-Wold before coming here so we didn’t really get bothered by it as much.
Bourton-On-The-Water is a very small village and you could easily walk around its High Street for under an hour. After having satisfied my love for taking photos of beautiful sceneries, we decided to go for a drive to the nearby Lower Slaughter.
We came back to Bourton with only one thing in mind, buy some snacks and drinks then just stay inside our room for the night. Yes, we spent the last night of our Cotswold holiday sleeping in early. And yes, we’re that old. Lol.
Breakfast the next day was served inside their cute dining area, I decided to have a full English Breakfast this time and gave up on my avocado on toast. Lol.
We bid our farewells to Lansdowne Guesthouse, to Bourton-On-The-Water and to our Cotswold holiday after our meal and proceeded to drive back to London with great memories of our English holiday.
The Lansdowne Guesthouse
1 Lansdowne, Bourton-on-the-Water, Cheltenham GL54
We paid a total of £115 for our one-night stay which included breakfast.
For more information, visit their website here.
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