Holiday Cottages In Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire has over 1,100 self-catering cottages on selfcatering.co.uk, from honey-coloured Cotswold villages to riverside boltholes near the Forest of Dean. The county pairs rolling wold country and the wide Severn Vale with handsome market towns, and more than 700 of those cottages take dogs while almost 200 have a hot tub.

Best areas and towns in Gloucestershire

Most of Gloucestershire's cottages sit in the north Cotswolds, with a second cluster around the lakes of the Cotswold Water Park near Cirencester and a scattering west of the Severn in the Forest of Dean. The best-known bases line the wold villages between Stow and Chipping Campden, where honey-stone houses and steep high streets run from one valley to the next.

• Bourton on the Water: a much-loved village on a wide flat vale, where the little River Windrush runs under low bridges through the centre
• Stow on the Wold: a market town on an 800-foot hill at the meeting of old roads, with a square ringed by antique shops
• Chipping Campden and Blockley: a wool town with a famous curving high street and its quieter hillside neighbour, both in the far north
• Moreton in Marsh: a market town in the Evenlode Valley with a mainline station, handy for reaching the rest of the wolds
• Winchcombe: a walkers' town below the escarpment near Sudeley, on the Cotswold Way
• Painswick and Nailsworth: a steep stone town known for its churchyard yews and a former mill town in the Stroud valleys to the south-west
• South Cerney and Somerford Keynes: lakeside villages in the Cotswold Water Park, good for watersports and a swim
• Little Rissington: a quiet hilltop village a couple of miles from Bourton, all open views and dry-stone walls
• Tewkesbury: a medieval town at the meeting of the Severn and the Avon, with a great Norman abbey and timber-framed streets
• Coleford, Cinderford and Blakeney: Forest of Dean towns and villages west of the Severn, close to the Welsh border and the Wye
• Huntley: a village on the A40 between Gloucester and the forest, an easy gateway to the Dean

Gloucester and Cheltenham make larger bases on the edge of the wolds, with cottages on their fringes for anyone wanting town and country together.

Gloucestershire countryside, the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean

Gloucestershire holds three very different landscapes. The eastern half rises into the Cotswolds National Landscape, a great band of oolitic limestone hills whose villages and field walls share the same warm honey stone, crossed by the Cotswold Way along the western escarpment. Below the hills runs the broad Severn Vale, flat orchard and pasture country either side of the River Severn, which carries its famous tidal bore upstream on the biggest spring tides. West of the river the land rises again into the Forest of Dean, one of England's ancient royal forests, a high plateau of oak and conifer between the Severn and the steep wooded gorge of the River Wye on the Welsh border. Walkers, cyclists and canoeists have the run of all three, from gentle wold valleys to the forest's old mining trails and the Wye's wooded meanders.

Things to do in Gloucestershire

The county town has Gloucester Cathedral, a soaring medieval church with one of the finest cloisters in England and a tower that rises over the docks and the Severn. The wider Cotswolds National Landscape is the main draw for most visitors, with show villages, hilltop viewpoints and miles of marked walking on the Cotswold Way along the escarpment. West of the river the Forest of Dean offers waymarked cycle trails, woodland walks and canoeing on the River Wye, while the broad Severn Vale is famous for the tidal bore that sweeps upstream on the biggest spring tides. The market towns make easy days out in their own right, from medieval Tewkesbury where the Severn meets the Avon to the antique shops of Stow and the steep streets of Painswick, with Regency Cheltenham close by for racing, festivals and elegant streets.

When to visit Gloucestershire

Late spring and early summer show the Cotswolds at their best, with cottage gardens in full bloom, long light evenings and the wolds at their greenest. July and August are busiest in the honeypot villages, so book early and start the day before the coach parties arrive. Autumn turns the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley gold and copper, prime time for woodland walks and quieter lanes. Winter is the season for log fires and hot tubs, with Cheltenham's racing and Christmas markets bringing the towns to life. Out of season many owners drop their prices.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Gloucestershire

More than 700 of the cottages in Gloucestershire take dogs, and more than 100 have a hot tub. Browse the dog-friendly cottages or those with a hot tub to narrow your search.

Getting to Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire lies in the west of England, roughly two hours from London by road. The M5 runs north to south past Gloucester and Cheltenham, the A40 carries on west to the Forest of Dean, and the A429 Fosse Way threads through the Cotswolds. Trains reach Gloucester, Cheltenham Spa, Stroud and Moreton-in-Marsh, with direct services from London Paddington in around two hours. Bristol and Birmingham airports are each about an hour away by car.

Useful links

• Cotswolds National Landscape
• Visit the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley
• Gloucestershire County Council
• Visit Gloucester

Gloucestershire is a county in the South West of England, in the lower Severn valley and the northern part of the Cotswolds. It is bordered by Worcestershire and Warwickshire to the north and north-east, Oxfordshire to the east, Wiltshire to the south, Bristol and Somerset to the south-west, and Herefordshire and the Welsh county of Monmouthshire to the west. It is a largely rural county whose landscape falls into three clear parts.

The east of the county rises into the Cotswolds, a range of oolitic limestone hills famous for their honey-coloured stone villages, dry-stone walls and the long escarpment that the Cotswold Way follows. Through the middle runs the broad, flat Severn Vale, orchard and pasture country either side of the River Severn, which carries a notable tidal bore on the largest spring tides. West of the river the land rises once more into the Forest of Dean, one of the surviving ancient royal forests of England, a wooded plateau between the Severn and the steep gorge of the River Wye.

The cathedral city of Gloucester is the county town, set on the Severn, with the Regency spa town of Cheltenham close by beneath the escarpment, and Stroud, Tewkesbury and Cirencester among the other principal towns. Cirencester was the Roman Corinium, the second largest town in Roman Britain, and medieval wealth from the Cotswold wool trade paid for the great parish churches that still stand over the wold villages. Today farming, tourism and aerospace industry shape the county's working life.