England

Wonderful views. Lots of climbs - highly recommend using an e-bike, unless you’re 20! Conor and Nick curated an excellent way to bike in northern England, into Scotland.

This was a fabulous trip made special by excellent biking, wonderful guides, excellent hotels, and some of the most beautiful views/vistas. Our trip was also great because of my fellow travelers. We had a great group of people and as a solo traveler was made to feel welcome/included by the guides and everyone on the trip. I initially was hesitant about the electric-assist bikes being an old-school cyclist but by day two was fully on board and happy to have them since the terrain was hilly. They made biking all the more enjoyable. Great trip all around and now one of my favorites.

We enjoyed a wonderful week of cycling through the Cotswolds across rolling countryside, past beautiful farmlands and pastures filled with grazing sheep, through charming villages and past stately manor houses. This was my first ebike experience and the hills warranted the pedal assist. I would rate this route as moderate as many on the climbs were quite challenging for those on a road bike. Queen Elizabeth had just passed, and our excellent and resourceful guides, Kate Edmond and Conor Murphy, rearranged our itinerary for the Queen’s national day of mourning, providing a delicious picnic on the banks of Bourton-on-the-Water. For afternoon tea break, we enjoyed the Queen’s favorite, Victoria sponge! Stops included Blenheim Palace, Hidcote Gardens, Bath Roman Baths, and sites of the filming of Downton Abbey and Harry Potter. Bookending the cycling trip with the pre-and post-trip option of Oxford and Bath is recommended.

Enjoyed the guided trip to the Cotswold region of England. The towns were quaint and had a little bit familiarity from the dining hall in Oxford (Harry Potter) to the Bampton Dowager house (Downton Abbey) to Blenheim Palace ( Churchill). We’ve seen this special spots on tv and at the movies but to see them in person was really fun. Wonderful, friendly, professional guides. And did I mention the biking was great?

My husband and I did this self-guided tour in early September and absolutely loved it. Country Walkers did an impeccable job taking care of every detail--booking hotels, moving our suitcases between hotels, and, best of all, the "route notes" book was so detailed and had everything we needed from step-by-step directions and restaurant suggestions to history and ideas for things to do. It felt like a wonderful adventure following the famous paths through sheep pastures and little forest thickets, past gardens and ancient churches, and climbing over or around all the different gates. It was often overcast and misty in the mornings, but the mid-day sun burned it all away. Our highlights are choosing to stop for an hour to check out the Hailes Abbey Museum and rubbing elbows with some locals at the only pub in a tiny village. So many great memories! We liked the intimate experience of doing a self-guided trip and the independence (without the planning!) that it provided. We spent some extra days in London at the end of our trip...that was just icing on the cake.

What a fantastic trip this was. This was my 6th time going to England, but my first for the Cotswold region and what an extraordinary time it was. The food was fantastic, everywhere you looked the views were spectacular. It was fantastic trip which I would do again in a heart beat.