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Cotswold
Tour and Travel Information Holiday Guide to Towns and Villages
and Places to Visit in the beautiful Cotswolds
........... where time has stood still for 300 years
The Cotswolds are centred on the gentle slopes of the Cotswolds
Hills and are officially designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty, the largest in England and Wales, and made up from parts
of the English Counties of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire,
Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and
Somerset. We also include the county of Herefordshire.
Fine Living Top 10: Paradises On Earth
April 2008 - Online magazine AskMen.com has compiled a list of the top ten 'paradise' locations around the world that seem to have remained untouched by civilisation.
The Cotswolds is 2nd Place!
| 1. |
Tristan da Cunha - Officially the world’s remotest island, Tristan da Cunha rises out from the South Atlantic Ocean like a prehistoric volcano. |
| 2. |
Cotswolds, England - If it’s good enough for the bevy of British celebrities who descend on this paradise on earth every weekend, it’s certainly good enough for you. |
| 3. |
Patagonia, Chile -
A little-known region of Chile, Patagonia is seriously underrated -- and thank God, otherwise it would probably be overrun with bucket-and-spaders. |
| 4. |
Kauai, Hawaii - While the rest of Hawaii may have been overrun with soul-destroying developers, volcanic Kauai is so lightly developed that it has been dubbed The Garden Island -- and that’s not just brochure speak. |
| 5. |
Kiribati, Micronesia - The world’s most eastern point, Kiribati (formerly known as the Gilbert Islands) is an island nation found about 4,000 kilometers southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. |
| 6. |
Algonquin Park, Canada - Found in the center of Southern Ontario, just a three-hour drive from Toronto, Algonquin Park is a natural paradise on earth with its wind-sculptured pines, craggy shorelines and rushing rivers. |
| 7. |
Thornybush Game Reserve, South Africa - Africa is arguably one of the most stunning continents on earth, teeming with exotic animals not found elsewhere and characterized by thousands of miles of untouched wilderness. |
| 8. |
Morzine, France - A chic alpine paradise on earth, Morzine, nestled in the heart of the Portes du Soleil, is the perfect place to get back to nature. |
| 9. |
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil - As soon as you restrict access to a place, its allure increases. Such is the case with Fernando de Noronha, which sits pretty 200 miles off Brazil’s northeastern coast. |
| 10. |
Isla Vieques, Puerto Rico - We knew there was a reason why the U.S. Navy stayed so long in Puerto Rico. Just six miles off the coast is Isla Vieques, an untouched paradise on earth with verdant forests, never-ending stretches of white sand and a backdrop of rolling hills that only Monet could have dreamed. |
The region is famous for its ancient mellow 'honey' coloured limestone
villages that blend perfectly into the countryside and its bustling
market towns. Many have scarcely altered since they grew up on
the prosperity of the medieval wool trade in the 15th and 16th
centuries and subsequently forgotten about for more then 300 years.
This sequence of events now makes the Cotswolds region one of the
most treasured, toured and vacationed in England and the UK for
nowhere else will you see such timeless uniqueness and heart warming
preservation on such a scale.
J. B. Priestley wrote of Cotswold stone that - "the truth is that it has no colour that can be described. Even when the sun is obscured and the light is cold, these walls are still faintly warm and luminous, as if they knew the trick of keeping the lost sunlight of centuries glimmering about them." Walk or drive around Cotswold villages and towns for even a day, and you will know what he meant.
The Cotswolds
in England UK is an area once given over entirely to sheep-farming.
Many of the fine churches and manor houses owe their existence
to the generosity of the wealthy medieval yeoman farmers and wool merchants.
The dignified villages and towns owe much of their charm from the
use of the warm, honey-coloured limestone which
was locally quarried by hand and used alike for humble weavers
cottages, mansions, and churches. Never far from sight, numerous
streams wind through the valleys and chatter alongside main streets.
The demise, and now the good fortune, of the Cotswolds was due
to the increasing manufacture of cloth in the 16th and 17th centuries
leading to a forgotten wool industry and a forgotten Cotswolds.
Hence the villages have undertaken no change for 300 years and
are now to be marvelled at for their perfect preservation and
beauty that only exists in this most unique of regions in the
United Kingdom.
 
This Cotswolds guide will take you on a tour of some of the
most beautiful areas and places to be found and to holiday, from
the northern Cotswold's gateway of Broadway to
the magnificent roman town and now Georgian City
of Bath on the southern fringes. It will include Shakespeare's Stratford
upon Avon, the king maker's castle of Warwick, and Winston
Churchhill's childhood home, Blenheim
Palace.
For further Cotswolds information - See Heritage, History and Facts
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 VILLAGES AND
TOWNS TO SEE :-
Hint: Click
on the link immediately above to explore many more beautiful
villages
MORE
COUNTY INFO:-
HISTORIC
PLACES TO
VISIT :-
GARDENS
TO SEE :-
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