THE COTSWOLDS
Ah, The Cotswolds. The fresh green lap of this fair isle.

Double ah. The achingly beautiful Cotswolds. The Cotswolds of  thatched roofs and honey-coloured stone and cottages wreathed in wisteria and honeysuckle. The Cotswolds of stone bridges and old mills and millponds. The Cotswolds of storybook villages and matchless flower gardens. The Cotswolds of... well, of rural England at its best.

And here's our cue...
 
 
A Tour of the Cotswolds. Cotswolds Village Tours. Cotswolds Countryside Tours. Call it what you will, guided walking tours of The Cotswolds – well, okay, four Cotswolds villages and a really good taste of the Cotswolds countryside – are streets ahead.
 
 
Oh, okay, Cotswolds village lanes and Cotswolds countryside byways ahead!
 
 
 
Now as to the practicals – here's how the London Walks Cotswolds Tour works. Meet the famous Richard – he of the honeyed voice and just-stepped-out-of-the-pages-of-Gentleman's-Quarterly mien (as always, he'll be topped to the north with that distinctive red cap) – in front of the ticket office of Paddington Railway Station at the time stated. (Scroll down for the date/time particulars of our Cotswolds Tours.) 
 
We travel to The Cotswolds by comfortable, high speed train. (Rather than, ugh, the coach, the motorway, the crawl.) Our way of doing it is fastly superior. Quicker and far more comfortable. Coach-time for us is just a tiny part of the day – as opposed to most of the day. Coach-time for us is just a couple of intervals when we're up in The Cotswolds. Which is by way of saying, Richard charters a local coach to get us over the ground between some of the villages that we tour. (A couple of them are close enough to each other – it's the merest gentle stroll – that we walk it. Though if anybody doesn't want to, the "wheels option" is there. It's the best of both worlds!)

And that's what we call getting the balance right. It's very little coach time indeed, but it's there for us when we need it. We're not on a long-distance, cross-country Cotswolds walk, we're on a tour of The Cotswolds, and in particular four of the most exquisite villages in the whole of the Cotswolds. The coach takes care of those intervening miles. Though even those are something to be relished. Rather than endured. For the very good reason that because we've got the timing right – we've not eaten up three to four hours crawling through London traffic and motorway madness just to get up there – Richard can pick and choose his route through the Cotswolds, his route connecting the Cotswolds villages that we tour, very carefully indeed. 

The which he's done. It's a gorgeous, back country roads route – a best of the Cotswolds countryside route. In short, the coach time isn't down time, isn't to-be-endured, got-through, grin-and-bear-it time – it's also part and parcel of our Cotswolds tour. It's a plus not a negative. 

And when we're in the villages, well, it's out and about, out and stretching a leg. More than stretching a leg. A lot more. They're proper guided walking tours of four of the very best – four of the most exquisite – Cotswolds villages. And – you gotta love this – two of them are sufficiently close together that we can – and do – walk from the one to the other. Cross the short Cotswolds countryside fields and lanes and stiles and paths that connect them. Can you guess which Cotswolds villages they are?

Bottom line. If it's an all-day Cotswolds tour – a guided walking tour of Cotswolds villages and Cotswolds countryside – you're looking for, well, you've just turned up trumps. Turned up the Cotswolds Tour that's full of win! And – this bears repeating – it's not just us saying that. Three top awards in four years – including two Golds (for the Best Tourism Experience in England and for the Best Tourism Experience in London) – well, you can take that to the bank! 

Not to put too fine a point on it, our Cotswolds tours aren't just different in degree, they're different in kind. And that different in kind is the reason these are the best Cotswolds Tours going.

By all means check out the little video of our Cotswolds Tour. You'll like what you see. Who wouldn't?

Here it is – the taster – it's a lovingly shot little film of day, destination, and guide (ah, Richard! cynosure of guides, golden of voice, red of cap, pink of courtesy! Not to mention platinum of well connected, etc. etc.). And here's another (it's a little photo-essay).

 In the Summer 2012 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on May 1st and runs through October 31st –
The Cotswolds Tour takes place on the following dates:

Saturday, May 12 (yes, this one's The Cotswolds in Spring)
 
Sunday, June 17
 
Sunday, July 1
 
Sunday, July 15
 
Sunday, July 29
 
Sunday, August 12
 
Sunday, August 26
 
Saturday, September 29 (yes, this one's The Cotswolds in Autumn)

For the The Sunday Cotswolds Tours –
which take place on July 17, July 1, July 15
July 29, August 12, and August 26 –
meet Richard at 9 am
by the main ticket office (it's by Platform 1)
of Paddington Railway   Station. 
 
For the two Saturday tours (Cotswolds in Spring and Cotswolds in Autumn) –
which take place on Saturday, May 12 and Saturday, September 29 –
meet Richard at 9.45 am
by the main ticket office (it's by Platform 1)
of Paddington Railway  Station.
 
For a photograph of the meeting point – and even more precise directions – click here.

 Tariff:  £39