Cotswolds

two day ‘taster’ cycle tour in cotswolds including a picnic lunches, distillery and vineyard tours, support vehicle and overnight stay with dinner in a comfortable hotel £390.

dates to be announced

The Cotswolds are in easy reach of London, yet something of a hidden gem for cycling. We will lead you through the rolling hills and tucked-away valleys on quiet lanes and the odd short section of bridleway. This area of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire is famed for its bucolic landscape, its honey-coloured stone and, if you’re a fan of Jilly Cooper - not so many of them left now - its crackling undercurrent of lust! The nearby neolithic site of Belas Knapp just proves how long the area has had an appeal.

We will cycle past dry-stone walls and through dappled woods. There will be regular breaks and a good picnic half-way to our final stop – the Cotswold Distillery at Shipston-on-Stour. This boutique whisky and gin operation fired into life in 2014, and released its first single malt three years later. While something of a pioneer when it started, the distillery is now one of over 40 making whisky in England, but we think it’s one of the best. We will be able to smell, touch, see and taste the whole production process. (See Toms’s article about the distillery in the blog for more details, or click here.)

The 08.50 Saturday morning train to Moreton-in-Marsh is 1.5 hours from London Paddington station with no stops arriving at 10.18.

We aim for around an 18.00 train back to town which gets into Paddington at approx 19.30 on Sunday evening.

Alternatively you can drive there on the Friday night and book an extra nights stay yourselves or just meet us at the station with your bike on the Saturday morning , (the daily parking rate at the station car park is not prohibitive).

The distillery and vineyard visits are timed at the end of the day and there’s always the option for us to take you and your bike back to the hotel or to the station if you want to taste a few glasses.

If you’re travelling by train, we meet you at Paddington Station 40 minutes before your train leaves (08.10). Our support vehicle will be there as it may not be possible for all the bikes to be booked on the train, (there are a maximum of only 4 spaces!). If you book with Trainline they have a convenient bike icon within their booking system which lets you know how many bike spaces are left and allows you to book your bike space.

Quick get to by train

Extra spaces for bikes in our support vehicle

Rolling hills and tucked-away valleys

Dry-stone walls and dappled woods

Picnic lunches and snacks along the way

Comfortable hotel and dinner

Cotswold Distillery private tour at Shipston-on-Stour

Private vineyard tour

our route