The sun shines bright in a wonderfully clear blue sky as the train pulls out of London’s Paddington Station. It’s not long before we are in the countryside, and the frost-covered fields and hedgerows sparkle in the sunlight. I’m so pleased to have been invited back for the new Cotswolds Mystery Tour, thought up by the very same family behind the Secret Cottage Tour that I so thoroughly enjoyed a few years ago.
Having left London at 8.15 am the train rushes through the Oxfordshire countryside, passing pretty villages and rivers, as well as ponies, horses and sheep in the fields. Just 5 minutes from our destination of Moreton-in-Marsh, the sun disappears behind a thick blanket of mist – the vagaries of English weather on a chilly winter’s day. Our guide, Robin, arrives promptly at 10 o’clock and we bundle into his 4×4 and head off on a The Cotswolds Mystery Tour, the mist enhancing the mystery.
Looking for somewhere to stay in the Cotswolds? My favourite place to stay is this lakeside log cabin with a hut tub. You might also like the Feathers Hotel in Woodstock.
The Cotswold Mystery Tour
The Cotswolds is a lovely part of England, overflowing with historic towns and villages built in the honey-coloured local stone from the profits of the wool industry. The market square in Moreton-in-Marsh was once regularly filled with 20,000 sheep or more. Robin explains that the word Cotswold in 9th century Old English means ‘sheep pens on the hill’. An era long since passed. The sheep you see today (and there are far fewer of them than there once were) are bred for the meat industry, and a number of crops are now grown here too, including barley for beer, wheat for bread and rape for rapeseed oil.
Our first stop is a cute little coffee shop for a much welcomed hot drink. The pastries look exceedingly tempting but I resist, saving myself for lunch.
The tour then winds its way through one picturesque town after another, stopping off every now and again to allow us to take pictures and to stretch are legs. Robin shares many interesting facts about the places we visit and, even though I’ve lived in England all my life and have visited the Cotswolds before, there is still plenty that Robin tells us that is new to me.
Fans of Bridget Jones films and the TV series Father Brown will particularly enjoy a couple of the stops, but I don’t want to give away too much – the tour is supposed to be a mystery, after all.
Find places to stay in the Cotswolds
Lunch in a Traditional Pub
We stop off for lunch in a lovely old pub with wooden beams and welcoming fires. We had chosen our meals earlier in the day, so we don’t have to wait long for our lunch. It was great to see that at least one vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dish was included in the options. On such a cold day, a hot meal, rather than the ploughman’s lunch I ordered (ham, cheese and bread with pickles), would have been very welcome and I rather wished I had opted for the soup. Â But the Irish Coffee I treated myself to warmed me up a treat. Our lunch did feel a little rushed, but this is the only negative thing I could say about The Cotswolds Mystery Tour.
Back in London for tea!
After lunch there are a few more stops, including a drive past a lovely old brewery by a picturesque lake with swans – it’s on private land so you wouldn’t usually get to see it. Then we are dropped off at the station and are back in London by around 6.30 pm.
The Cotswolds Mystery Tour is an excellent way to see this stunning area of England in a small group. Our guide, Robin, was superb. If you are staying in London, I’d highly recommend escaping the city for at least one day to see the beauty of our countryside. While this is a more general tour of the area, visiting churches, towns and villages, the Secret Cottage Tour, run by the same family, is all about the cutest thatched cottages imaginable. The two tours have completely different routes with nothing overlapping, so if you have the time to do both with an overnight stay in the Cotswolds in between, you won’t regret it. If possible I’d do the Cotswold Mystery Tour first, followed by the Secret Cottage Tour. You can read all about the latter in my post, The Secret Cottage Tour of the Cotswolds.
Disclosure: Thanks to the Cotswolds Mystery Tour for the complimentary tour. As always, I will only share my own honest opinions.
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I am very sad to have discovered only yesterday (April 1–I hope it wasn’t an “April Fool’s trick!) that the Secret Cottage Tour has drawn in its welcome mat, apparently a victim of the Covid-related decline in tourism. Otherwise, I would have been tempted to take them both! I hope the Mystery Tour survives at least until October 2022 when I plan to visit the Cotswolds.
How beautiful the pictures are! They are pulling me towards. I would like to go for a long walk through that roads! I would like to visit that traditional pub also.
I hope you get to visit England one day and do just that.
I’ve got this tour booked but now that I read your review that it goes through towns and villages – do you see the thatched roof cottages too? That’s what I want to see as well but the secret cottage tour was all booked up.
I’ve just looked through my photos and I’ve only got a picture of one thatched cottage, although I’m sure we saw a few more than that, but, if we had stopped to get out of the car I would have photographed them. The villages and towns we saw were all lovely and very picturesque but they were definitely mainly tiled roofs. Why don’t you ring them and explain? They are a lovely family.
This tour sounds like so much fun. It seems to give you a real good taste for the area. I’ve always wanted to go and your pics are fabulous
Thanks, Lizzie. The Cotswolds is such an enchanting part of England.
This sounds like a lot of fun. I love the Cotswolds. I was there for a pub lunch just this weekend actually. Having just moved to Bristol I hope I’ll have lots more chances to explore!
I lived in Bristol for a few years and I wish I’d got out and about more than. Such a lovely area.
Sounds fascinating! There is so much to see in the Cotswolds and I’m ashamed how little I’ve explored the area being as it’s so close. The tour seems like a great idea though to get an insider’s perspective.
Yes, I learnt a lot about the area, even though I’d been before.
What a super way to see somewhere so close to London – a great way to get the best of the views, villages and food! And I do think the frost and mist made it even more of a mystery tour!
It certainly did, Anna!
I never even knew there was such a thing as the ‘mystery tours’. I’m so excited you shared these because I live in the Cotswolds and will have to check them out! Thanks!
I could imagine that even if you live in the Cotswolds you’d enjoy these tours.r
Wow, that sounds lovely, as does the cottage tour. I’m a sucker for thatched roofs!
I’m sure you’d love them both. Such a beautiful part of England.
Big Agatha Raisin fan here…your pics of the Cotswolds bring the books alive. I thought this might be the kind of trip where you solve a mystery. But still, this looks like a pretty good day trip to experience the area and get a feel for it.
That would be fun too but the mystery is that you don’t know where you’ll be going, although anyone who has read this post, of course, will have a pretty good idea!
An English tour with a guide named Robin? Fascinating, Kat! The photos are so English, too.
I know a few English Robins, so to speak. As the photos, not the brightest of weather but, yes, very English! 🙂
I can see how appealing this kind of tour must be for visitors to London with limited time – what a great opportunity to visit one of our prettiest parts of the country and learn about it from an expert, all within a practical schedule 🙂