While we’ve been to London a few times we haven’t spent too much time outside of it other than a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. We recently had the wonderful opportunity to spend three nights in the English countryside, about 35 minutes outside of Bath, as part of a four night trip to see the most popular singer right now perform in Wales. The enchanting English countryside was an amazing start to our trip.
Since we wanted a non-city experience and needed to make our base closer to Cardiff, Wales, we found a beautiful place to stay in the Cotswolds. It had everything we needed: a restaurant and bar on the premises, a full breakfast each morning, afternoon tea, and a spacious cottage to stay in that had a private courtyard and hot tub.
We arrived at Heathrow around 8:30am and grabbed our car rental. The last time we drove on the “wrong” side of the road was in Ireland in 2014. It definitely took some getting used to again! We had to keep repeating out loud, “STAY LEFT”, but we did it unscathed. Those roundabouts are tricky though!
Stonehenge
We took a little bit longer route and headed to Stonehenge. This gave the kids a chance to sleep since the overnight plane ride didn’t provide too much much of that! When we arrived we were shocked at how much it has changed since we were last there in 2012! There’s a large entrance with a museum and gift shop, and you have wait in line to take a shuttle to get to the site about 2km away (previously you could park and walk under a tunnel area to get there). It was so much more done up! That part wasn’t expected, but once there we enjoyed trying to mimic the poses they had on signs around the site, and the kids kept trying to figure out how these huge stones were placed there.
Our Accommodations
We then drove on some super narrow and windy roads to our base for the next three nights. This was technically a hotel, but had separate cottages and suites away from the main area. We had a one bedroom suite, which came with a private courtyard and hot tub. We ate at their delicious restaurant a few times and had afternoon tea when we arrived on the first day. This place really made our vacation memorable and we loved our time here! It provided us with the relaxing time that we were looking for on this trip.
Harry Potter Tour at Oxford
After sleeping in we had some “breakfast in bed” and hot tub time. We set off on a drive to Oxford about an hour and ten minutes away. Our guide met us in the pedestrian area of the town and she took us on a wonderful 1.5 hour private tour of Oxford.
We started at Blackwell’s Bookshop. It looks pretty unassuming from the outside, but once inside the space holding the books becomes bigger and bigger! It was even in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the single largest room selling books. The Harry Potter connection? This is where J.K. Rowling celebrated the publishing of the first two Harry Potter books.
We walked to the Bodleian Library, which is a pretty famous library in Oxford. One room in the library was used to film a lot of scenes in the movies. In the 4th film it was used as the place where McGonagall teaches the students how to dance before the Yule Ball. More often, it was used as the infirmary in many of the films.
Next, we walked to the Outside corridor. It was so fun looking at J’s face as she recognized this hallway from the movies. There are many times the students in different Harry Potter are walking around these very same outdoor passages. Once through the corridor, you enter a small courtyard that has Malfoy’s tree. This is the real tree that Draco Malfoy are hanging in the tree when Mad-eye Moody turns him into a ferret!
After the corridor and tree, we walked to one of the dining halls. The Great Hall in Harry Potter was inspired by these dining halls at Oxford. However, they couldn’t film these scenes at Oxford as the students use the dining halls regularly, but you can see how closely they resemble each other. It was pretty cool to be in there and look at!
We were able to see many other sights around Oxford…
More Towns in the Cotswolds
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at two small Cotswolds towns, Stow on the Wold and Burton on the Water. Both of these are picturesque, quaint English towns. Stow on the Wold was pretty quiet since it was around 5:30pm on a Sunday. Burton on the Water had many people having picnics along the water and people strolling through the stone lined streets. We got some ice cream and casually walked around looking at the old architecture.
Bath, England
For our last night in England we decided to drive into the city of Bath. Jon and I were last here in 2012 where we visited the Roman Baths and had a nice walk around the town. We admired the beautiful church with the night sun shining on it (it was 9pm and the sun was still fully out)! I had wanted to walk along the water a little bit afterwards, but the kids were about done with the day and everyone was hungry. Unfortunately, because we were eating dinner so late due to the time difference not many places were open too late on a Monday night. If only we were in Italy or Spain! We eventually found an okay place where everyone filled up, and then we got to drive back in the dark on narrow roads on the left side of the road!
Our time in England was fabulous and was a great start to our mini-vacation. We left the gorgeous hotel and headed to Cardiff, Wales, only an hour away. More on that in another post though!