Private day trip from Bath
The Cotswolds Day Trip
A famous village first thing, two working market towns, and lunch at a proper Cotswold pub.
£565 for one guest · £595 for two · lunch included
- Duration
- 8 hours
- Party size
- 1 to 4 guests
- Pickup
- Bath hotel or station
- Lunch
- Included
- From
- £565
This is the day to book if you want to understand the southern Cotswolds rather than photograph one village and drive home. It pairs Castle Combe, which deserves its reputation, with three places that are still lived and worked in.
We reach Castle Combe early, before the lanes fill up. From there the day moves through Tetbury and Dursley to Wotton-under-Edge, using the roads between them as part of the trip rather than as dead time.
Lunch is a set meal at the Old Spot Inn in Dursley, a proper Cotswold pub a few streets from where Frazer lives.
What you are paying for
What your £565 includes
The car and guide are charged once for your party. Only lunch scales with numbers, at £30 a guest.
A private car, for your party only
A five-seat car with air conditioning, carrying no more than 4 guests. There are no shared seats and no strangers, so the day can change shape if you want it to.
Pickup and return in Bath
We collect you from the front of your hotel, or from Bath Spa station, and bring you back to the same place. No parking, no single-track lanes, no return timetable to watch.
Frazer, for the whole day
One person drives, hosts and answers the questions, and he has lived here for more than 25 years. There is no rota of drivers and no script.
A set lunch at the Old Spot Inn
Lunch is booked before you arrive and included in your total at £30 a guest. No hunting for a free table at one o'clock in a village of three hundred people.
Four stops, and the driving between them
Around eight hours door to door, covering Castle Combe, Tetbury, Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge, with roughly two and a half hours of that spent on Cotswold lanes rather than main roads.
One price, settled before you travel
The car and guide are charged once for the party and lunch is charged per guest. Nothing else is owed on the day unless you order it yourself at the bar.
Your day, hour by hour
Where we go, and when
Times are how the day normally runs. Frazer adjusts them as it goes if somewhere is worth longer, or if the weather makes a different order better.
9.00am
We collect you in Bath
Frazer meets you at the front of your hotel, or on the forecourt at Bath Spa station if you are arriving by train that morning. We confirm the exact spot with you the day before, so nobody is standing on a pavement wondering which car to look for.
The Royal Crescent, Bath, where we collect from hotels across the city 35 minutes driving
North out of the city
Bath drops away quickly. Within ten minutes you are on lanes between drystone walls, and the limestone starts to change colour as we move north into Wiltshire.
9.40am
Castle Combe, before the coaches
One street of honey-coloured cottages running down to a bridge over the By Brook. It is small, and that is the point: an hour on foot covers it properly.
Arriving now rather than at eleven is the single biggest decision on this itinerary. It is the difference between having the lane to yourself and queueing for the same photograph as everyone else.
West Street, Castle Combe 
The bridge over the By Brook, Castle Combe 40 minutes driving
Up onto the plateau
We climb out of the valley and cross open Cotswold farmland, past field barns and long views, dropping into Tetbury from the south.
11.20am
Tetbury, a market town that still trades
The pillared Market House has stood in the middle of the road since 1655, and the town has kept its working character rather than becoming a set.
Long Street is the one to walk: antiques shops, independent cafes and a good hour of browsing at whatever pace suits you.
Long Street, Tetbury 
Tetbury Market House, standing since 1655 30 minutes driving
Down the escarpment
West towards the edge of the Cotswolds, where the land falls away to the Severn. This is the stretch where people usually stop talking and look out of the window.
1.00pm
Lunch at the Old Spot Inn
A genuine Cotswold pub rather than a visitor attraction, on the edge of the market town Frazer lives in. CAMRA named it National Pub of the Year in 2007.
Your set lunch is included in the price, at £30 a guest. Anything else you order is settled at the bar. Tell us about dietary requirements when you book and we pass them on in advance.
The Old Spot Inn, Dursley, where lunch is booked 25 minutes driving
Along the edge
A short run south along the foot of the escarpment, with the wooded scarp rising on one side the whole way.
3.15pm
Wotton-under-Edge
A small town pressed up against the Cotswold Edge, with a steep wooded backdrop and a high street of independent shops.
It sees a fraction of the visitors the famous villages do, which is exactly why it is the last stop rather than the first.
Wotton-under-Edge 50 minutes driving
Back to Bath, by 5.00pm
South through the lanes and back into the city, dropping you where we picked you up.
The route
A loop, not a line
Drawn from the real positions of each stop, so the shape of the day is honest.
- BathWe collect you in Bath
- Castle CombeCastle Combe, before the coaches
- TetburyTetbury, a market town that still trades
- DursleyLunch at the Old Spot Inn
- Wotton-under-EdgeWotton-under-Edge
What makes this day different
Castle Combe first, deliberately. Most tours arrive mid-morning; the whole day is planned around getting there before that.
Two of the four stops are places people live and work rather than visit, which is what stops the day feeling like a film set.
Lunch is booked and included at a pub Frazer knows, so the middle of the day is not spent looking for somewhere with a free table.
Good to know
Not included
- Drinks and anything ordered beyond the set lunch
- Entry to any paid attraction you choose to visit
Before you book
Tell us about dietary requirements and anything that affects walking when you book, not on the day. The pub needs notice and the route can be planned around it.
Access and terrainQuestions about this day
How much walking is there?
Castle Combe and Wotton-under-Edge are both walked on foot, but neither is far, perhaps a mile in total across the day, at your own pace. Castle Combe has cobbles, slopes and uneven stone.
Can we spend longer somewhere?
Yes. The times are how the day normally runs, not a schedule you have to keep. If Tetbury suits you and Wotton does not, Frazer will change it as the day goes.
Is Castle Combe really that busy?
By late morning in summer, yes. That is why we go first. Out of season it is quiet most of the day.
What if it rains?
The day runs. Every stop has somewhere to get inside, and the Cotswolds look better in soft light than in glare.
Prices
What your party pays
| Party size | Car and guide | Lunches | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 guest | £535 | £30 | £565 |
| 2 guests | £535 | £60 | £595 |
| 3 guests | £535 | £90 | £625 |
| 4 guests | £535 | £120 | £655 |