The Active England Tours Cotswolds Classic bike tour immerses our international guests in the history and heritage of our stunning landscape and the Cotswolds Line Cycle Route, which utilises the National Cycle Network. Our tours visit all of the following places within eight days of relaxed biking along the Cotswolds Line Cycle Route:
- Windsor Castle and Windsor Great Park
- The most famous University City in the world, Oxford
- Churchill’s Blenheim Palace
- Shakespeare’s Stratford
- The Roman Baths and Jane Austen in Bath
- Stonehenge and the equally impressive Avebury, Ridgeway, and White Horse Hill
- Downton Abbey at both Highclere Castle and Bampton (where all the outside shots of the series are shot)
Cycling right to the heart of the Cotswolds
All these places are iconic in their own way and our guests are able to ride right through them using safe and secluded routes, where no tour bus dare venture.
For instance:
- By special arrangement, we are able to ride inside the 2000-acre, Capability-Brown-designed gardens at Blenheim Palace, right up to the iconic palace where Winston Churchill was born.
- We are also able to bike right into the heart of Bath, which would normally take 20 minutes by bike and at least an hour in the traffic on a Saturday!
- On the way into Stratford, we bike down a discussed railway line and pop out right in the middle of the town by All Saint’s Church where Shakespeare is buried – although last year, with the benefit of thermal imaging, it was discovered that Shakespeare’s skull had been removed from his grave – quite how, like so many of our myths and legends, nobody knows!
“Area of Outstanding National Beauty”
Feedback from our guests on the Cotswolds cycling Classic tour is consistent that the most memorable parts of the tour are not the top 7 destinations but the countryside, the people, and the atmosphere of our unique Cotswolds landscape. 95% of the cycling takes place along the Cotswolds line, where the tour visits a collection of the most idyllic towns and villages including Bibury, Burford, the Slaughters, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and much more.
It’s difficult to explain how that “magic moment” feels. As guides, our mission is to provide the best experience possible for our guests. We can see at first hand how guests react to the countryside and the people, on the road and in the cafes and pubs, and it is a pleasure to see the smiles on their faces and the connection they feel with our very special Cotswolds cycling landscape.
Escape to the British countryside
Many of our guests comment that there is something new around every corner, be it a stunning view, a historical point of interest from the kings and queens who have lived in Windsor Castle from Norman times, through to Shakespeare, Churchill, Jane Austen, and even Kate Moss!
Get in touch to book your escape to the countryside on a classic Cotswolds cycling or walking tour.