At Active England Tours, our guests criss-cross our stunning landscape throughout the summer and in a rare acknowledgement, we want to salute the drivers of the Cotswolds for their continuing polite and friendly approach to our groups.
We have grown our Active England Tours by 100% after another hugely successful year, and a large part of making our guests comfortable and at ease while out riding is due to our Cotswold drivers.
Relaxed Biking in the Cotswolds
Our guests are mainly from North America and, although fit and active, they are not used to cycling on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. They are sometimes wary of the roads and do not know what to expect. Our standard line “you have nothing to worry about, there is much less traffic than you think and our road users are really respectful,” inevitably results in worried looks and furrowed brows.
However, after a couple of days our guests, almost to a man, comment that our drivers keep their distance, are very rarely aggressive and making biking through our backroads an absolute pleasure. Often our guests will get into a conversation with the road users, pass the time of day and enhance the immersive experience of biking through the Cotswolds.
Our North American friends, especially the New Yorkers cannot believe that road users do not honk their horn or hurl abuse as they drive through our landscape and are even more surprised when they are waved at and thanked along the way.
There are sometimes a couple of exceptions to the almost exclusively genial drivers, one in the morning after school drop-off and one at 4pm where we experience the occasional inconsiderate driver, who tend to be either in a black Range Rover or in a white van. We call it our one “idiot” a day rule. Our simple message is to ask them to just slow down especially when cornering as you never know what will be around the bend.
Best Cycling in England – The Cotswolds
Bikes, horses, dog walkers, ramblers and drivers co-exist happily together in what has to be one of the best places to cycle in England and long may this continue.
Active England Tours depart every week from a London pick-up and visit all of the following places, Windsor, Stratford, Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge, Blenheim Palace, Highclere Castle and the Kennet and Avon Canal in a week of relaxed cycling through the stunning backdrop of the Cotswolds.