One of the delights of visiting the Cotswolds is exploring the different areas, each with its own identity, yet all with those defining Cotswold features: golden stone and rolling hills, the ‘wolds’.

• Bibury (Gloucestershire) is the “most beautiful village in England” as once William Morris  described this quintessential Cotswolds village. The stone buildings, many of them 17^th-century weavers’ cottages, line the river and twisted nest of streets. One such row of cottages – ArlingtonRow – is one of England’s most iconic streets.
• Cirencester (Gloucestershire) is known as the capital of the Cotswolds, at its heart is a marketplace where a popular market is held every Monday and Friday. Overlooking the market is St John the Baptist Church, whose “wineglass” pulpit (1515) is one of the few pre-Reformation pulpits to survive in England. The modern Corinium Museum displays a fabulous hoard of Roman finds, including mosaics, as well as Anglo-Saxon and medieval exhibits.
• Painswick (Gloucestershire), is known as the “Queen of the Cotswolds”, this beautifully preserved hilltop town on the Cotswolds Way is certainty among the prettiest in the area. It build its wealth on the wool trade from the 15^th to 19^th centuries, but today the only tangible industry is art; the winding, narrow streets are home to a large number of artists’ studious and galleries.  
• Chipping Campden (Gloucestershire) is perfect Cotswold town presents a unified picture of golden-coloured and lichen-patched stone. Inside the 15^th-century St James’s Church, one of the finest in the Cotswolds.
• Stow-on-the-Wold (Gloucestershire) is the loftiest town in the Cotswolds (244m atop Stow Hill). The large square at its centre, surrounded by smart stone town houses now occupied by tea rooms, antiques shops and pubs.
• Kelmscott (Oxfordshire). The designer, writer and publisher William Morris lived in this pretty Thameside village from 1871 until his death in 1986. Morris and his followers  in the Arts and Crafts movement were attracted by the medieval feel of the village and several cottages were later built in Morris’s memory.
• Burford (Oxfordshire) is a charming small town, that has hardly changed since Georgian times, when it was an important coach stop between Oxford and the West Country. A few miles south of Burford is the popular Cotswold Wildlife Park, home to over 260 different species of mammals, reptiles and birds.