Pauline Kenny and Steve Cohen
Email: pauline@cotswolder.com
Mailing Address: Slow Travel Inc,
1630A 30th St. #483,
Boulder, CO USA 80301
Pauline and Steve live in Boulder, Colorado (300 days of sunshine a year!). Before that we lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Pauline and Steve span the Baby Boom generation; Pauline in her mid 50s and Steve in his early 60s. We love to travel and get to Europe at least once a year, usually for a long trip (one or two months).
For more about Pauline and Steve, read Pauline's blog Slow Travels - About Us.
Pauline is the founder of Slow Travel (slowtrav.com), an online travel community (now owned by Internet Brands Inc.). Pauline ran the Slow Travel website and community from 2000 to 2007.
Pauline and Steve are currently living in Painswick, in the Cotswolds. Follow Pauline's Slow Travels blog to read about their move to England.
Vacation Rentals in the Cotswolds
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Why We Created "Cotswolder"
Cotswolder launched in September 2008. There are many good websites about the Cotswolds. Does the web need another one? I think so. Cotswolder does not have the detail of a tourist office website, it does not list every restaurant and every hotel in the Cotswolds, instead it describes the Cotswolds from a personal point of view. It presents traveling in the Cotswolds and in England from a North American perspective.
Cotswolder is written by Pauline Kenny with parts edited by Valerie Schneider (but don't blame Valerie for any "bad bits", they are probably Pauline's!).
Our England Travel History
In 1988 - 1989 Steve and I spent a year traveling in Europe. We spent two months traveling around England, spending a week at a time in different areas - London, Sussex, Devon, Wales, Lake District, Scotland, Yorkshire Dales, Peaks District, Cotswolds. We then spent three months in the countryside east of London and explored London, East Anglia and Kent.
Since then we have returned to England many times:
- Spring 2000 - One month in the Cotswolds, in a charming cottage near Painswick (Well Farm). That was when we fell in love with the Cotswolds. (After this we went to Italy for a month.)
- September 2004 - One week in an apartment in Bath and then one month in Winchcombe, in a dreadful cottage that was part of the Sudley Castle estate. But the trip was fantastic. Weather was sunny for the first half and then rainy. (On this trip we also spent two weeks in Provence, France.)
- May 2005 - We spent a month traveling around the southwest: one week in Salisbury, one week in Somerset, one week in Minchinhampton, one week in Devon. Great weather and great locations.
- May 2006 - A few sunny days in Bath, then one week in Wiltshire followed by two and a half weeks in Windrush (near Burford) during a very rainy May. We experienced mud on a level we did not know was possible.
- Summer 2007 - We were booked to spend three weeks back at Well Farm in Painswick, after spending a month in Switzerland, but the flooding in the Cotswolds happened just before we were scheduled to fly there, so we cancelled and stayed in Switzerland.
- January - February 2008 - A few days in Bath, then two months in a lovely cottage on the outskirts of Nailsworth in the winter (found on HolidayLettings.co.uk). Days were very short, but it was a sunny and mild winter.
- Summer 2009 - A few days in Windsor on arrival, a week in Paris, then two and a half weeks in Fulbrook (near Burford) followed by two weeks in Naunton (near Stow). Three weeks in Switzerland and back to the Cotswolds for a week in Broadway at the lovely Broadway Manor Cottages. We had sunny and hot days for all of June in the Cotswolds.
- Summer 2010 - Back to Nailsworth in the same cottage from two years ago, this time for an extended stay - a year in England. We brought the cat!
- Summer 2011 - Still in the Cotswolds but we moved to Painswick. Cat loves it here.
We keep this site updated and add new information as we continue to travel to this area.
This website is about the Cotswolds, but that does not mean that this area is better than other areas in England. We enjoy traveling throughout the Southwest, love the Lakes district, would like to return to East Anglia someday soon, but something about the Cotswolds has grabbed us and this is the place we like to return to.
References for Cotswolder
I used the following books, plus my own experiences traveling in the Cotswolds, to create the Towns & Villages pages:
- Buildings of the Cotswolds, Building Heritage Series, by Denis Moriarty, 2000.
- The Complete Cotswolds, Jarrold, White Horse Guides, by Peter, Helen & David Titchmarsh, 1999.
- Discovering Prehistoric England, Shire Publications, edited by James Dyer, 1993.
- A Guide to Medieval Sites in Britain, Paladin, Nigel and Mary Kerr, 1988.
Cotswolder Photos
Photos on the website are either by Pauline or by Kazz Hollick, a photographer based in Stroud, in the Cotswolds.
Cotswolder Logo
The Cotswolder logo was designed in July 2008 by Ginés Valera (email info@mediacomm.es). The logo for Cotswolder is a spiral of bluebells. My favorite time of year in the Cotswolds is the spring when the woods are filled with bluebells and Ramsons (also called Garlic Flowers). I sent Ginés some of my spring flower photos and this is what he came up with for our logo. I love the spiral and the gentle colors and being reminded of spring in the Cotswolds.
Slow Europe
Another website that we run is Slow Europe, a guide to vacation rentals in Europe. It is a list of vacation rental resources by country and region - our favorite agencies, tourist office sites and vacation directory sites for booking European vacation rentals. Read Pauline's blog, Slow Travels, about European travel.
Thank you for visiting Cotswolder!
