England as a Slow Travel Destination
Thursday, November 1st, 2007On April 12, I did a live interview for Around the World, a travel show out of Santa Barbara. This was my second time on the radio (the first time was on Tuesday) and my first time live. Around the World is a great travel show and the host made me feel at ease immediately, so it was fun. You can listen to it here (10 minutes).
The topic was traveling in England and I spent a day putting together notes for the interview - I was ready for everything (more or less). Since 10 minutes really isn’t that long, we did not cover everything, so here are my England notes.
Traveling in the Cotswolds
The Cotswolds is a popular vacation destination for North Americans. The area is not large – you can drive through it from north to south in an hour, and from east to west in an hour – but it is filled with beautiful villages, historic houses and gardens, endless walking trails, good pubs and tea rooms. The area has been designated an Area of National Beauty and is protected from over development.
The area is popular weekend and holiday destination for Londoners and other tourists. The main villages can fill up with visitors on summer holiday weekends, but mid-week off-season the area feels like locals-only. The walking trails in the Cotswolds are among the best in England and there are many trails to choose from. You can do a short two hour circular walk, or spend ten days walking from village to village on a long distance footpath.
Vacation rentals are good quality and well priced
Because the British travel a lot within their own country, there is an excellent network of quality vacation rentals at good prices. People have been staying in vacation rentals in England for decades, centuries even. When Jane Austen’s characters wintered in Bath, they stayed in furnished houses - vacation rentals. We rented our first English vacation rental in 1988, almost 20 years ago.
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