Towns and Villages of the Cotswolds
September 23rd, 2008 | Posted by Pauline
The Towns and Villages of the Cotswolds section has been published on the website! I have been working on this section for the last several months (but kept getting interupted by other projects) and I am pleased to have it finished. For me, this means Cotswolder is finally a full website. I will write about more topics, and I want to reorganize how the material is presented, but the base of the website is now there (over 50 pages not including the blog or photo gallery).
So, this is the official “launch” of Cotswolder!! This is very exciting for me because I have been without a website to run since I sold SlowTrav.com last year.
The Towns and Villages section has a page for each market town describing the town, the historic sites in the town, food and drink options (not all places are listed, just the places that we have liked or that I know are good), shopping (mostly food shopping options - i.e. the nearest Waitrose :) ), what there is to see nearby (villages, historic houses, gardens, prehistoric sites) and walks in the area (walks we have done from the Jarrold Pathfinder or Goldeneye guides). Throughout each page I link to other websites with more information.
My goal is to update the site on a regular basis, with information from our trips or that people send to me, so that it remains an up-to-date guide to the Cotswolds. I have dated each article so that you can see when it was written or updated.
Vacation Rentals in the Cotswolds
Since I travel by staying in vacation rentals (holiday cottages) and the Cotswolds is a great place to travel this way, much of the site assumes that is how people reading it travel. That is why I list the information for food shopping or assume that if you go to a market town you have a whole day to spend there and in the surrounding area.
The Accommodations - Vacation Rentals section gives you a list of my recommended agencies and resources for finding vacation rentals.
Still to Come on Cotswolder
Photos: Kazz, who has been photographing the market towns for Cotswolder, has been held up because of the bad weather. Hopefully there will be some good sunny days now and she can finish the project. I have a lot of photos from recent trips that I will be uploading to the Cotswolder Photo Gallery over the next few weeks.
Maps: In the Towns and Villages section, only Broadway has a google map showing the nearby villages and sites. Soon, each market town will have an individual map.
Printing Pages: I have set it up so that the pages print nicely - sidebars and images do not display, so you get a short text printout - but I am also going to look at making a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) of the main pages of the site, so someone can download it and bring it with them on a trip.
More Cotswolds Information: I have much more to say about the Cotswolds!! :) And I will be adding new pages with more of my favorite things to do in this area.
Tell Me What You Think!
Post your comments or suggestions on the Cotswolder blog - Website Comments or email me. If you find errors, please let me know. If you have a favorite village or pub or anything that I have left out, I want to know. If I recommended something and they are no longer “good” or have gone out of business, tell me.
If you found this site because your business is listed here, please drop me a line!
If you have travel questions, post them as a comment on the blog - Cotswolder blog - Website Comments.
Thank you for dropping by!!
Cotswolder Affiliates
Purchasing Maps of the Cotswolds: I have partnered with TrekTools (who I used to partner with on SlowTrav for Italy maps) to sell the best maps of the Cotswolds. I created two pages listing what I think are the best maps: Maps of the Cotswolds and Maps of London.
Cell Phones and SIM Cards for England: I have partnered with Call in Europe for cell phones and SIM cards in England. I will write a detailed page about their services soon, but they have good prices and good service.
I have also partnered with ZapTel for International Calling Cards, AutoEurope for car rentals and Booking.com for booking hotels.
Tags: towns
September 24th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Pauline,
Wow…lots of info in that section and the expanding files under the towns works well. You didn’t mention the place with good caffe’ in Stow (yeah I know, its all about the tea). No I don’t recall the name of the place either.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Good memory Bryan! I remember it is on Digbeth St, beside that good food store. I was going to go through all my notebooks from the past two trips to see if I can find some places I forgot - I will see if I have that place noted.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Hello Pauline,
I’ve just looked at this site for the first time in months. The Towns & Villages section looks great. I think the page on the Stroud district, which is the part of the Cotswolds I know best, is an excellent guide.
An update on the weather. The beginning of September was miserable … many gloomy days and quite a lot more rain. But since mid-September things have looked up, with plenty of blue skies and sunshine doing their bit to try to cheer us up!
Best wishes,
Hugh
October 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Thanks Hugh! I hope to add more information for the Stroud area, because that is the area I know the best. Finally some good weather! I knew we should have planned a fall trip :(