Bourton-on-the-Water
The bridges, and the only water the dog gets into. First stop because it is the busiest.
Friday 4 to Sunday 6 September 2026
Nine of us, one dog,
and a nine-seater.
House and van paid for. Four villages and two farm shops on Saturday, dinner in Stow, home on Sunday via Castle Combe. Every drive time here is measured on real roads, which broke two of the original timings.
9People, plus a dog
2Nights
400Miles in the van
8h 46Total driving
£98Each, before food
3Tables to book
01
The whole weekend, on one map
Saturday's loop in green, Sunday's run south in rust. Tap a pin for what happens there.
The map needs a connection. Everything below works without it.
Saturday loop, 86 mi
Sunday to Castle Combe, 45 mi
Friday Get there
Van out of Stansted 17:30. Everyone else takes the Chiltern line to Beaconsfield and gets picked up at M40 junction 2. House by 20:30.
137 miles2 hr 50 driving
Saturday The loop
Bourton, Bibury, Daylesford, Diddly Squat, Stow. Lunch at the Catherine Wheel, dinner at Sheep on Sheep Street. Back by 21:15.
86 miles2 hr 38 driving
Sunday Go home
Out at 09:50, an hour south to Castle Combe, lunch at the Salutation, M4 east. London by 16:00.
146 miles3 hr 18 driving
Still open
No restaurant has been rung. Three tables, nine people, a dog, a September weekend.
Saturday night needs a sober driver, or dinner moves to Cheltenham. Section 06.
The base. Cheltenham cancels free until 14:00 on Wednesday 3 September. Verdict in 05: keep it.
02
Friday
4 September · get to the house · 137 miles in the van
-
17:30
Rayson collects the van Hertz, Stansted
Coopers End Road, CM24 1SJ, desk shuts 20:00. Renault Trafic, nine seats, unlimited mileage, back Monday 17:30. Photograph every panel and both wheel sets before driving off and get any existing mark onto the agreement. The card cover requires it.
-
1 hr 14 63 mi · M11, M25, M40
-
18:50
Van meets the rest of us Beaconsfield, M40 J2
Chiltern line from Marylebone, 25 minutes, £11 to £13 off-peak, dogs free. Meeting here saves the van about 90 minutes crawling into London and back out.
-
1 hr 36 74 mi · M40, A40
-
20:30
Cheltenham Clare Street, GL53 7NN
Lockbox entry, so arriving late is fine. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, sofa bed, secure garden. No parking at the house; the car park a minute away is free from 18:00 and all day Sunday.
-
21:00
Dinner, walk out Bath Road or Montpellier
Five to ten minutes on foot, and the only meal nobody has to book. A nine-top at nine will still want splitting across two tables, so pick somewhere with a bar.
03
Saturday
5 September · the village loop · 86 miles, 2 hr 38 of driving
The map needs a connection. The timeline below works without it.
The loop, driven clockwise
Lower Slaughter, if we are ahead
-
09:15
Leave Cheltenham
Bourton takes 300,000 visitors a year against 4,000 residents, and the coaches land mid-morning. The extra fifteen minutes is for nine people and a dog getting out of a house.
-
24 min 15.7 mi · A40, A429 · allow 35
-
09:50
Bourton-on-the-Water 1 hr 10
Five low stone bridges over the Windrush, shallow enough for the dog to stand in. Park on Rissington Road, charges to 20:00.
-
32 min 13.7 mi · lanes via the Barringtons
-
11:35
Bibury Arlington Row
A seventeenth-century weavers' terrace, ten minutes on foot from the pub. The roadside lay-by fills by nine and the council is consulting on coach restrictions, so we park at the Catherine Wheel.
-
11:45
Lunch, The Catherine Wheel needs booking
Sixteenth century, open fires, function room for groups, dogs on the informal side, own car park. This booking is also the parking plan, so confirm a two-metre nine-seater fits.
-
42 min 21.5 mi · the longest hop of the day
-
13:45
Daylesford 50 min
A farm shop the size of a supermarket, proper car park, clean toilets. The food hall is the good bit and the restaurant holds a Michelin Green Star. Skip the homeware and clothing.
-
14 min 6.1 mi · through Kingham to the A361
-
14:50
Diddly Squat shuts 16:30
Six miles on from Daylesford, which is the only reason it works. No booking and no way to check ahead, so the queue is the whole gamble: twenty minutes on a quiet morning, an hour on a Sunday, two and a half at its worst. Read it from the car park and drive on if it is bad, because Stow is the next stop whatever you decide. Card only, no cash. The dog stays outside on a lead.
-
18 min 10.3 mi · B4450 through Bledington, then the A436
-
16:10
Stow-on-the-Wold
The only loop stop with parking a nine-seater can use. Market Square, the antique shops on Sheep Street, St Edward's church two minutes away with the yews flanking the north door. The Tolkien story about that door is invented.
-
17:10
The loose end 1 hr 20 unaccounted
Down from 2 hr 45, because Diddly Squat now takes the middle of the afternoon. Lower Slaughter below fills most of what is left. Broadway Tower is the other answer, 20 minutes each way on the A44, and it is the one to reach for if the queue turned you back.
-
17:15
Lower Slaughter optional
Eight minutes out from Stow, now that the route no longer runs past it. Best walk on the trip: flat, a mile and a half along the Eye to Upper Slaughter and back. Residential, parking restrictions, no facilities, so park in Upper Slaughter and walk in.
-
18:30
Dinner, Sheep on Sheep Street needs booking
Books by slot, so flag nine plus a dog when you ring. Wood-fired pizza, water bowl on the floor. Sunset is 19:49, so whoever drives the 28 minutes home is doing it dark and sober.
-
28 min 18.3 mi · A436, A40, in the dark
-
21:15
Back in Cheltenham
Street parking is free from 18:00, so the van can sit outside overnight.
Diddly Squat goes here, and only here
It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 to 16:30, so either day works on paper. Saturday's route already passes six miles from it, which costs 22 minutes. Sunday's route runs the other way: Diddly Squat to Castle Combe is 1 hr 18, so slotting it into Sunday adds an hour to a day that already has 3 hr 18 of driving and a checkout. Farm shop only. The Farmer's Dog is a different site and stays out.
Two timings in the original plan are impossible
The group plan had Bibury at 11:20 and Daylesford at 13:30. Bourton to Bibury is 32 minutes of single-track lanes, so 11:00 out of Bourton lands at 11:35. Bibury to Daylesford is 42 minutes, so 13:00 out lands at 13:45. Both corrected above. The 21:15 return still holds.
Bibury
Arlington Row, and the lunch that solves the parking.
Daylesford
Farm shop with a Green Star restaurant attached. Buy food, skip the homeware.
Diddly Squat
Fourteen minutes on from Daylesford. This is the normal queue, and it decides whether we bother.
Stow-on-the-Wold
Dinner, the only van-friendly parking on the loop, and the unfilled afternoon.
Lower Slaughter
Optional. Best walk on the itinerary, and it eats an hour of the Stow gap.
04
Sunday
6 September · Castle Combe, then home · 146 miles, 3 hr 18 of driving
The map needs a connection. The timeline below works without it.
Down to Castle Combe, 45 mi
M4 home, 101 mi
-
09:50
Pack, breakfast, check out
Checkout is 11:00, so 09:50 is a choice. It gets us to Castle Combe before the car park fills.
-
1 hr 00 40.8 mi · A46 south past Bath
-
11:00
Castle Combe 1 hr 15
No parking in the village at all. Wiltshire runs plate cameras and a recovery truck 07:00 to 19:00, and £150 plus the fine gets a towed van back. Dunns Lane visitor car park, then ten minutes on foot.
-
11 min 3.9 mi · narrow lanes, B4039
-
12:15
Lunch, The Salutation Inn needs booking
Two miles out at The Gibb on the B4039, which is the point: seventeenth century, barn restaurant, beer garden, dogs inside, own car park. Hardest of the three tables, so ring it first.
-
2 hr 07 100.8 mi · M4 east from J17
-
15:55
London
Van stays with Rayson overnight. He runs it to Stansted on Monday, 44 miles, 75 minutes, due 17:30. His flight wants to be 19:30 or later.
Castle Combe
Worth the detour, and the reason Sunday runs 146 miles instead of 100.
Cheltenham
Regency terraces, and the base. Whether it should have been is the next section.
05
Where we sleep
Verdict: keep Cheltenham. Free cancellation runs to 14:00 on Wednesday 3 September if anyone disagrees
The map needs a connection. The table below carries the same argument.
Saturday's loop
Candidate bases
Saturday stops
Measured road times between real addresses. The Saturday column is the whole loop from that base: out to Bourton, round through Bibury and Daylesford, into Stow, back.
| Base | Saturday loop | Home from Stow after dinner | Sunday to Castle Combe | Friday from Beaconsfield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stow-on-the-Wold fastest | 1 hr 52 · 55 mi | walk | 1 hr 04 · 43 mi | 1 hr 50 |
| Moreton-in-Marsh | 2 hr 09 · 64 mi | 9 min | 1 hr 12 · 48 mi | 1 hr 55 |
| Burford | 2 hr 20 · 71 mi | 16 min | 1 hr 02 · 41 mi | 1 hr 34 |
| Cheltenham booked | 2 hr 38 · 85 mi | 28 min | 1 hr 00 · 41 mi | 1 hr 36 |
| Cirencester | 2 hr 40 · 87 mi | 29 min | 38 min · 24 mi | 1 hr 53 |
Stow wins the driving. Keep Cheltenham anyway.
Stow takes 46 minutes out of Saturday, kills the 28-minute run home, and costs four minutes on Sunday. Then the market answers. Searched at nine guests with the dog for 4 to 6 September, Stow itself returns nothing. The cheapest house anywhere that beats Cheltenham on driving is a listed cottage in Moreton at £1,143, which is £783 on top of the £360 already paid, £87 a head, to save 29 minutes and cut the run home to nine. Nine minutes still needs a sober driver. And Cheltenham is the only base where all of us walk to Friday dinner unbooked.
Stow's real win is free elsewhere. Dinner on foot means nobody stays sober. Eat Saturday dinner in Cheltenham and you get the same: leave Stow 17:15, home 17:45 in daylight, walk out at 18:30. The price is losing Sheep on Sheep Street.
Overruling this means holding the new house before cancelling Cheltenham. Cirencester if Sunday matters more: 22 minutes off Castle Combe, nothing for Saturday.
06
The van, the driver, the excess
One vehicle, one name on the agreement, and a £2,500 hold if the backup gets used
Hertz Booked and paid
- Vehicle
- Renault Trafic, 9 seats, unlimited mileage
- Where
- Stansted Airport, Coopers End Road CM24 1SJ, 08:00 to 20:00
- Out
- Fri 4 Sept, 17:30
- Back
- Mon 7 Sept, 17:30
- Cost
- £450 paid, £50 each
- Driver
- Rayson, and only Rayson unless a second is added
Green Motion Held, £0 paid
- Why
- One desk at 17:30 on a Friday, with nine of us already on a train
- Where
- Novotel Stansted, Round Coppice Road CM24 1SF, off-airport via the Bay 18 shuttle
- Cost
- £337.43 at the desk, £112 cheaper than Hertz
- Catch
- Off-airport, so using it puts Beaconsfield nearer 19:45 than 18:50
- Kill it
- Once Rayson has the Hertz keys. Email or website, they do not cancel by phone
Somebody is not drinking on Saturday
Dinner in Stow is 28 minutes back on the A436 and A40, after sunset at 19:49. Rayson is the only name on the Hertz agreement, so a second driver has to go on the booking before the van leaves Stansted on Friday, at a per-day fee. It cannot be done on Saturday afternoon.
Eating in Cheltenham instead removes the problem for nothing. Section 05.
If the backup gets used, the excess is £2,500
A nine-seater sits in Green Motion's minibus band: £2,500 damage excess, £2,500 card pre-authorisation, up to 30 days for the hold to clear. Rayson's Chase card covers the excess to $75,000, since the exclusion starts at thirteen seats.
Rayson pulls the letter of coverage himself, from chasecardbenefits.com, which wants his card number. Check the card has a PIN while he is in there: Green Motion insist on chip and PIN and can ask for written proof at the desk. The benefit follows whoever paid, so the booking has to be in his name.
One or the other. Taking Green Motion's own excess product voids the card benefit and is not reimbursable. Theirs is £120 to £180. Either way £2,500 sits on the card for up to a month.
The return inspection is strict. No fair-wear allowance, a 40mm scratch or a 1mm glass chip is chargeable, tyres and glass sit outside the excess cover, dog hair alone starts at £150. Lost keys, wear and tear, and off-road driving fall through both rulebooks, so nobody parks on grass.
07
Three tables, none rung
All dog-friendly, all take bookings, none has been called
The Catherine Wheel Bibury · Saturday 11:45
Ask for the function room, confirm the car park takes a two-metre nine-seater. Also the Bibury parking plan, so this one has to land.
Sheep on Sheep Street Stow · Saturday 18:30
Books by slot. Flag nine plus a dog. 18:30 is right now that Diddly Squat holds the afternoon.
The Salutation Inn The Gibb · Sunday 12:15
The hardest of the three. Sunday lunch for nine in Wiltshire wants ringing this week. Confirm the car park on the call.
Friday, Cheltenham 21:00 · walk-in
Bath Road or Montpellier, five to ten minutes from the house. No booking needed, though nine at nine will want splitting.
Veggie and vegan still unchecked
All three were picked partly on having real options, but nobody has read the current menus.
08
Money
Nine ways, before any food or drink
| Item | Total | Each | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| House, two nights | £360.00 | £40.00 | Charges 26 Aug |
| Van, Friday to Monday | £450.00 | £50.00 | Paid |
| Fuel, about 400 miles | £75 to £85 | £8.35 to £9.45 | Estimate |
| Train, Marylebone to Beaconsfield | £100.00 | £12.50 | Only if we meet the van there |
| Per head, without the train | – | £98 to £99 | If the van comes into town |
| Per head, with it | – | £111 to £112 | Plus food and drink |
The 400 miles: 137 Friday, 73 Saturday, 146 Sunday, 44 for the van back to Stansted on Monday. Moving the base to Stow takes about 30 miles off Saturday and puts them back on Friday and Sunday, so fuel is a wash. Only the house line moves, to £600 to £900.
09
Practical
The things that go wrong on the day
Parking
Bourton Rissington Road, charges to 20:00. Bibury the pub car park, the lay-by fills by nine. Daylesford proper car park. Stow the only easy one on the loop. Castle Combe Dunns Lane only, cameras and a recovery truck 07:00 to 19:00, £150 to get a towed van back.
Height
The Trafic is about two metres and UK multi-storeys commonly barrier at 1.9 to 2.0m. Confirm which car park the host means, and ask both pubs, since we lean on their car parks twice.
The dog
Welcome at the house, free on the train, inside all three pubs. Water at Bourton, best walk at Lower Slaughter. Bring a blanket for the back seats: hair alone in the backup van is £150.
The house
Three bedrooms plus a sofa bed for nine, two bathrooms, secure garden, lockbox. The listing marks some essentials unavailable and a recent guest reported the dishwasher out. Ask before we pack towels.
10
What still needs doing
Ordered by when it stops being possible
-
Close the base question
Section 05 says keep Cheltenham. If the group disagrees, hold a Stow or Cirencester house before cancelling, never the other way round.
By Wed 3 Sept, 14:00 -
Sort Saturday's driver, or move the dinner
If Rayson drinks at dinner, a second driver goes on the Hertz booking before the van leaves Stansted, at a per-day fee, and it cannot be done retrospectively. Eating in Cheltenham instead costs nothing.
Before Fri 4 Sept -
Ring the Salutation Inn
Sunday 12:15, nine plus a dog, and confirm the car park takes the van. Hardest table of the three.
This week -
Book the Catherine Wheel
Saturday 11:45, function room, two-metre clearance. Doubles as the Bibury parking plan.
This week -
Book Sheep on Sheep Street
Saturday 18:30, nine and a dog. Diddly Squat now covers the afternoon, so 18:30 is the right slot to ask for.
This week -
Fill the Stow afternoon
Down to 1 hr 20 now Diddly Squat is in. Lower Slaughter is free and eats most of it. Broadway Tower is 20 minutes each way and the better view.
This week -
Rayson: pull the Chase letter of coverage
From chasecardbenefits.com, which needs his card number. Check it has a PIN, is a credit card, is in his own name, clears a £2,500 hold, and does not expire before November.
This week -
Get Green Motion's real numbers in writing
Email the branch for the excess and pre-authorisation in writing; £150 and £2,500 are very different fallbacks. Their insurer refuses licences from a list of countries, so check Rayson's against it.
Before it matters -
Check towels, linen and the dishwasher
The listing marks essentials unavailable and a recent guest reported the dishwasher out. Ask the host before nine people pack.
Before we pack -
Check Rayson's Monday flight
Van due back at Stansted 17:30, about 75 minutes from London. Anything before 19:30 is tight.
Whenever
11
On the bench
Dropped, kept here so nobody re-proposes them
Broadway Tower near miss
Best view in the region, directly on the A44, 20 minutes each way. Saturday is back to five stops so it no longer fits as a plan, but it is the answer if the Diddly Squat queue is too long to join.
Diddly Squat back in
Dropped for being 40 miles east of everything, which was measured from Cheltenham. From Daylesford it is six. It costs the loop 22 minutes and takes the afternoon nobody had planned, so it is now Saturday 14:50 in section 03. Farm shop only, no pub.
Moreton Show voted out
£31.25 a head, £281.25 for nine, and it eats all of Saturday. 25,000 people, one van, one dog.
Dover's Hill and the Slaughters, split voted out
Two groups, two places, one van, about 50 minutes of ferrying. Lost to Castle Combe.
Blenheim Palace never on the ballot
£40 a head and four hours, so it would have replaced Castle Combe, not joined it.
The Farmer's Dog out
Friday dinner. Hard cap of eight per table, and September is full.