My Secret Cottage Tour of the Cotswolds in the UK

I have heard a lot about the fairy-tale beauty and splendour of the Cotswolds, so when I was visiting London in April and May this year, I made it a point to book a tour to go there.

And looking at the various Cotswolds tours that were available online, I zeroed in on the Cotswolds Secret Cottage tour, as this was highly recommended by TripAdvisor as well as other tourism websites.

Secret Cottage is a family business

Unlike most other Cotswolds tours, the Secret Cottage tour is a family business that is run by Becky and her daughter, Polly, and it is unique because it brings visitors to the smaller villages in the Cotswolds that are inaccessible to the big tour buses and large groups.

I paid 95 pounds for the Cotswolds Secret Cottage tour. It sounded very unique and different to other Cotswolds tours offered by most tour groups in the UK, so I selected the tour.

Tour Begins at Moreton-in-Marsh Station

My tour began at the Moreton-in-Marsh railway station at about 10am in the morning.

From London to the tour meeting point is quite a journey, taking roughly an hour and a half, and the trains do not come regularly, so it is important to prepare enough time to make sure that you do not miss your train.

For me, I had arrived on an earlier train, so I had about 15 – 20 minutes to spare. And once I had gotten my bearings right and I knew exactly where the tour meeting point was, I spent the remaining time taking down the Pokemon Go gym at the railway station!

Tour Begins Punctually

The tour itself started sharp at 10am once the train had arrived, with Polly and Robin meeting the group of about 13 pax and from there, we then boarded the two minivans for a scenic and leisurely drive through the Cotswolds.

Polly was my guide and along the way, we stopped at several of the villages to walk around and take photos.

Taken Back in Time

Right from the beginning of the tour, I had felt as though I was being taken back in time, to an era where life had been much simpler and way before technology had taken over the world. It was like stepping into a fairy-tale.

I would say that the villages and houses at the Cotswolds have been preserved well over the years and are available for all to see in their full glory and splendour.

The rest of the day had passed by in a whiz from there. Each village that we went to, turned out to be much more beautiful than the last one, and I must have snapped so many photos there, that by the end of the day, my phone was literally running low on battery.

In fact, everything that I had seen that day was so picturesque that if I had to pick a village that I liked the best, I would be hard pressed to give an answer.

But one of the villages that perhaps stuck in my head was the one with the stream coursing through it. That just felt like a perfect postcard-perfect image.

Amazing Flower Fields

Besides the villages, we also passed through plenty of flower fields at the Cotswolds, all of them looking so beautiful and amazing.

And we also got to stop for a photo opportunity posing at a rape seed field, and I now love that picture so much that it has even become my Facebook profile photo. The yellow flowers are so bright and vibrant.

Polly was a great guide

As well, Polly was also an excellent guide, and a wealth of information about the Cotswolds. She was a lovely young lady and mature for her 21 years.

Throughout the tour, she made an effort to chat to us and get to know everyone better, such as where we were from, and what brought us to the UK.

And we also constantly rotated our seats in the minivan so that everyone could get a different view each time. Even though we had all been complete strangers at the beginning of the tour, it felt like we were all good friends on a trip, by the end of it.

Lunch at an old English Pub

We stopped for lunch along the way at an old 16th century English pub, where I had a cheese & chutney sandwich. The pub was really rustic and lovely, complete with an old English fireplace, and I felt that the food, which was delicious, and had a simple and unassuming old-school touch to it as well.

Visiting Secret Cottage

We ended the tour at the “Secret Cottage”, which is Becky and Polly’s home – a Cotswolds cottage with a thatched roof. This was the highlight of an already incredible day tour.

At the entrance, Becky had been waiting outside to greet us, offering us each a scone with clotted cream and jam.

And when we entered the home, I was totally blown away by their hospitality.

Greeting us had been a full afternoon tea spread, consisting of all the yummiest home-made cakes, biscuits, pastries and tarts that I have ever seen. So despite my feeble attempts to not over-indulge myself, I wound up trying every single thing that was available.

Inside The Cottage

Besides the food spread, Becky also gave us a guided tour of their home and it was great to have a glimpse of what it actually looks like inside a thatched roof cottage. This is something that most other tour groups would not be able to offer to their clients.

I would say that seeing the interior of the cottage really brought me to Hobbiton, which is a fictional place in an alternate universe called Middle Earth where the Hobbits live in the Lord of the Rings stories.

The cottage had been small but cosy and the warmth and hospitality that Becky and Polly showed to us, had made me feel as though we were part of their family.

And Polly also drove us back to the Moreton-in-Marsh railway station and even told us what time the train was due to come, so that we would not be left stranded at the end of our trip.

Had an Amazing Time

I would say that I’d had a really wonderful time on Becky’s Secret Cottage tour.

To me, the whole experience had seemed like way more than a guided tour; in fact, for the entirety of the six hours tour duration, I really felt as though I had been Polly’s personal guest.