Do you have questions about Go Cotswolds or one of our tours? You may find the answer here. If not, please send us a message via our contact form or e-mail info@gocotswolds.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help! We aim to respond within 48 hours.
If you need to cancel
For our small group tours, we have a 24-hour cancellation policy. If, for any reason, you need to cancel your place on a small-group tour, please let us know, giving us at least 24 hours notice. In line with our usual Terms and Conditions, we will offer you:
Cancellations within 24 hours
If you cancel your small group tour booking within 24 hours of the tour departure time, or fail to attend the tour for any reason beyond our control, we are unable to provide refunds, credits, or transfers to another date. Each booking reserves a seat and involves upfront costs, including transportation, staffing, and other arrangements that are non-refundable to us. Late cancellations, no-shows, or tours missed for reasons beyond Go Cotswolds’ control, prevent us from offering your reserved spot to another guest.
In the case that you do miss your tour, for reasons including but not limited to illness, missed, delayed or cancelled public transport, broken down vehicles etc., we would expect you to have suitable travel insurance in place which would cover you in this eventuality. We are more than happy to provide any receipts or documentation you may require to support a travel insurance claim.
For private tours and private vehicle hire bookings, we have a 14-day cancellation policy and a £50 non-refundable booking fee (per day, for multi-day hires). Each private tour booking reserves a whole vehicle and guide, involves a considerably greater amount of administrative time, and involves upfront costs, including transportation, staffing, and other arrangements that are non-refundable to us. Therefore, to cancel or amend a private tour or private vehicle hire booking, a 14-day notice period is required, and a £50 cancellation fee (per day, for multi-day hires) applies.
There may be times when we are forced to cancel one or more of our tours. Examples might be regional or national health restrictions that mean we cannot run our business, if a member of our team becomes ill, or if our vehicle breaks down.
If we have to cancel your tour or journey, we will contact you at the earliest opportunity and offer you:
Go Cotswolds is not liable to provide any compensation or refund for any other costs you may incur as a result of the cancellation of our tour.
As parents/guardians, you should consider whether your child will enjoy the day and/or affect the enjoyment of other passengers.
The Cotswolds is the largest designated ‘Natural Landscape’ in England. Covering an area of around 800 square miles (~2000 square kilometres) and including approximately 150 small towns and villages, it encompasses roughly the area between Stratford-upon-Avon to the north, Cheltenham to the west, Oxford to the east and Bath to the south.
Famed for the honey-coloured Cotswold stone from which many of the region’s buildings are made, the Cotswolds is also characterised by its rich history, traditions, and beautiful countryside landscape. Find out more by joining one of our tours! [Back to top]
COVID-19 restrictions have ended in England. We operate at our full capacity of up to 16 people per vehicle, and it is your choice to wear a face covering, or not. We continue to review our risk assessment in line with Government advice.
Click here to read our full Covid-19 procedures and policies. [Back to top]
We can accommodate people with most disabilities, including visual impairment and mobility issues. However, our minibuses are not wheelchair accessible, so our tours are not suitable for wheelchair users who are unable to get in and out of a wheelchair. Please see our Access Statement for more information, and if you have any questions, please just ask us.
Our Cotswolds Walks & Villages tour is not suitable for wheelchair users, or people with mobility issues. While the terrain is fairly flat and not difficult for most people, you will need to be able to climb over stiles (wooden or stone steps in a fence or wall), and cattle grids (metal railings laid over a pit intended to prevent cattle escaping from farmers’ fields). Please ask before booking if you have any questions. [Back to top]
Our tours are already such great value that we rarely publish discount codes. We have a few discount codes that are exclusive to certain groups of people, for example promotional partners or past customers. If and when we do publish discount codes, we’ll list them on this web page: Find a Go Cotswolds discount code, and if you subscribe to our newsletter, you’ll be the first to know about any offers and promotions.
We don’t offer concession rates for seniors or students. [Back to top]
No. To keep our tours affordable, and to give you the freedom to choose how to spend your free time during the tour, food and drinks are not included in the price of the tour.
On each of our tours, there are several opportunities to buy food and drinks throughout the day – we recommend you choose a grab-and-go lunch option or a quicker service café meal (we’ll give you some great recommendations on the day!). You can even bring your own picnic! We recommend you don’t try to squeeze in a two or three course pub or restaurant meal, because this may not leave you with enough time to enjoy and explore the location as well.
For private tours, we usually do not include food or drink, though we are happy to make recommendations and reservations if required. For groups of more than 6, you will sometimes need to pre-book, pre-order, and sometimes pay a non-refundable deposit too.
We’re committed to a plastic-free future, so we don’t provide bottled water on our tours. We encourage you to bring your own refillable water bottle or coffee cup. Many of the cafes in the Cotswolds offer a small discount if you bring your own coffee cup, and most shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants will be more than happy to fill your water bottle for free, if you ask. [Back to top]
During COVID-19 lockdown, we spent some time upgrading our website and booking system. During this process, it appears that some of the voucher codes we issued were lost – oops! But don’t worry! Please contact us quoting your voucher code number and we can reinstate it for you.
If you have a gift voucher for our Brewery, Pub Lunch & The Cotswolds tour, please note that this tour has now been discontinued. You are welcome to use the voucher as payment towards any of our other small-group tours. Please contact us if you have any questions about this.
If you have a Virgin Experiences Days gift voucher, first please check our website to find a tour and date you wish to join, then contact us, quoting your voucher code and voucher PIN. We’ll then verify your voucher code and get you booked in 🙂
Our small group tours start from our pick up points in Stratford-upon-Avon and Moreton-in-Marsh. Ultimately, it’s your responsibility to reach your chosen pick up point in time. Go Cotswolds cannot be held responsible for delays, cancellations or other factors which may affect your journey to get to our pick up point.
So, please try not to be late! Allow plenty of time for your journey, and familiarise yourself with the pick up location in advance (see our webpage here for map links and What3Words locations).
If you are going to be late, please call or send a WhatsApp message to the Go Cotswolds office on +441789224492. Please state your name and the tour you have booked so we can locate your booking, and tell us the reason for your delay, including an estimated arrival time. A member of our on-call team will advise you of your options. Please don’t email, as we cannot always respond to emails in a timely fashion!
If we have not heard from you, and you are not at your selected pick up point at the requested arrival time, your guide or the office will call you on the telephone number you provided when you made your booking. Please ensure you have selected the correct pick up point, and that you have provided us with a mobile telephone number which is capable of receiving calls and/or WhatsApp calls without a WiFi connection.
Kindly note, depending on the tour you have booked, it is not always possible – or fair on our other passengers – to wait for you, or come back for you if you are late. However, we will always try to help you if we can. We may suggest a bus or taxi service you could use to catch up with the tour – this would be at your own expense.
Train delays
Many of our tour guests arrive at the pick up point by train. So, although rail problems are relatively rare, we have become very experienced in handling rail delays, cancellations and strikes over the years!
By law, rail strikes must be announced 2 weeks before the date of planned strike action. If you have booked a tour on the day of a strike, and have told us you will be arriving by train, we will always try to contact you to provide you with some options. We keep this page updated with rail strike information.
Likewise, we will always try to let you know if your journey will be affected by planned rail engineering works. We keep this page updated with information about planned rail disruption.
We have some ‘wiggle room’ factored into the tours in case of minor train delays, and in the rare event of more severe unforeseen delays or cancellations, we’ll keep in touch with you to make a plan. We can usually help you to join the tour somehow, so please don’t worry!
Lateness refund policy
We have a 24-hour cancellation policy in place to protect our small family business. Each booking reserves a seat and involves upfront costs, including transportation, staffing, and other arrangements that are non-refundable to us. Late cancellations, no-shows, or tours missed for reasons beyond Go Cotswolds’ control, prevent us from offering your reserved spot to another guest.
If you are late and miss your Go Cotswolds tour, or your transport is delayed or cancelled, we are unable to provide any refund or credit for the tour or compensation for your travel. Under the ‘Delay Repay’ scheme, train passengers may be able to claim a refund or compensation for delayed or cancelled trains if the rail company is at fault (e.g. engineering works, signal failures, staff shortages, etc.). Please contact your booking agent directly about this.
We strongly recommend you take out appropriate travel insurance – we are always happy to provide any documentation you may require to support a travel insurance claim.
Yes! Our minibuses have a fairly large luggage compartment, so we can usually accommodate luggage, including large suitcases, foldable wheelchairs, walkers and strollers. Please let us know if you are bringing a LOT of luggage though. Kindly note, for heath and safety reasons, our guides may respectfully decline to assist you if your bags are very heavy.
Smaller handbags, coats and other small personal items may be kept inside the minibus, either at your feet or on the overhead shelf. All luggage and personal items are your responsibility and Go Cotswolds cannot be held responsible for any loss, theft or damage. [Back to top]
Generally speaking, no! Between Easter and September, our bestselling Cotswolds in a Day tour is backed by our TourSure Guarantee. This is our pinky-promise to you that we’ll never cancel a tour due to low numbers of bookings – even if you’re the only one!
Outside of the TourSure Guarantee window, and for all other Go Cotswolds tours, we might ask if you can move to a different date or a different tour. If you can’t switch tours, we will issue a full refund for the tour.
You can read more about our TourSure Guarantee here. [Back to top]
With the exception of registered guide/assistance dogs, we do not allow dogs or other pets on our vehicles. This is for the safety, comfort and enjoyment of our other guests and staff.
Hound & Hoof is a local company which provides a fantastic pet-sitting and walking service. If you have pets with you, but would like to join a tour with us, we recommend you give them a call. They’re based in Chipping Campden and cover the northern Cotswolds.
Yes! For our small group tours, we offer free collection from Stratford-upon-Avon and Moreton-in-Marsh. We are more than happy to pick you up at one of these locations, and drop you off at another. If you need to bring luggage, no problem! We have a large luggage compartment to store your bags during the tour. [Back to top]
Tips and gratuities are not included in the price of your tour.
As we say here in the UK, tips are “always appreciated, but never expected”. At Go Cotswolds, we pay our guides well and consider them part of our family business, so they don’t rely on tips to make a living. Our guides won’t be offended if you don’t tip, but if you enjoyed your tour, then of course a tip to show your appreciation will always be welcomed!
If you would like to tip your guide but don’t have any cash, you can use our online tipping platform at ‘Buy Me A Coffee‘. If you would like your tip to go to a specific person, then please mention their name in your message, otherwise tips will be shared between the members of our small team.
Please note, when you book one of our tours on our website, you will have the option to add a donation to the Caring for the Cotswolds scheme. This is a charitable donation, which we match-fund and send to the Cotswolds National Landscape to fund conservation and heritage projects in the Cotswolds. It is not a tip or gratuity. [Back to top]
Our Cotswolds in a Day, Secret Cotswolds, Bath & Southern Cotswolds and Cotswolds Walks & Villages tours all start at 08.50 at Stratford-upon-Avon, and 09.30 at Moreton-in-Marsh.
Please note: your ticket may show a start time of 08.50, regardless of which pick up point you have selected. However, if you have selected our Moreton-in-Marsh pick up point, the departure time there is 09.30. Apologies for this confusion, it’s a quirk of our booking system we haven’t figured out yet!
Our Cotswolds in a Day, Secret Cotswolds and Cotswolds Walks & Villages tours end at approximately 17.00 at Moreton-in-Marsh, and at approximately 17.30 at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Although we often arrive at Moreton-in-Marsh in time for the London/Oxford-bound train departing just before 17.00, we cannot guarantee to return by these times. There are many factors that might cause us to be delayed, including traffic, diversions, weather, late passengers and getting stuck behind a tractor on a narrow country lane! Likewise, if there is very little traffic and the tour has flowed smoothly, we may arrive at Moreton-in-Marsh a little early, but we’ll always give you as much time at each stop as possible.
If you are travelling by train after the tour, we recommend you book a flexible train ticket that allows you to take any return train, and/or plan to depart from Moreton-in-Marsh after 17.00, or Stratford-upon-Avon after 17.30.
Our Bath & Southern Cotswolds tour is a slightly longer tour. This tour departs from Stratford-upon-Avon at 08.50, and from Moreton-in-Marsh at 09.30, but returns to Moreton-in-Marsh by 17.30, and to Stratford-upon-Avon by 18.00. The duration of this tour reflects the further driving distance required to reach Bath.
Take a train from Birmingham Snow Hill or Birmingham Moor Street to Stratford-upon-Avon train station (note: NOT Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway station!).
Our pick up point at Shakespeare’s Birthplace Coach Terminal is less than a 10 minute walk from Stratford-upon-Avon train station (click here for walking directions on Google Maps). Please ensure you take a train that gives you enough time to walk from the station to the Coach Terminal in time for the tour departure time.
Please note: on Sundays, there are no trains which arrive at Stratford-upon-Avon in time for our tour departure time, so please use alternative transport (realistically, a taxi or your own car).
Return: Our small group tours return to Stratford-upon-Avon by 17.30 (18.00 for the Bath & Southern Cotswolds tour). To travel to Birmingham by train after the tour, we recommend you choose a train which departs after 17.30 (or after 18.15 for the Bath & Southern Cotswolds tour), and don’t forget to take the walk to the station into account.
Take a direct train from London Paddington, Reading or Oxford stations to Moreton-in-Marsh station.
Our pick up point is right outside Moreton-in-Marsh station, and it will only take 1-2 minutes to walk from the train to the car park out front, which is where your guide will meet you.
Return: Our small group tours return to Moreton-in-Marsh by 17.00 (17.30 for the Bath & Southern Cotswolds tour). To travel to Oxford/Reading/London by train after the tour, we recommend you either book a flexible ‘anytime’ ticket, which allows you to take any train. If you prefer to take advantage of the cheaper but non-flexible ‘advance single’ tickets, then choose a train which departs after 17.00 (or after 17.30 for the Bath & Southern Cotswolds tour).
To plan UK rail journeys and purchase train tickets online, we recommend The Trainline*.
To find out how to reach London Paddington station from your location in central London, use the Transport for London Journey Planner or the ‘TFL Go’ mobile phone app.
If there is planned rail engineering work which may affect Go Cotswolds guests, we will update this page. If a rail strike is announced, we will update this page. As a courtesy to our tour guests, we will endeavour to contact affected passengers to make you aware of the problem and provide alternative options where possible.
For general UK train travel advice, we recommend the UK Train Travel Tips Facebook group, run by our good friends at UK Travel Planning.
If we receive any cancellations or open up extra availability for this tour, then you will receive an automatic email notification with an invitation to book on a first-come first-served basis. [Back to top]
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