It was a very rainy day when we took this tour, but the food, scenery and wonderful tour guides…read moremade up for it in a big way! This was the perfect combination of activities and just the right size for a tour. We had an informative and very fun day. For anyone thinking about touring in the Cotswolds, this tour is a 'no brainer'!

If you like cottages, English villages, countryside and history, this is the "must" tour for you!…read moreOur guides Robin and Charlottes, were wonderful and charming, driving us around and providing so much insightful information regarding past and present intelligence on history of different villages and cottages. Our base location, the "Secret Cottage" property is darling and a dream setting! The food and beverages coordinator Chrissy, is the most gracious and kind host! We were served three meals: Late continental breakfast, huge lunch and afternoon sweets/tea. This is a great way to spend the afternoon in the countryside, a hour away from London! Book this tour! It is seriously worth it! If you see Robin the guide, tell him that Gary, the "American" sent you!

I did a lot of research when picking a private tour company and went with this one because of the…read moremix of well-known spots and off the beaten tiny villages you would never know about if you were on a big tour company. Prior to the trip, Lucy was so helpful navigating my train ride from London with the strikes and bridge closures. We did the Ultimate Cotswolds Tour (8 hrs) and loved it. The tour was seamless and every little detail was thought out including little maps at each village and even taking us to an extra spot because we had a little extra time. Richard is an excellent driver which is crucial navigating the backroads!

If you are looking for a great trip through the Cotswolds, look no further…read more We happened upon Cotswolds Guided Tours on Trip Advisor and are glad we did. Right from the get go Lucy was very helpful in getting our trip booked. She opened up a tour as they didn't have one scheduled. We were met by Richard in front of our hotel promptly at our meeting time. We had a total in our group of 7 people and fit perfectly in their comfortable van. Richard used a microphone in the van so that we all could hear his narrative. He was very insightful and knowledgeable of the area and was able to answer all of our questions. We had ample time at each stop and he even walked along a bit and offered to take pictures at all the key photo spots. We had a wonderful time and would highly recommend the tour if you happen to be in The Cotswolds on vacation or a day trip from London.

What: 3 hour private tour of Oxford University. We were interested in a campus tour of Oxford…read moreUniversity and since Oxford doesn't offer that and there is no actual "campus" since it's made up of multiple schools and buildings, we did the next best thing. Arron was our guide and he was extremely knowledgeable, funny and full of stories and interesting insights on college life and the application process as he is a current student. We highly recommend this company!

"It takes one to know one"…read more That playground taunt easily applies to my experience with Footprints Tours, an organization through which you can make advance reservations for free walking tours of Oxford. Why? Because I, too, lead a free walking tour albeit elsewhere on the planet. As someone who leads tours and cares greatly about tour quality I recognize a great tour when I come upon one. Chris, my Footprints Tour guide provided exactly that. He was animated, interesting, kept things moving, and told interesting stories. A couple of days later I saw another guide leading a tour - assumedly from a different company - and after hearing what he said at a particular stop all I could think was "I'm so glad we went with Footprints and so glad Chris was our guide". The tours are supposed to run 2 hours. Chris went a bit over which was my sole criticism of the tour. Attention spans are short and that two hour maximum is at the outer edge of how long people will engage for. Assuming you book with Footprints Tours you'll arrive at the stated location and find a ton of tour guides assembled. But walk into the Oxford Tourist Information Center to check in and they'll promptly tell you which guide you are assigned to. People who lead these free tours do conclude with an "ask". That is: a donation is sought and assuming Chris' tour is the standard, it is definitely earned. I understand the worth of someone talking - actually, "performing" - for two hours and I happily made what I felt was a generous cash donation. You'll likely be inspired as well. After I'd booked my free Footprints Tour I had begun to think perhaps a paid tour would be better and momentarily thought of canceling. I'm so pleased that I didn't. The Footprints Tour led by Chris (on June 22) would be quite difficult for anyone to top. Excellent.

Let me start by saying the Cotswolds are absolutely beautiful. Our guide Steve, went the extra…read moremile to make sure that we had a good time and answered all of our questions. Steve was the most knowledgeable since he lives in the village. He was personable and helpful. I would highly recommend this tour. I would recommend this tour to family and friends, and ask for Steve.

Our family recently completed a 2.5-day private tour of the Cotswolds with Dave, and we highly…read morerecommend him and the entire Go Cotswolds team! From initial outreach to planning/booking to the trip itself, our 8-person group had a fantastic time, and loved our experience in various villages of the North Cotswolds plus Castle Combe and Bath. Lisa was incredibly helpful throughout the planning process, helping us to shape a multi-day tour for our family. She was highly responsive and communicated clearly in answering our questions and helping us consider the options. Once we arrived in the Cotswolds, Dave provided an amazing experience for our multi-day tour. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and funny throughout the tour, and provided excellent advice on when to rearrange the itinerary to get us to popular spots before they were overrun with people. We greatly appreciated his expertise and flexibility in adjusting the plan as we went to let us spend more or less time in spots based on our preferences -- which, given our family, was necessary more than once, and a huge bonus to a private tour vs. public tour. The Go Cotswolds vehicle was roomy, comfortable, and well-air conditioned, a plus given that we arrived mid-heat wave. Our tour was the perfect way to explore this beautiful region for the first time. We can't wait to come back!

A bit has changed since my last experience with Mad Max Tours, including a much more limited…read moreoffering. There are three tours to choose from now: Tour 1 (I have not done [because I've seen them all before]): a tour of Stonehenge, a walk in Castle Combe Village, a photo stop at Cherhill White Horse, a visit to the Avebury Stone Circles, a photo stop at Silbury Hill, lunch at Lacock National Trust village. Tour 2 (I recently did): The Cotswold Villages Experience which includes very accessible and highly informative visits/walks through Castle Combe Village, Bibury & Arlington Row, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-On-The-Wold, as well as Malmesbury Abbey & Market Cross. Get ready to be absolutely immersed in the Cotswolds! While our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about the area (we learned so many interesting things!) and thoughtful of bio breaks, we felt the day could have been paced better. We were rushed at Bourton-on-the-Water and Malmesbury Abbey; but, we had *far too much* time at both Stow-on-the-Wold (all fourteen of us ended up standing on the street for forty minutes or so waiting for our guide to show back up; that being said, you should absolutely take Mad Max's recommendation to get lunch at Cotswolds Baguettes and eat them near the church with the famous Yew trees!), and - maybe because our tour guide had a personal connection to it - Arlington Row, where we spent a very, very long time standing in front of people's houses. Tour 3 (I have not done): special access to Stonehenge. I do LOVE these kinds of (almost) all-inclusive tours; they take away the anxiety of needing to drive or come up with an itinerary. They also allow you to truly take in the incredible scenery from comfortable small buses that navigate lots of back roads expertly! I just found this particular tour to be a little less personal than when I first visited a few years back (and compared to our experiences with the Heart of Scotland tours out of Edinburgh) AND I'm missing the more varied selection of tours they used to offer as well.

We did the Cotswold tour 8/23/24…read more Scenery wise the tour was interesting, transiting through the lovely and history rich Cotswolds villages. Lunch however was a disaster. After being told, numerous times, told NOT to eat Lunch in Bourton and wait for Stow-On-The-Wold for a sumptuous lunch, we arrived in Stow to find every single pub closed, many for 3-4 days. We wound up having a lunch in a pasty shop that was, as a British Baking Show would call it "Not Worth the Calories. What I don't understand is that the same tour came here 2 days ago so why did they not forward this information? We could of had a lovely lunch in Bourton.

Preface: A couple of the one-star reviews on Google were very unfair to Lion Tours. One of the…read morereviewers clearly never went on the tour (writing on behalf of others) and the other reviewer was merely repeating the former reviewer's review. It seems that the only person "lacking variety" is the latter reviewer. I usually don't call out other reviewers but something had to be said before someone stepped on either of these landmines. Now, on with the review. Paul was the greatest tour guide in the history of tour guides... maybe ever. He was incredibly knowledgeable about the surrounding area and we were completely blown away by his attention to detail. Did you know that Thomas the Tank Engine was conceived on this route? Wild! Paul knew. He also accompanied us to Stonehenge itself and gave us an in-person walk-through of the site, which I hear the competition doesn't do. The other tours just drop you off and wait in the cafe for you to be done. A bit impersonal if you ask me. Paul even keeps spare rain jackets in case you didn't bring one to the Henge. What a saint. Need recommendations for what to do in Bath? Surprise, Paul's got them. If the other tours are Bieber and Swift albums, then Lion Tours would have to be Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill, an absolute classic. Would book again!

We toured Stonehenge, Avebury, Lalock and Castle Combe. Paul was knowledgeable about the area and…read moreprovided us a unique and personal experience. He provided a special tour in Castle Combe that others could not show! We had a great day and recommend this tour

We had a private tour with Simon Whittaker to a small portion of the Cotswolds. Not only was he…read moreprompt for our pick up he was full of historical information about the whole area. We were able to see and walk through a few villages and really see what makes this area a wonder. Not to mention many of the villages we visited were used in filming a lot of television and movie productions. We were able to stop and have a coffee at an historical hotel and lunch at a lovely spot far from the beaten path. Very enlightening! Simon was very personable. I highly recommend a tour with this Company and with Simon.

We hired Simon to give us a private 2 day tour of Bath, Stonehenge and the surrounding area. He was…read moreexcellent; helpful, knowledgeable, organized and with the sweetest disposition. He picked us up at the Bath train station and took us straight to Stonehenge. From there we did a half day walking tour of Bath. The next day he took us to Lacock to show our kids all the Harry Potter filming locations, not to be missed if you're a HP fan! Then he drove us through a few quaint villages on our journey to Highclere Castle to live out our Downton Abbey fantasy. He even found a way to surprise us with a stop at Avebury on the way! We had the best time with Simon and learned a lot, but he also taught us there is so much more to see! We'll be back again one day and will definitely be sure to hook up with Simon again.

So this guy who's dressed like Willy Wonka had ripped off late-period Elvis' sideburns, lets you…read morefollow him around Bath for a couple of hours. And he's a good magician and an even better comedian. And he walks you around to see all the major town center sights, without ever discussing what they are, who built them, or how they used them. And he locks up one of your group in a stockade...and drowns a stuffed animal. And you pay him for that. That would be bizarre. In fact that is bizarre bath. And it's a hilariously good time. I highly recommend you spend an evening getting bizarre with them By the way, it's completely okay for pre-teens, which was a key question we had before going. A few racier jokes, still pretty tame, went over their heads.

The best English tour I've taken! The "Comedy Tour Walk" is an excellent description because he was…read morethe most hilarious tour guide ever! I can't write a detailed review because I feel it would give spoilers for the show. What I can do is give you peace of mind if it's worth going---IT IS! Is it hilarious? YES! Is it a breath of fresh air from the oppressive stuffiness of formal tours? YES! Will you leave happier and with good memories? YES! The guide basically took us around the historic area and just made fun of everything and included a lot of extremely over-the-top magic tricks as well! Is the finale of the show so incredible your jaw will drop? YES!

I am pleased to do the first Yelp review for this tour! We…read morewere picked up at the agreed upon time/place by Graham. The van was a Vauxhall van with plenty of room. He is a friendly guy, and we were immediately put at ease. He showed us a couple places around Oxford to get our bearings and then off we went! Blenheim Castle was our first stop. It was jam packed that day because of a car show, but it was an added bonus to see all the vintage Rolls, Ferraris, and a lot of other cars. Gorgeous vehicles! The castle itself is stunning, and the Churchill memorabilia is very interesting. Graham knew all the stories behind the estate, and pointed out the things of interest. We also took a short walk around the grounds because it was a beautiful day. Then he took us to some nearby village for lunch. Best meal of the whole vacay! Afterwards, we drove to the Cotswolds and walked amongst the thatched houses. From there, he took us to another village where we got some candy and then we headed for home. He was very amenable to our schedule, very easy going, and knows the area well. We had such an enjoyable day letting him do all the driving. I highly recommend this tour!

From the owner: At Undiscovered Cotswolds we offer small group tours and private tours of the Cotswolds and…read moresurrounding areas including Bath, Stonehenge, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and more