10 Best Things to Do for Couples in the Cotswolds

Blenheim Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that offers the chance to see a lavish palace from the 17th century situated on the stunning parkland in Oxfordshire. The palace sits right on the border of the Cotswolds National Park and is still furnished and decorated exactly as it was many centuries ago. Inside you’ll find lavishly furnished and ornately decorated rooms with authentic paintings. Outside you can explore formal gardens and spend hours exploring ancient woodland.

In the spring, the palace is known for the stunning fields of bluebells that erupt into bloom. The entire site is full of romance, and you can get lost in the grandeur, whether inside or exploring the grounds.

The Thermae Bath Spa on the southern edge of the Cotswolds offers an old Roman bath with natural thermal water (a hot spring) with a rooftop view of the entire city. The town is also called Bath and is considered one of the prettiest cities in the UK. From the rooftop pool, you will see a sprawling landscape of rolling green hills.

Romance in the Cotswolds can quickly start with the Thermae Bath Spa and continue into the greater city below, where it’s easy to get immersed in rich history and scenery. Just steps away lie dozens of elegant indie coffee shops and cafes and secret side alleys filled with boutiques and gift shops.

Copse Hill Road in Lower Slaughter allows you to walk or ride a scenic roadway through a delightful, charming ancient village filled with quaint cottages and quiet history. A stroll down this road is like taking a walk back in time. The street was once voted the ‘most romantic street in Britain’ on a poll of over 20,000 people. It offers not only a romantic ambience, but restaurants, hotels, stunning views and plenty of opportunities for secluded getaways.

On a trip down this mountain road, you will see a historic church, a centuries-old mill and museum, and lots of small shops, cottages and inns to explore and photograph. A footbridge will also allow you to traverse a scenic stream.

Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe offers award-winning formal gardens, immaculately-restored castle rooms, romantic medieval ruins, and plenty of photogenic opportunities so you can become the highlight of your Instagram feed. Among the more popular parts of the castle and grounds are the 15th-century west wing, where you’ll find the anterooms of Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII. Her gravesite is also within the castle grounds.

Henry’s wives' legacy carries through beyond the castle walls and ruins to the 10 formal gardens, which include the famous Queen’s Gardens with their original Tudor Parterre. Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, Katherine Parr and Queen Elizabeth I enjoyed the grounds here.

Batsford Arboretum just outside Moreton-in-Marsh offers botanical displays all year with colourful blooms in the spring and brilliant foliage in the autumn spread over 20 hectares of land. You can easily spend an entire day exploring the fields, forests, streams and flora here. If you enjoy exotic trees and shrubs, you’ll see more than 2,850 specimens of plant life which change continuously as the seasons shift, from the bright white, pink and floral shades of spring to the brilliant orange, brown and yellow of autumn.

The garden also features a snack hut offering hot and cold drinks, cakes, snacks and light lunches while you explore. Picnics can occur around the car parks but not within the arboretum itself.

National Trust – Chedworth Roman Villa offers the chance to see and explore Britain’s Roman past up close and personal with spectacular mosaics, restored buildings and stunning sites. The villa is famed for its mosaics, particularly the one in the dining room, representing the 4 seasons. You will also witness an old flushing toilet, the height of luxury in the Roman era. The West Range bath suite showcases the look of a traditional bath house. You can also see a place where Christianity displaced the water spirits of the Nymphaeum around the 4th century CE.

Around the villa, you’ll find picnic benches and seating offering astonishing countryside views. After you explore, stop at the Victorian Museum for thousands of years of artefacts.

The Cotswold Way is a series of hiking trails that look at the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with rolling hills, sprawling pastures and dramatic escarpments. The network of trails covers over 100 miles through iconic English countryside regions, from Chipping Campden to Bath. You will pass quaint ancient villages, properties on the National Trust, medieval manor houses and neolithic sites of standing stones and monuments.

You’ll see the source of the River Thames, ancient burial sites, castles, churches and spectacular views of the countryside, no matter what season of the year you choose to travel. This has been a promoted long-distance hike for over 50 years and today is a National Trail.

The River Thames in Lechlade allows you to see the eastern side of the Cotswolds from a canoe on a scenic ride down an iconic part of the river. You can hire a canoe boat and share the duties of paddling together, or you can relax while your loved one ferries you along the waters.

The countryside and skyline of the town are both striking and many people, after winding their way along the shores in a boat, decide to head back and explore the town on foot. Along the town’s shoreline and within the town itself, you’ll find plenty of quaint shops, lovely cafes and restaurants, with lots of opportunities for a date night.

The Wild Rabbit in Kingham is part of a sustainable organic farm in Gloucestershire called the Daylesford Estate and offers delicious farm-to-table food in contemporary surroundings. You’ll enjoy a brightly-illuminated dining room with wildflower centrepieces on the tables and an open design so you can watch the chefs perform their artistry. Most of the menu items are hand-picked from the local market garden or are sustainably sourced from local farmers across the Cotswolds.

If you’re the type who reveres the idea of going green, you’ll love the food at the Wild Rabbit. The menu is seasonal, and the look is that of a classic stone old-world public house.

The Mount Inn Stanton is one of the only pubs in this small village and is considered by many as the spot to gather, eat and drink. The deck area on the hillside outside the pub offers spectacular views for just about any date night, especially if you’re visiting at dusk as the sun sinks below the horizon and shots rays of pink, orange, yellow and purple through the sky. Even better, this historic stone public house dates to the 17th century.

If the weather is cold and the hillside views aren’t an option, the main bar area is just as enchanting. It offers a huge Inglenook fireplace with a crackling blaze to snuggle before.