The Best Apartments in the Cotswolds, UK

An easy-going, warm country pub meets three smartly rustic, pet-friendly serviced apartments in a 250-year-old coaching inn between foodie Nailsworth and bohemian Stroud. Colour-stamped walls, exposed beams and delicate stone features create a homely feel – complete with amenities such as walk-in showers, roomy lounges, well-equipped kitchens and a shared garden. Two apartments sleep up to four, while the third is a studio. Down on the ground floor, locally sourced ingredients, including from the owners’ farm, shine at the Old Fleece pub.

Savour the Cotswold-life dream with your own luxury, honey-stone cottage near Cirencester. It’s dreamt up by the team behind uber-stylish Barnsley House, whose magical spa and Rosemary Verey-designed gardens are nearby. Welcome hampers packed with Cotswold eggs, fresh bread and Teapigs brews set the tone at Home Farm Cottage, done in soothing pastels and country-glam creams. The best of the three rooms has a roll-top bath, and log-burning fires warm the two lounges. You can have bespoke home-cooked meals delivered or dine at market-powered Potager Restaurant or the Village Pub.

Weaving between beech trees flanking a mile-long drive gives a tantalising taste of what this indulgent, 500-acre (202ha) Wiltshire estate delivers. Three stone-built cottages – all dog-friendly – for six or eight people dot the grounds. You’ll arrive to welcome hampers, including champagne and Cotswold-sourced treats, and each cottage overlooks private gardens. Perhaps most tempting is the four-room Squire’s Cottage, where three rooms have ensuites with bathtubs. In the resplendent main 18th-century mansion, superb, contemporary British cooking, a kids’ club and a bijou spa await you.

You’re in the thick of the northern Cotswolds here, in the ancient hilltop market town of Stow-on-the-Wold. A gold-washed 17th-century former coaching inn hosts the Unicorn’s nine individually styled apartsuites, which sit on the first and second floors. Most have two bedrooms and a lounge, while there are also two one-room pads. All are freshly styled with calming neutral tones, leather sofas, wooden floors and vases of flowers, and they have underfloor heating. All energy comes from alternative sources, and the on-site team delivers to-go breakfasts and tips for the local area.

A garden-fringed, stone-flagged entryway casts the romantic scene for a pet-friendly Grade II-listed cottage in lively Moreton-in-Marsh. Original features such as wooden beams and a stone-built fireplace add historical charm to the warm, crisply designed interior with velvet sofas, stylish bed throws and colour-popping feature walls. There are three double rooms – with two extra beds available on request – including the top-floor attic-like pad with an ensuite. Outside, there’s a quiet private garden, with a barbecue for summer fun.

Awash with Cotswold stone, floral prints, exposed beams and oak floors, the intimate, adults-only two-bedroom Briar Cottage stands in Blockley village, known for its 18th- and 19th-century silk industry. Old-style country charm reigns here, with a snug, fully equipped kitchen leading to an armchair-filled lounge, and two light-flooded, ensuite bedrooms upstairs. Relax around the original fireplace or on the leafy patio, and if you want to explore the surrounding area, Broadway, Chipping Campden, Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold are just a quick drive away.

This teal-trimmed, honey-gold, barn-style cottage for eight is hidden on the 550-acre (223ha) Lower Mill Estate Nature Reserve just outside Cirencester. Top pick is the king-size room with a Juliette balcony and a whirlpool bath. Another double overlooks water gardens, with a suntrap terrace, and the bright open-plan kitchen-living space has a fireplace. With two bunk-bed rooms, plus walking trails, yoga and water sports on the doorstep, Cornerstone is perfect for families. Stays include access to the nearby spa, and you can even book a private chef.

Though not quite in the Cotswolds, you’ll spy those meandering AONB hills from the cosy, pet-friendly Stable Apartment, in the former coach house of a protected 19th-century property on the Forest of Dean’s southern fringes. Leather sofas and tartan rugs adorn the area around a fireplace in the open-plan kitchen-lounge, off which are two bedrooms – one with a king-size bed and one with two singles. On-the-doorstep fun ranges from Clearwell Caves to kayaking down the Wye; Gloucester is 30 minutes away and Cheltenham just under an hour.