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.

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.