Long Green

You'll find just a cluster of stone cottages and farmland here, but it's an excellent base if you're hiking sections of the trail or exploring the area on foot.

The real draw is the walking itself. The Cotswold Way passes directly through, so you can join it for a morning ramble or tackle longer stretches heading north toward Chipping Campden or south toward Bath. Since the trail gained National Trail status in 2007, several new footpaths have been added and the walking infrastructure is kept to a good standard. The escarpment views genuinely reward the effort, especially on clear days when visibility stretches across the valleys and rolling farmland.

Long Green itself doesn't offer much beyond the landscape and a sense of peace. It's really a place to pass through rather than settle for hours, though if you fancy a picnic among the fields, it works perfectly well for that. The nearest substantial town is Winchcombe to the west, with Cheltenham and Gloucester further on, where you'll find shops, cafes, and accommodation. Most people come here specifically for the walking, so it's ideal if the Cotswold Way is your main focus during a visit.