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The Cotswold Way is a stunning 102-mile national hiking trail in England. It’s filled with expansive views, ancient landmarks, gorgeous farmland, countless sheep, slow sunsets, and quiet, flower-covered woodlands. It’s as magical as you think it is. But I know from experience that planning a 102-mile hike, especially when you live in an entirely different country like I do, sounds nearly impossible. When I first mentioned to my husband that I wanted to hike the Cotswold Way, it felt like a distant dream. Was I ever really going to go on the hike? Or was it just a pipe dream? I had told myself that I would do the hike before I turned 40. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I needed 10 days of peace and quiet. 10 days in nature to organize my thoughts. 10 days of weather, animals, flowers, and all of the natural beauties of life. I just wanted to get away, and this hike felt like exactly what I needed. So, instead of waiting until I was 39, I decided to go ahead and plan the hike at the ripe ole age of 36. Not to mention, a hike that didn’t include sleeping in a tent every night? A warm shower at the end of every day? Sounded like my kind of hike!
Now, my main problem became how do I plan a hike like this? Where do I begin? I had never gone on a long distance hike in my entire life. Heck, I’d never hiked more than 6 or 7 miles in a day! I started doing research here and there but it felt so incredibly overwhelming. I read various articles and blogs of others who had completed the hike and it slowly became less overwhelming. What I did realize though, was that my procrastination was my main issue. I had bought the plane ticket months earlier when I noticed a round trip ticket on Booking.com to London from DC for only $800 each. But the hotels and planning the hiking route was daunting. When I finally booked our first hotel, I quickly realized how few hotels there were in each town. I ended up staying up until 2 am in the morning, booking all of our hotels at once. I had waited too long. Some of the hotels only had one room left, and I was frantically opening tabs on my computer and checking dates to make sure I had done everything in the correct order. So, don’t make the same mistake I made. Book your hotels as early as you can! The towns you will hike through truly are in the middle of nowhere and in some cases, there are only two or three hotels to choose from. Not to mention, you want to make sure you get a hotel that’s near the trail, otherwise you’re adding miles and miles of hiking for yourself, unless you decide to take a taxi or uber. I’ll actually be sharing a full blog post soon with reviews of each of the hotels we stayed in, so you can get a better idea of what to expect!
The only way to keep everything organized was to create a google doc as I was planning, to make sure I didn’t book my hotels out of order, or accidentally book the wrong date. But as my google doc became longer and longer, I realized it might be helpful for other travelers who are also planning to hike the Cotswold Way. I added in some hiking tips, restaurant recommendations, packing lists, and everything that I could think of so that it might feel a little less intimidating for someone else. So, I wanted to share this with you, just in case it helps. I promise you, once you dive in, it’s not as scary and overwhelming as you might think. Remember this; soon you’ll be in beautiful, wide open fields, saying hello to the baby lambs, smelling the carefully curated flowers, photographing the gorgeous limestone cottages, sipping on a beer in a historical english pub, and wondering why you were stressing over this. Take your time, add in a few extra days for relaxation and recovery, get your workouts in, and don’t forget to book your hotels EARLY!
If you aren’t quite ready for a 102 mile hike (totally understandable), you can live vicariously through me! I have a full video series from our hike on YouTube. Follow us along on our adventure here!
I hope this guide helps you in your planning. Feel free to leave any comments below, or ideas for ways to improve the hiking guide. I’m happy to help in any way that I can! We had such an incredible experience. I told my sister the other day that I would definitely do the whole hike again if the opportunity presented itself. It was exactly what I needed, and everything I’d hoped for (and more)! You’ll love it.
❤ Myles Katherine
C'est le Brie 