The Cotswolds has endless appeal for any traveller thanks to its handsome, golden-hued villages and bucolic landscapes. But for dog owners, it is especially enchanting.

Rolling hills criss-crossed by well-marked footpaths, including the 102-mile-long Cotswolds Way National Trail, make this prime walking country, and with a healthy smattering of incredible dog-friendly pubs and hotels across the region, it is the perfect destination for a fresh-air-filled break with your pet.

It’s not all about walking here, though – the Cotswolds’ beautiful towns and villages are home to as many dogs as visitors bring, so shops and restaurants cater well for the canine-accompanied.

There are also myriad attractions that welcome dogs alongside people, from the Cotswold Motoring Museum, duck race and river football match in Bourton-on-the-Water to Cotswold Farm Park and steam trains.

Energetic activities abound too, from canoeing on the River Thames to propelling a pedalo around the Cotswold Water Park, while cultural highlights include castles, Neolithic stone circles and Roman remains.

Beyond the boundaries of this much-loved National Landscape are some of the UK’s most exciting urban centres, which are perfect for rainy days, cultural enrichment or fine dining.

There’s Oxford, home of literary greats, to the southeast, Bristol and Bath in the south, and Gloucester, Cheltenham and Worcester in the northwest. Stratford-upon-Avon also sits on the fringes of the Cotswolds, offering excursions into Shakespeare’s world to complement meanders along its river.

The 25 ideas are complemented by assessments of accommodation options: to research this book, the author personally tested the dog-friendliness of hundreds of places to stay.

With suggestions to help dog owners be more responsible travellers in the Cotswolds, where wildlife and ecology are fragile and livestock is precious, the new Bradt Dog-Friendly Weekends Cotswolds Guidebook is the perfect source of advice for dog lovers seeking to explore this charming region.

Contents

1 Bath
2 Bristol
3 Corsham, Castle Combe & Lacock
4 Malmesbury
5 Tetbury
6 Wootton-under-Edge
7 Lechlade
8 Cirencester
9 Oxford
10 Stroud & Nailsworth
11 Painswick
12 Woodstock
13 Burford & Witney
14 Gloucester
15 Bourton-on-the-Water
16 Cheltenham
17 Stow-on-the-Wold
18 Chipping Norton
19 Winchcombe
20 Moreton-in-Marsh
21 Tewkesbury
22 Broadway
23 Chipping Campden
24 Stratford-upon-Avon
25 Worcester