Skip to content

Cotswold WayPlanning3 min read

Where to stay on the Cotswold Way, night by night

Nine days, eight nights, and places to stay at every one of them. The thinnest night is Petty France; the harder question is for anyone hoping to hostel.

By Tom Spencer ·

The planner's default split for the Cotswold Way is nine days, from Chipping Campden to Bath. That makes eight nights on the way, and on this trail every one of them has at least three places listed nearby.

Two lists are counted below. The first is the National Trail's own accommodation list, read 23 September 2026: 246 places, 226 of which we could place by postcode. For each night we count the places on it within 2.5 km of the stop. The second is OpenStreetMap, read 19 September 2026. Neither is a booking check: a place on a list is not a room on your night, and we have not phoned anyone.

Places on the Trail's list
226
placed by postcode, of 246
Most on one night
14
listed near Painswick
Hostels on the list
3
two of them in Bath

Night by night

In the planner's nine-day split, with a bed and breakfast each night:

  • Night 1, Stanton (10.4 miles from Chipping Campden). Six places on the list, three of them within 0.1 km: The Old Cider Press, Old Post House and Shenberrow Hill.
  • Night 2, Langley (12 miles). Six on the list, among them Postlip Hall Farm and The Trieste, both 0.2 km off the path, and Cleeve Hill Hotel.
  • Night 3, Coberley (9.8 miles). Four on the list: Seven Springs Holiday Cottages at 0.2 km, then Cowley Manor and a lodge 2.5 km away.
  • Night 4, Painswick (14.8 miles, the longest day). Fourteen on the list, the most of any night: St Michael's, Cardynham House and Court House Manor are all within 0.1 km.
  • Night 5, King's Stanley (9.2 miles). Eight on the list, the nearest Manor Farm Annex, Orchardene and The Grey Cottage.
  • Night 6, by the Tyndale Monument (12.6 miles). Nine on the list, the nearest The Black Horse Inn at North Nibley, 0.3 km off the path.
  • Night 7, Petty France (10.7 miles). Three on the list, and the stop is 1.2 km off the path: The Fox Inn at 1.2 km and Bodkin House Hotel at 1.3 km. The thinnest night: book it first.
  • Night 8, Pennsylvania (12.2 miles). Four on the list: The Old Swan Holiday Lets by the path, and two farms 1.6 km away at Cold Ashton and Toghill.

Day 9 is 11 miles into Bath.

If Petty France is full, the planner will move the night: change the number of days, or open a day and pick another stop, and it shows what is listed near the new one.

Hostels

The Trail's list has three places it calls hostels, and two of them are in Bath, at the finish: YHA Bath and a St Christopher's. The third is YHA Cotswolds, in Cirencester. With the planner set to hostels, it finds none within reach of seven of the eight nights and falls back to B&Bs and inns for them. A hostel walker on the Cotswold Way needs B&Bs for most of it.

What the lists will not tell you

Whether a place takes one-night stays at weekends, has single rooms, takes dogs or will take a bag from a luggage transfer: none of it is on either list, and we have not asked. Those are the questions to ask when you book. The planner's day cards count each night's places on both lists, and its booking checklist puts the thinnest nights at the top.

Build your walkCotswold Way in 9 days103 mi · about 11 miles a dayOpen the planner →

Now make it yours.

The planner splits the Cotswold Way into days that fit the time you have, with the trains at each end. Free, no account.

Build your walk

Related