What can you do at the Cotswold Water Park? What can’t you do? Watersports such as wakeboarding and windsurfing are just the start. Pick from cycling, trekking, aerial adventure, angling, horse-riding and wilderness skills. Or meet meerkats, giraffes and Humboldt penguins at the Cotswold Wildlife Park.
Bird fan? You need Birdland. There are over 500 of them on site, including owls, cassowary, flamingos, pelicans, cranes and waterfowl. Or see rare birds in the wetlands at Slimbridge, including Bewick’s swans, white-fronted geese, lapwing, water rail and curlew.
Come back down to Earth with land-lubbing animals at Cattle Country Farm Park plus a farm trail, outdoor play, sheep racing, and tractor rides. Refresh in the Graze café. Chill out at Gloucester Ski and Snowboard Centre, with guaranteed year-round snow. Or ride the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, complete with fish and chips.
Lose a few bonkers hours at Mr Mulligan’s in Cheltenham, home to the craziest golf, electro-darts, pool, ping-pong, shuffleboard and incredible arcade games. Escape from the Dragonfly Maze at Bourton-on-the-Water, or stay in town to marvel at the one-ninth scale, grade II-listed model village.
Dive deep into history with trips out to national treasures such as Sudeley Castle, Hailes Abbey and Chedworth Roman Villa. Marvel at the beauty of Gloucester Cathedral and persuade the kids to come along with the Harry Potter Trail. Or shop the chic boutiques and dive into stylish eats in Cheltenham’s Montpellier district.
Come in March for the Cheltenham racing festival, or in summer for Gloucestershire cricket. Bring your bag of clubs for golf at Hilton Puckrup Hall, a course of Gentle undulations, lakes and mature trees, or play the ‘mini Gleneagles’, Tewkesbury Park, a stunning parkland course with panoramic views and water features.
Lace up your boots for an assault on Broadway Tower, home of The Cotswolds’ highest castle, and meet the deer and shop in the Tower Barn. Climb Bredon Hill from the doorstep and refuel in The Crown, or walk sections of the Cotswold Way. Or fish the River Avon in Evesham for bream, chub, roach and pike.
Try stand-up paddleboarding, sailing, windsurfing or powerboating at Croft Farm Waterpark. Ramp up the culture at the Everyman Theatre in Gloucester, serving the county since 1891. Here in autumn? Catch the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the world’s first, with the best new voices in fiction and poetry alongside literary greats.
No need to get your coat on. Your brood can enjoy plenty of activities from the hen house. Sign up for pottery and print-making with Kite Studios, yoga, flower arranging, massage, or wine tasting with Ledbury Wines. That’s on top of the covered, heated pool, four-person hot tub and sauna.
Work your body while climbing the walls at Boulders in Cheltenham. Stay in town to knock the pins down at Hollywood Bowl. Recover with pampering in the three treatment rooms at Devine Beauty in Tewkesbury, offering facials, body treatments, electrolysis, eyes and brows, and waxing.
Head out for wine with a tasting at Three Choirs Vineyards. Fancy beer Pilates, axe throwing or shooting? Head out to Hillside Brewery. Get the Salsa Squad in Cheltenham to teach you how to throw pro shapes. Or mix it up at The Cotswolds Distillery complete with complimentary cloudy G and T.
Head into Cheltenham for the buzz and the bars. Kick off in Montpellier with 150 gins to choose from at John Gordon’s or fruit beer at Circus Bar. Bar 50 has a little something for everyone. Chuck some shapes at MooMoo Clubrooms with cannons and lasers, and wind up at 21 Club with its five individual bars and swanky roof terrace.
