Dog-Friendly Weekends: Cotswolds(Travel Guide): 25 breaks for you and your dog 2026

PRE-ORDER - DUE 19TH JUNE2026

The Cotswolds has endless appeal for any traveller thanks to its handsome golden-hued villages and beautiful bucolic scenery. But for dog owners, it’s an especially enchanting landscape. Rolling hills criss-crossed by well-marked footpaths, including a National Trail, make this prime walking country, and with a healthy smattering of incredible dog-friendly pubs and hotels across the region, it’s the perfect destination for an outdoorsy break with your pet. It's not all about walking here, though – the towns and villages in the Cotswolds are home to as many dogs as visitors bring in, and so shops and restaurants cater well for the canine-accompanied. There are also myriad attractions that welcome dogs alongside us, from museums like the Tetbury Police Museum or Cotswold Motoring Museum in Bourton-on-the-Water, to the likes of Cotswold Farm Park and Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens. Adventurous activities abound, too, like canoeing on the Thames or pedalo-ing at the Cotswold Water Park, and cultural highlights include castles, ancient 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: there’s Oxford, home of literary greats, to the southeast, Bristol and Bath at the southern end of the region, and Gloucester, Cheltenham and Worcester at the northwest reaches. Stratford-upon-Avon also sits on the fringes of the Cotswolds, offering excursions into Shakespeare’s world and meanders down the river.