Broadway, England - April 10th to 11th, 2025

We booked a hike and bike tour of the Cotswolds in England. The tour started and ended in the town of Moreton-in-Marsh. From Moreton, we biked to the town of Broadway where we stayed two nights and hiked while we were there. Then we cycled to Bourton-on-the-Water where we stayed two nights, hiking again during our stay. Then one last bike ride brought us back to Moreton. This post covers our two nights in Broadway along with the ride from Moreton-in-Marsh to Broadway.

Thursday we rode our rented e-bikes from Moreton-in-Marsh to Broadway. Our reserved breakfast time was 7:45 am. Keith was fighting a cold and didn’t want to be coughing around others at breakfast, so he skipped breakfast and Ann ate alone. The White Hart Royal had a wonderful selection of breakfast items. Ann opted for the Eggs Florentine along with a freshly baked croissant.

Our luggage was picked up from the reception area at 8:30 am and our bikes arrived promptly at 9 am. The person from TY Cycles walked us through all the details of our bikes. Provided with each bike was a helmet, a phone mount, a waterproof paneer bag, a small saddle bag with a tire repair kit, two bike locks, a charging cord for the bike battery, and a paper map that could be mounted instead of a phone on the handlebars.

He also mentioned that the left hand brake operates the rear brakes which is opposite to bikes in the States. That was good to know. We didn’t want to try to brake hard with the right hand and go flying over the handlebars. We also verified that bikes ride on the left on roads, with the flow of traffic, while pedestrians walk on the right, against the flow of traffic.

Before we started our ride, we walked over to the Tesco Express to buy a couple of granola bars and cough drops for Keith and to look for a new hair brush for Ann. Tesco is a major store chain in England. The Tesco Express is a convenience store while some of their other stores are similar to a Walmart with everything from groceries to electronics. However, the Tesco Express did not have hair brushes. Ann’s is falling apart, but she’ll manage for another day or two.

By the time we started our bike ride, it was almost 10:30 am. That was a rather late start considering we had over 22 miles to cover. For most of the way, we were riding on narrow country lanes. The traffic was sparse, but we needed to pay attention and pull over, if necessary, to give traffic room to pass. All of the drivers we encountered were courteous and gave us plenty of room. But it only takes one bad driver to ruin your day.

The tour company, Cotswold Walks, provided us with offline cycling routes that we could load into the Ride with GPS app. This worked out really well. The app would give clear, audible navigation instructions as we rode along. There was no need to stop and check the map. However, we still stopped and checked the map in the app when we weren’t sure about the verbal instructions. The app clearly showed our route and where we were currently along the route. It also gave an audible warning when we deviated from the route. We found we had to stop the navigation when we stopped to visit something along the way. Otherwise, it would keep warning us that we were off route.

We went through several cute little villages, including Aston Magna, Ebrington, Chipping Campden, and Snowshill. We took the spur up to see Hidcote.

Hidcote is an Arts and Crafts inspired garden, one of the National Trust properties. Instead of purchasing a one time admission of 19 pounds per person, we opted to purchase an annual National Trust joint membership for 160.80 pounds. It would take four visits to National Trust sites to break even. Even if we don’t, our donation still goes to the type of organization that we like to support. There are over 500 sites across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. There is a National Trust app that you can use to locate sites near you.

We strolled around the Hidcote gardens for about half an hour to an hour before hopping back on our bikes and continuing our ride. There was a cafe at Hidcote, but there was a long queue (line) to get in. We’re not sure how long of wait it would be, so we didn’t even try.

We stopped in Chipping Campden for lunch at the Eight Bells pub. We arrived just in time to order lunch before they closed the kitchen for the afternoon. Ann had the ciabatta sandwich with pastrami and sauerkraut while Keith had the ciabatta with cheese and a sweet chutney. We split a bucket of fries. Ann drank a draft Coke while Keith had a carbonated lemonade, similar to 7-Up. Both drinks were served with a slice of lemon, a nice touch. Ann’s sandwich was similar to a reuben without the cheese and she normally likes plenty of Thousand Island dressing on her reuben, but this ciabatta had way too much sauce on it. Keith also felt the chutney on his sandwich was too sweet for his liking.

We continued through Chipping Campden, past the old Market Hall. The Market Hall was built in 1627. We love that Europe has such a long and rich history. We stopped to take a few pictures before riding on to Broadway Tower.

Broadway Tower is not a National Trust site, so we had to pay 14 pounds each to climb up to the top of the tower. The tower was builtin 1798, commissioned by William George, the 6th Earl of Coventry. The tower was a Gothic folly as part of the Earl’s main estate of Croome Court, as a place for entertaining. On the climb up to the top, you pass by three rooms on three separate floors, decorated in the Georgian style of the 18th century. From the top of the tower, there are wonderful views of the surrounding landscape of the Cotswolds. We were fortunate that it was a clear and sunny day.

Also on the property is a deer park containing red deer and a nuclear bunker which you can see on a guided tour. The red deer were established in the park in the 1980’s. We opted to skip paying for the nuclear bunker tour. We saw some red deer, but didn’t take the time to stroll around the deer park. It was getting late and we still had more cycling to do.

We didn’t stop in Snowshill as we planned to hike there the following day. We arrived at our hotel in Broadway, Rusell’s of Broadway, around 4:30 pm. We covered 24 miles which took us a total of five hours and 20 minutes of which we were actually cycling for a little over three hours. AllTrails said we did an elevation gain of 3136 feet, while the Ride with GPS app said we only did 1766 feet. Who knows which one is accurate?

Our luggage was waiting for us at the hotel. They had us park our bikes in the courtyard, where there is a closed circuit camera for security. We had room 5, on the ground floor, with windows facing into the courtyard. Again, the room was wonderful. The area with the bed was not as large as the room in Moreton-in-Marsh (Moreton-in-Marsh, England - April 9th, and 14th, 2025), but there was a hallway with a large closet with a large bathroom at the end. It not only had a walk in shower, it also had a stand alone tub.

We were both tired and didn’t feel like strolling the town. Instead, we opted to walk around the corner to Russell’s Fish & Chips for dinner. We both had the cod with chips (fries) and tartar sauce. Ann washed her’s down with a Badger’s apple cider while Keith drank the Pale British Hopped Session Ale by the Hop Shed Brewery. A session ale typically has a lower alcohol content, between 3% and 5% ABV.

Friday morning, Keith still had a cough, so he skipped breakfast. Ann brought him some toast this time, after she finished her smashed avocado on brown toast with poached eggs and grilled tomatoes.

Keith also skipped the planned walk for the day. Ann went by herself. She took along a Garmin InReach (paid link), so Keith could track her progress. There were two routes that left right from Broadway, both going to Snowshill. The shorter one was 7.5 miles while the longer one was 9.5 miles. The longer route was in the Ride With GPS app, but it looked different than the route on the laminated sheets that Cotswold Walks had provided. Ann was going to start out on the 7.5 mile route then decide if she wanted to extend it. She started out using the route in the map, hoping to take the shorter leg of the route to Snowshill. However, when she got to the split for the loop, the app wanted her to take the longer leg. It was so much easier to follow the app than checking a map all the time, so she made the decision then to walk the longer route, even though it was different from the one on the printed map.

Part of the route followed the Cotswold Way. The Cotswold Way is a long distance national trail. It is 102 miles (164 km) long, from Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire to Bath, Somerset, winding its way through the Cotswolds.

The way Ann went was a wonderful route. It started out entering a gate to a sheep pasture. The sheep were all bunched up by the gate and wouldn’t let Ann pass. She had seen a group of three walkers go through a little bit ahead of her, so she decided to nudge and push the sheep out of her way. She wasn’t sure if the sheep would bite or kick her, so she stayed keenly aware of the sheep around her, with her trekking pole in hand. They reluctantly got out of her way and let her through. No injuries to Ann or the sheep.

The route had quite a variety of things to see. Most of the time, it was crossing sheep and horse pastures, with expansive views of the surrounding area. It also passed through some woods, with the birds singing in the tree tops. Ann spotted a deer, but it bounded off before she could get a picture. The path went through a few small villages, Buckland, Stanton, and Snowshill. She passed by some “oreo” cows, black with a wide, white stripe around their middles.

Ann had been worried she wouldn’t get a good picture of a pheasant. She put those worries to rest that day. Ann must have sighted at least three dozen pheasants during her walk, both males and females. That should keep her satisfied for a while.

As the route passed through the small village of Stanton, it went right through the churchyard, past the gravestones and around to the front of the church. Then it went straight down the center of the village.

When Ann reached Snowshill, she stopped at the pub there, called Snowshill Arms, for lunch. A panini with mozzarella, pesto, and tomato along with a cup of fries and a Coke sounded refreshing and it was.

Just past the village of Snowshill is Snowshill Manor. Snowshill Manor is a National Trust site, so Ann was able to get in free with the membership we bought the day before at Hidcote. The entrance was about a quarter of a mile from the manor itself, so it was a short walk back towards the village to reach the house. So the visit probably added about half mile to a mile onto her walk for the day.

Snowshill Manor was originally built in the 16th century. It went into decay and was bought by Charles Paget Wade in 1919. Wade was an architect, artist-craftsman, collector and poet. He restored the manor over the course of three years to its 16th century roots, not as a place to live, but as a place to display his eclectic collections. He converted the barn into his home and workshop. He gave the property and his collections to the National Trust in 1951.

As Ann made her way back to Broadway, she made a wrong turn, but hooked up with a family of three who were also heading back to town. Since she had been hiking by herself all day, she welcomed the conversations, so she tagged along with them the last mile or so to Broadway. They were from the city of Birmingham, spending the weekend with their caravan.

Ann accidentally turned off her AllTrails tracking when she joined the Birmingham family, so she doesn’t have an accurate account of her walk. She’s guessing it was about 10.5 miles, with an elevation gain of 2100 feet which she completed in less than 6.5 hours. (Ride with GPS said the route was 9.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1351 feet - but that doesn’t count the distance added at Snowshill Manor). It was hike number 6 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2025.

After taking a shower back at the hotel, we walked over to the Mid-Counties Co-op store just a block away. Keith was out of deodorant and Ann’s hair brush was falling apart. The Co-op is a small, local grocery store.

For dinner, we walked over to the Flipside Gastro Burgers. We ate outside in their back patio. The temperatures stayed warm enough that we didn’t need any jackets. Ann had the Zizzle That Bacon with coleslaw while Keith had the Big Cheese with fries. Keith skipped the real beer that evening and we both had Fentimans Ginger Beer. Both of our burgers came with “burger sauce”. We don’t remember ever seeing anything called burger sauce in the States, but we’ve noticed it seems to be used quite often in England. The burger sauce is similar to Thousand Island dressing or the “special sauce” on a McDonald’s Big Mac. We’ve also noticed that the English seem to prefer sweet pickles on their burgers instead of dill or hamburger dill, like most burgers in the States.

To keep with our American themed dinner, Ann opted for the chocolate brownie and ice cream for dessert. Their chocolate brownie was much better than the brownies served on the Sky Princess during our cruise. However, it still seemed to have a little coarser of a texture than what we are used to in the States. Ann’s only complaint was that she would have preferred a little more ice cream. She likes a good balance between the ice cream and the richness of the brownie. However, Flipside’s ice cream to brownie ratio was much better than what she was served at Paradise Inn in Mount Rainier National Park last summer (Mount Rainier National Park, Washington - July 5th to 9th, 2024).

It would have been nice if Keith could have gone on the hike, but it was better to save his energy for the second bike ride the following day. The hikes were optional, but the bikes are our transportation to the next town. Despite Keith missing the hike, we were both still having fun. The following day was cycling to Bourton-on-the-Water and we were looking forward to it.

Check out our related video: Broadway, England

(Ann)