Top Reasons to Go to Bath and the Cotswolds

Bath's architecture: Bath is perhaps the most perfectly preserved and harmonious English city. Close up, the elegance and finesse of the Georgian buildings is a perpetual delight.

Cotswold pubs: The classic pubs here press all the right buttons—low wooden beams, horse brasses, and inglenook fireplaces.

Hidcote Manor Garden: In a region rich with imaginative garden displays, Hidcote lays good claim to eminence. Exotic shrubs from around the world and the famous "garden rooms" are the highlights of this Arts and Crafts masterpiece.

Perfect villages: With their stone cottages, Cotswold villages tend to be improbably picturesque; the hamlets of Upper and Lower Slaughter are among the most charming.

Roman baths: Take a break from Bath's Georgian elegance and return to its Roman days on a tour around this ancient bath complex.

Gloucester Cathedral: The Great East Window, Whispering Gallery, and cloisters are especially noteworthy in this ancient monument, one of the country's finest cathedrals.

Shops in Cheltenham: The grand Regency terraces of Cheltenham make a wonderful setting for "country chic" boutiques, antiques shops, and gift stores that attract people from the entire region.