Well-placed for commuting to Oxford, Bristol, Birmingham – even London – it’s equally convenient for holiday lets because of its central position.
Most of the Cotswolds is in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire but it also dips into Worcestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset making it an easy drive from Wales, the West Country, the Midlands and the South.
“We’ve found that properties in the Cotswolds earn more on average than elsewhere in England,” says Peter Harrison, chief commercial officer of Sykes Holiday Cottages (sykescottages.co.uk).
“A holiday home in this part of the country can generate up to £40,000 a year in income from bookings, compared to £36,000 across the rest of England.”
Next week many of those visiting the Cotswolds will be heading for one of the biggest events of the British sporting calendar, the Cheltenham Festival.
The four-day National Hunt spectacular runs from Tuesday to Friday but it’s only one of the many festivals that attract visitors to the area, such as the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Badminton Horse Trials, Cornbury Music Festival and Womad.
Chris Grimes, of Manor Cottages (manorcottages.co.uk), based in Burford, on the edge of the Cotswolds near Oxford, says: “We see a surge in bookings around the major festivals in the Cotswolds, the Cheltenham Festival in particular.
“This is a week each year that gets booked far in advance. Our larger and more luxurious properties are especially in high demand.”
And Peter Harrison adds: “We’re 80 per cent occupied within 10 miles of Cheltenham for the races, although the Cotswolds is a popular place for holidaymakers throughout the year.”
He puts this popularity down to a combination of lovely countryside and the picturesque villages.
The latter are an attraction in themselves, as are period properties such as Inns Keep in Milton-Under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire, which is on the market for offers over £499,999 (01993 822325; butlersherborn.co.uk).
The Grade II Listed Cotswoldstone house has period features such as exposed beams and an inglenook fireplace but has been totally renovated so that the kitchen/breakfast room has granite work surfaces and a wood-burning stove plus bi-fold doors on to the garden.
There are two double bedrooms with a family bathroom on the second floor plus a master bedroom suite on the third floor with a vaulted ceiling and adjoining wet room.
The equally attractive Craycombe Cottage, in the hamlet of Clapton-on-the-Hill near Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, is a detached four-bedroom house for sale at £595,000 (01451 833143; butlersherborn.co.uk).
Built in the late 1800s it has a 1930s extension that was used as the village post office but this has been incorporated into the main building and recently renovated.
There are also two gardens and off-road parking.
Ben Way, of Butler Sherborn’s Cheltenham office, says many people who buy a holiday home in the Cotswolds enjoy horseriding and horseracing: “Cheltenham has six or eight meetings a year so if somebody has a house in the area they can let it out as a holiday home for the rest of the year.
“Lots of people have annexes that they let out for the Cheltenham Festival and often countryside people who want to go to the Cheltenham Festival would rather be in Stow-on-the-Wold or Burford than in Cheltenham – they are slightly more in their comfort zone,” he says.
It’s hard to think of anywhere among the rolling hills, market towns and pretty villages of the Cotswolds that wouldn’t be in your comfort zone. Unless, of course, you’ve backed the wrong horse at the races.