The Cotswolds, England

For the 2nd year in a row, I didn't head home to Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with family. Instead, Michael and I joined some great friends and fellow ex-pats for a very British Turkey Day in the Cotswolds! I had been eager to visit this picturesque English countryside ever since we moved to London. While the weather was less than ideal, we couldn't have asked for a better destination to celebrate Thanksgiving. We stayed at beautiful cottage in the sprawling Bruern Estate and spent the weekend going on country walks, visiting quaint villages, popping into local pubs and, of course, stuffing our faces!

It’s half a century since the Cotswolds was declared an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). To mark the milestone Telegraph Travel explores this pretty pocket of rural England – from rolling hills and sweeping meadows to bucolic villages and stately homes – and explains what it is that keeps us coming back.

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Cotswolds tourist information site - what to see and do in the Cotswolds, find accommodation, maps of the Cotswolds, events calendar and tourist attractions

The Cotswolds earns its title as Britain’s largest designated area of natural beauty: luxury villas, boutique hotels and townhouse stays are set amid forests, verdant hills and petite, honey-hued villages. It’s more typically British than a bowler-hatted Bertie Wooster whistling Elgar, but the area’s Roman legacy lives on in ancient Cirencester; Southrop and Crudwell’s thatched cottages and ivy-coloured churches.

Book your tickets online for the top things to do in Cotswolds, England on TripAdvisor: See 61,556 traveler reviews and photos of Cotswolds tourist attractions. Find what to do today, this weekend, or in January. We have reviews of the best places to see in Cotswolds. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions.

Buy An American Thanksgiving in The Cotswolds book by author Annie McCain Engman. Preview and learn more about this self-published Cooking book.

Escape the holiday hoopla, and be grateful for a far-from-home getaway.