Hope Cottage Tours in England

I read about Hope Cottage Tours (Hope Cottage, Mackney Lane, Brightwell cum Sotwell, Oxfordshire, OX10 0SQ, U.K.; phone 44 [0] 1491 837100 or visit www.hopecottagetours.co.uk) in ITN’s MART Classifieds and began to e-mail Sue Robson, its owner and tour guide, about arranging a customized itinerary for my husband, Jim, and me.

Sue was most informative, and eventually Jim and I spent eight marvelous days at Hope Cottage, Sept. 11-19, 2006, having great meals and enjoying fascinating excursions and sights and all sorts of surprises in the Oxfordshire/Cotswolds region of England.

Hope Cottage, a red-brick Victorian house with a rambling garden, offers high-end B&B accommodations (four stars on VisitBritain) and chauffeured touring within a 2-hour radius of its home base in the village of Brightwell cum Sotwell in Oxfordshire.

Prices were £135 (near $265) per person per day for two people or £125 ($245) per person for four people. For the two of us, the total cost of our trip was $3,800 for eight nights. Included were London airport transfers, all breakfasts and dinners, excursions, and admission to all tours and attractions. If you want to see the countryside without having to drive, I don’t think you can do better.

The moment we arrived, we knew we had picked a winner. Sue is the merriest, kindliest and most practical of hosts. She made us feel truly welcome, listened carefully to our preferences and worked hard to make our holiday unique. Not only our hostess, she was our guide and did all the driving in her very comfortable Grand Chrysler Voyager van.

The only guests during our stay, we lived in a cottage-like guest room attached to the main house by a glassed-in conservatory, which was also ours exclusively. Hope Cottage can accommodate four guests staying at the house but has taken groups of six using the services of a B&B at the top of the lane.

One day we went exploring on the Mid-Hants Steam Railway, also known as the Watercress Line (phone 01962 733810 or visit www.water cressline.co.uk). This 10-mile rail line runs both steam and diesel engines and has four flower-filled stations featuring old advertisements from the steam and diesel era. It made for a fascinating day. We even got to see the volunteer “trainies” repairing engines in the sheds.

Another excursion featured a tour of the beautiful Cotswold villages with a stop at Lower Slaughter to see the water mill and ancient cottages.

On that same day we went to Snowshill Manor, a glorious “folly” created by arts and crafts collector Charles Paget Wade. The house is filled with Chinese cabinets and curios, old sedan chairs, dozens of bicycles, hundreds of clocks and 37 suits of samurai armor! We finished off with cream teas at Snowshill Lavender Farm, featuring lavender scones with jam and clotted cream.

Since I have an interest in Saxon and Norman churches, Sue and I worked out a day when we hopscotched from one to another, seeing many hidden curiosities and touching details, such as a frieze of a boar hunt, circa 1300, and a statue of two children who died of smallpox being led into heaven by an angel.

Other delights included a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon for a Royal Shakespeare Company production of “Romeo and Juliet” and a trip by tour boat on the Upper Thames, which winds its way from Wallingford to Abingdon through four locks and past many colorful Thames narrowboats, small villages lost in time, swans with their gray cygnets and fields of grazing cows — a beautiful and hypnotic journey! We felt as if we were in the Shire from “Lord of the Rings.”

There are many spectacular mansions and properties in the area. Two of the biggest are Waddesdon Manor, the home of the Rothschilds, an 18th-century French-style beauty with vast gardens and a lovely aviary, and Blenheim, the home of the Dukes of Marlborough and Winston Churchill. You may also see Winchester Cathedral, where Jane Austen is buried. There are spectacular gardens in the area. We enjoyed Waterperry Gardens with its rustic plantings, meandering river and many butterflies.

Dining at Hope Cottage is a daily treat. Sue is one of the best home cooks I have ever met and presides over her Aga range cooker with great mastery. She uses fresh produce from her own garden and eggs from her own chickens. She brought us casseroles bubbling from the oven and sinful desserts like apple crumble with double cream, individual Pavlovas and carrot cake.

She catered to our dietary desires without any problem. She can accommodate vegetarians too.

We also shopped at the local farmers’ markets for take-home jams and chutneys.

There is something uniquely wonderful about being pampered by an experienced and friendly host, at the same time feeling part of the ongoing life of a family and a village. It makes for an unforgettable vacation, and this was one that we will treasure always.

ERICA BROWN FREEMAN

Brooklyn, NY