Ask any foreign tourist what they’ve come to see in the UK on a holiday and you’ll usually get a series of predictable answers. The Queen and Buckingham Palace, Castles, Tower Bridge and Big Ben are some of the most popular. These are London centric and as Heathrow is the first-place people land usually then it stands to reason that London is where they gravitate to. Look on the tourist gift section though and you will see the English rural idyll photographed and stuck to the front of Chocolate box. This has given rise to the phrase, “like the front of a chocolate box”. Its now an accepted synonym for describe the twee and the decorative. No wonder the tourist wants to get and see it. Many are in the Cotswolds so a quick look at Coach hire Gloucester, as it is so close to Cotswolds, such as https://www.johndixtravel.co.uk/ should help set them off on the path.

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What are the most popular villages that fit the Chocolate box stereotype. Let’s look at some examples

  • Lacock – Wiltshire. Lacock in Wiltshire has a bit of form here. The whole place, along with Lacock Abbey is protected and owned by the National Trust, purveyors of what is heritage in the UK. Its not without merit. In fact, it was used as a moral booster to troops in the wars as being the archetypical place they were fighting to protect. So that will go down well with German visitors then.
  • Cockington – Devon. This really does feature on actually chocolate boxes. I know this as I regularly bought one for my Grandmother every time we holidayed in Devon as it is located near Torquay. She loved the place and its nostalgic feel as it probably remined her of her childhood.
  • Lavenham – Suffolk. As with Lacock the National Trust has a special interest in this place due to it owning the Guild hall. Here the buildings are painted in the original colours or have the Tudor black and white beams thing going. This is not even how the Tudors did it, preferring a complete lime based white wash. Not that accuracy is really a concern.
  • Lurgashall – East Sussex. Home of a famous winery Lurgashall is located just outside of London so it offers the chance to see the Chocolate box village close up without having to traverse the English countryside. As with all of these locations. Hanging baskets festoon every house as the village fights it out with others for the Village in Bloom title.
  • Bourton on the Water – Gloucestershire. More a tourist attraction then any of the others and not so protected as there is no National Trust interest. Bouton grew on the back of its famous model village opened to attract punters to the pub it is housed in. A motor museum and bird park have sprang up and the little bridges over the River Windrush draw many visitors.