Mayfield Park

With Cheltenham racecourse a mere 30 minutes’ drive away, this site is a prime pick for horsey types – but if the gee-gees don’t have the family galloping for joy, there are other four-legged, fleet and feathered options at the Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens, also half an hour from base. If the Cotswold Gardens grow enthusiasm for stately houses and grand designs, there’s plenty else hereabouts to entice: Chavenage House, Berkeley Castle, Bowood House, Sudeley Castle, Newark Park and Dyrham Park are all within an hour for old piles, and Westonbirt Arboretum and the gardens at Highgrove (Charlie and Camilla’s royal digs) are definitely worth a turn half an hour away. For more urban explores, start 15 minutes from the site in the scenic village of Bibury to have a poke around the Chedworth Roman Villa, travel on to Bourton-on-the-Water (20 minutes) for Birdland, a maze, a motoring museum and a model village, then take things up a notch in Cirencester, where there are Roman remains, museums, markets, parks and a manor house all waiting for visitors. Keep things soothingly low-key with a spin on the Swindon and Cricklade steam railway, 25 minutes away, or get a bit more active with watersports, paintball, fishing and horse riding at Cotswold Water Park or an adrenaline-fuelled day at the Gloucestershire Rally School, both within 20 minutes.