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I love pretty market towns, historic buildings, boutique shops and cosy pubs — so do lots of other people

I’m a market town girl at heart. I adore cute villages with historic buildings, meandering rivers, boutique shops, and cosy pubs. The Cotswolds are stunning – but almost year-round their honey-coloured villages, including Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Lower Slaughter, are packed with coachloads of snap-happy tourists.

According to Gloucestershire Live it’s “free-for-all chaos” complete with noise, litter, and traffic jams. Even TikTokkers can’t resist. A councillor recently lamented that visitors were “exploiting the destination’s heritage for clicks”. Bourton-on-the-Water, aka the Venice of the Cotswolds, has apparently become the ultimate backdrop for selfies and reels.

“This kind of visitor has little interest in heritage, culture, or nature,” councillor Jon Wareing told the BBC. “They’re the ultimate hit-and-run tourist.”

So, while the Cotswolds may be Instagram-famous, I found a quieter, prettier escape. And it didn’t require elbowing my way past twirling huns living their best life in selfies. Instead, I went to The Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean, which offer a tranquil and picturesque alternative to the Cotswolds.

Bordering England and Wales this area of outstanding natural beauty features similar rolling countryside, attractive market towns, and hiking trails but with fewer crowds. It’s especially beautiful in the autumn for ‘leaf-peeping’ when the trees show off a dazzling array of colour.

The market towns and villages of the Wye Valley also offer a less crowded alternative to the busy Cotswolds blending historical buildings, local culture, and proper pubs. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs find out What’s On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here.

Market towns

One of my favourites is Chepstow. Known as the “gateway to Wales” it gets its name from the Old English ‘chepe stowe’ or ‘market place’. The name still fits. Chepstow keeps its historic feel with cobbled streets and a strong line-up of independent shops, cafés, restaurants, and pubs.

One of the big draws here is the surprising range of walking trails with four long-distance walks converging on Chepstow. The Wye Valley Walk and Offa’s Dyke head north on either side of the River Wye offering hikers a circular loop between Chepstow and Monmouth.

Dreamy views of romantic ruins

Strolls around Tintern offer dreamy views of the romantic ruins of Tintern Abbey, especially from the Devil’s Pulpit viewpoint. Walks along the Angidy Valley reward history lovers with the valley’s industrial heritage.

A gentle riverside path from St Michael’s Church to Tintern Old Station and the old railway line to Brockweir offers an easy, family-friendly amble.

If you fancy a flutter Chepstow’s got you covered. The town’s racecourse is a huge deal in the horseracing world and home to the Coral Welsh Grand National. It’s been hosting race days since the late 1800s and still draws a lively crowd whether you’re a seasoned punter or just there for the buzz and fancy hats.

And if horses aren’t your thing you can swap the saddle for a nine-iron. Just outside town the St Pierre Marriott Hotel and Country Club boasts one of the most scenic golf courses in the country.

Independent shops

Over the border Ross-on-Wye is another charming town. Its 17th-century Market House now houses Made in Ross, an artisan cooperative that showcases local crafts. The town’s streets feature a mix of independent shops, antique stores, cosy coffee houses, and pubs such as The Man of Ross Inn.

At the confluence of the Rivers Wye and Monnow, Monmouth has a rich history with landmarks like the 18th-century Shire Hall, which is now a museum. The town’s vibrant streets are lined with boutiques, cafés, and historic pubs.

Over in England the market towns in the Cotswolds, such as Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Chipping Campden, are equally charming but suffer from significant overcrowding during peak tourist seasons.

Cirencester, known as the “Capital of the Cotswolds,” features a lively market, Roman history, and a variety of shops and cafés. Stow-on-the-Wold, with its historic market square and antique shops, often experiences heavy tourist traffic making it less serene.

Chipping Campden, famous for its beautiful High Street lined with historic buildings, also faces similar issues with overcrowding and limited parking.

Historical sites

Symonds Yat can be less crowded and is known for its hand-pulled ferries and impressive views from Symonds Yat Rock. It is perfect for nature lovers and outdoor activities like hiking and canoeing. The Wye Valley is rich in historical sites that rival those in the Cotswolds. Goodrich Castle and Tintern Abbey are standout landmarks.

Exploring on foot can help you discover the industrial and historical heritage in the Wye Valley ranging from the Iron Age construction of hillforts to the Romans who came, saw, and conquered the Wye and the building of Offa’s Dyke – the longest archaeological ‘Keep Out’ sign in Britain.

For history lovers the tiny town of Tintern is also worth a visit. It is home to one of Wales’ greatest monastic ruins, Tintern Abbey, which is found on the banks of the River Wye and was only the second Cistercian foundation to be built in Britain.

It was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks and has had a long history including the dissolution of the monasteries, which led to the abbey slowly turning into a majestic ruin. Today you can visit this important heritage site in Wales and marvel at the scale of the roofless abbey and the British Gothic architecture. Tickets can be bought on arrival at the visitor centre and there is also a selection of guidebooks that can help you learn more about this beautiful abbey.

Chepstow Castle is another must-visit. It is Wales’ oldest surviving post-Roman castle dating back to 1067. This beautifully-preserved Welsh castle proudly stands atop a limestone cliff above the River Wye. For more than six centuries Chepstow was home to some of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the medieval and Tudor ages.

Earl William Fitz Osbern, a close friend of William the Conqueror, started the building in 1067, making it one of the first Norman strongholds in Wales. In turn William Marshal (Earl of Pembroke), Roger Bigod (Earl of Norfolk), and Charles Somerset (Earl of Worcester) all made their mark before the castle declined after the Civil War.

The oldest building is the Norman great tower but construction continued well into the 17th century as stronger, musket-friendly parapets replaced medieval battlements.

Today visitors can learn more about this historic site that Cadw now manages by visiting this impressive castle on a day trip or booking one of their special events. The site has a range of facilities including a gift shop, bike access, and parking.

Meandering river

Along with pretty towns and history one of the area’s biggest draws is the flowing River Wye. This meandering river begins in Plynlimon in mid-Wales and flows south, becoming part of Wales and England’s border and eventually meeting the Severn.

The River Wye is a long and very accessible river with plenty of paddle spots and waterside pubs. Canoeing through the Wye Valley offers a unique way to explore its scenic villages and countryside – an experience you can’t replicate in the Cotswolds.

Several outdoor companies in the area offer guided canoe and paddleboard trips down the River Wye. Many trips include camping or visiting riverside villages.

You can also hire a canoe and captain your own vessel on a river pub crawl or camping expedition. Waterside pubs along the River Wye are welcome rest spots if you’re paddling up the river on an epic canoe or kayak trip. The Boat Inn and the Anchor Inn offer local ales and river views.

Eating, drinking and sleeping

One of the best spots for a pint by the water is the Saracens Head Inn. This historic riverside inn has stood for centuries in its spectacular position on the east bank of the River Wye where the river flows into a steep wooded gorge.

Here you’ll find rooms as well as award-winning food and local ales. Their flagstone-floored bar and rustic pine tables provide a traditional pub feel as you sip on a pint of local real ale.

If you prefer dry land there are many ambitious hiking routes for a scenic stomp and shorter walking trails can help you discover the beauty of the Wye Valley on foot.

If you want a longer walk in this area opt for the Wye Valley Walk – a long-distance national trail that follows the course of the River Wye.

You can choose various sections of the trail for day hikes and weekend hikes or opt for a full walking holiday and do the lot. One of the best day hikes on the Wye Valley Walk is the Chepstow to Tintern Abbey section.

It’s a scenic five-mile walk that takes you up ancient stone steps and through ethereal forest paths. There are plenty of photo and picnic spots along the way and you’ll also find some viewing points where you can gaze at the winding River Wye.

Autumn is the best time to attempt this trail: when the leaves change their colours it becomes one of the prettiest hiking trails in the UK. Pack a picnic to round out the countryside experience.

Food-wise you’ll be spoiled for choice in the Wye Valley with plenty of cafés and restaurants to rival the swanky Cotswolds. The area is a surprising gastro hotspot and there is a thriving dining and foodie scene to be discovered.

You can criss-cross seamlessly from Wales into England and easily explore the well-heeled area and its many restaurants, cafés, and producers.

Take a gastro journey through the valley and you’ll find locally-raised lamb, smoked eel, craft ales, and honey-infused mead. Local breweries include the small microbrewery Lydbrook Valley Brewing Company, which produces a 4.2% IPA, and the Wye Valley Brewery, which makes a decent range of craft ales.

The Wye Valley even has its own vineyard, White Castle, where visitors can buy high-quality Welsh wines and take a tour.

Over in Chepstow the Beaufort Hotel’s award-winning restaurant offers guests a fabulous à la carte menu featuring traditional British and international dishes using Wye Valley and Welsh produce where possible.

Tell me Wine is a wine merchant and French bistro lounge that offers delicious French dishes, wine tastings, and live music events. Family-owned Stone Rock Lodge serves Wales’ best pizza and you can get a banging Sunday lunch at St Pierre.

With one Michelin green star and four AA rosettes dining at the Whitebrook is a must for serious foodies. Fresh local ingredients and foraged findings from the valley are at the heart of the food at this highly-acclaimed restaurant with rooms.

Set in five acres of landscaped surroundings chef Chris Harrod draws culinary inspiration from his bountiful surroundings.

You can expect hand-foraged garlic, bittercress, wild onion, and hogweed from the valley, which connect diners to the immediate locale and enrich the carefully crafted menu.

Harrod has a knack for turning locally-foraged ingredients into extraordinary creations. His dedication to using the best of the region’s offerings earned The Whitebrook a Michelin star, a Michelin green star, and four AA Rosettes. It’s regularly included in the Top 50 list of restaurants in the UK and deservedly so.

The seasonal tasting menu is a culinary journey showcasing the best of the season with expertly chosen wine pairings of local Welsh and English wines including several from Monmouthshire-based White Castle Vineyard. Each small but perfectly-executed course explores the region’s rich flavours presented with precision and artistry.

Typical plates include Orkney scallops, Huntsham Farm Ryeland hogget with young leek, turnip, and ramsons, and day boat hake with hen of the wood, parsley root, pickled pine, mushrooms, sauce, and wild chervil.

If you’re looking to stay longer in the area the Wye Valley has an impressive range of swish properties, guest houses, and hotels to suit your travel style and budget.

Airbnb and Booking.com offer unique stays in the Wye Valley with everything from bougie guest houses and cosy holiday cabins to luxury glamping and yurts.

One of my favourite places to stay is the charming Tudor Farmhouse. This boutique hotel is a former working farm that has been stylishly converted into a country getaway with rooms, cottages, and suites. Prices depend on the type of room booked.

After Gavin Newsom was elected lieutenant governor, he repeatedly made clear his frustration with the job and its lack of responsibilities. The official portfolio for the office is thin, including sitting on boards that oversee the state’s higher education system and public lands, leading an economic council and serving as acting governor when California’s chief executive is out of state or otherwise unavailable.

Newsom, now the front-runner in the governor’s race, missed scores of meetings held by the University of California Board of Regents, the California State University Board of Trustees and the California State Lands Commission, according to a Times review of attendance records.

He attended 54% of UC Regents meeting days, 34% for Cal State and 57% for state lands, according to a Times review of attendance records between 2011 and 2018. The Times included in the tally days when Newsom was present for only part of the day, and excluded days when Newsom had no committee meetings or other official business to attend.

Membership of the three panels is the most prominent duty of a lieutenant governor, a post considered to be largely ceremonial.

“There’s no denying that the official responsibilities of the lieutenant governor are more modest than some other constitutional offices — the English call it an ‘heir and a spare,’” said former California Gov. Gray Davis, who was lieutenant governor before being elected to lead the state. “But 43 states have a lieutenant governor whose primary function is to step in if something happens to the governor.”

Newsom’s opponents have criticized him for failing to fully participate in the three panels, which set policy on tuition, athletics programs and expansion for much of the state’s higher-education system, and manage issues including oil drilling and access to some of California’s publicly owned lands.

“Californians are working harder than ever before just to stay in the middle class. It appears Gavin Newsom is hardly working — or at least not working for the people who pay his salary,” said Luis Vizcaino, a spokesman for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Newsom defended his record, saying it paralleled that of other elected officials on the panels.

“I’ve tried not to be the quote-unquote politician on the board. I tried to avoid being the guy who shows up just to give the press release. I tried to be constructive and I tried to be engaged,” he said in an interview. “Every tough vote, we were there — the ones that matter, the close votes.”

Observers of the UC and Cal State panels agreed that the elected officials on the boards had spottier attendance than appointees. The State Lands Commission comprises three members, so when one is absent, he or she typically sends an alternate to voice concerns and vote on the member’s behalf. Attendance on the panels has previously been raised as a campaign issue — Republican Dan Lungren poked Davis about his absences during a 1998 gubernatorial debate.

Newsom’s Democratic rivals in the race — state Treasurer John Chiang, former state schools chief Delaine Eastin and Villaraigosa — held various roles on the same three boards during prior terms in elected office. Chiang served on the State Lands Commission when he was controller, and Villaraigosa and Eastin sat on the UC and Cal State boards while serving as Assembly speaker and state superintendent of public instruction, respectively.

They also failed to attend many meetings.

Chiang attended 46% of Lands Commission meeting days between 2007 and 2014 when he was state controller. Villaraigosa and Eastin each attended less than 10% of the Cal State meetings during their time on that board. Though they both routinely skipped UC meetings, the full picture of their attendance is unclear due to a lack of available records documenting their time on the boards in the 1990s.

But their jobs at the time were more demanding than the role of lieutenant governor. The speaker must be in Sacramento during the legislative session, and the state schools chief oversees curriculum, testing and finances for the 6.3 million students in the state’s schools. As controller, Chiang was California’s chief bookkeeper, administering the state’s payroll and serving on more than 70 boards and commissions.

Newsom’s responsibilities as lieutenant governor are much more limited in scope, a point he has frequently drawn attention to.

Before he ran for lieutenant governor in 2010, he derided the role as having “no real authority and no real portfolio.”

After he was elected, he drafted legislation to put the office of lieutenant governor on the gubernatorial ticket — similar to how a president and vice president are elected together — but couldn’t find a legislator to carry the bill. If elected governor, Newsom said he hopes to revisit the proposal.

Two years into the job, during a break in filming his Current TV show, Newsom was asked by friend and hotelier Chip Conley how frequently he went to Sacramento.

“Like one day a week, tops,” Newsom said. “There’s no reason.… It’s just so dull.”

A few months later, as a Times reporter trailed Newsom in the Capitol, he stopped when a woman asked him to pose for a picture with her son. The boy asked him what a lieutenant governor does.

“I ask myself that every day,” Newsom replied.

He has repeatedly joked about the post over the years, including in an interview with The Times during his 2014 reelection campaign when he paraphrased a line from then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry, himself a former lieutenant governor: “Wake up every morning, pick up the paper, read the obituaries, and if the governor’s name doesn’t appear in there, go back to sleep.”

Garry South, a former advisor to Newsom who is not publicly backing a candidate in the governor’s race, recalled urging him to knock it off.

“I did convey to him on a couple of occasions … that I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell voters they had elected you to a worthless position,” South said. “To his credit, I think he’s done much less of that in the last few years.”

Newsom said that the transition from mayor of San Francisco — when he worked on issues including same-sex marriage, universal healthcare and homelessness — to lieutenant governor was difficult.

“In honesty, I totally get it. I’m not even going to be defensive about it. There was absolutely early frustration. That’s all it represented years and years ago,” he said, noting that his time in Sacramento has been much slower than his life as mayor, a change he described as a “major cultural transition.” “It’s a different pace. That was reflected in those lazy comments of mine [that] I by definition regret because we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But it expressed a sentiment at the time.”

Newsom said he grew into his job and realized he could use his bully pulpit to promote issues he cared about, including successful 2016 ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana and implement stricter gun controls.

Still, Newsom’s statements about his job have provided plenty of fodder for his rivals.

“If he was so bored, why did he refuse to show up for his job on the UC Board of Regents, or on the CSU Board of Trustees or at the State Lands Commission? Where was Gavin when he was supposed to be working on behalf of all the Californians who actually show up for their jobs?” said Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Chiang. “California needs a serious leader, not someone who’s in it just for show.”

But parties with business before the panels and fellow members said Newsom has been active and attentive when present.

“He has been engaged and thoughtful, and particularly interested in the financial structures and financial stability and financial accountability,” said Shane White, chairman of UC’s Academic Senate and a dentistry professor at UCLA.

A fellow UC regent, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about Newsom’s tenure on the board, agreed.

“He’s been substantially more engaged than the vast majority of elected officials who have served on the board,” said the regent, who is unaligned in the race. “He does his homework.”

Former Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, a Villaraigosa backer who sits on the UC Regents board, said Newsom’s attendance is not that different from other elected officials who sit on the panel.

“If you want to hit him for attendance, it’s a valid hit. If you want to hit him for only being involved in the most high-profile issues, it’s a valid hit. But it’s not inconsistent with other ex officio board members,” Pérez said, adding that he personally liked Newsom and the two men frequently voted on controversial issues the same way. “The difference is he made such a big deal about [how] the office doesn’t do anything, and then he doesn’t go to the things it does.”

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MEL B is spotted along with two of her Spice Girl bandmates at her 50th birthday bash.

Emma Bunton and Mel C were among the guests in leopard-print outfits, in homage to Scary Spice Mel’s best-known stage get-ups.

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But Geri Horner and Victoria Beckham were not at the Leeds party on Saturday.

Insiders said Posh was away for work and Geri declined the invitation to the event.

We told last week how the Girls’ ex-manager is in talks for them to reunite as avatars, following in the steps of Abba.

An insider spilled: “Mel’s throwing a huge party in Leeds for her 50th. It’s also her fiance’s birthday today so it’s a joint celebration and will be a real family affair.

“But Geri and Posh can’t make it. Posh had a work commitment she couldn’t get out of. 

“It’s a bit awkward given the reunion excitement.”

The Sun has contacted their reps for comment.

The snub comes just days after we revealed plans for the group to reunite as Avatars, following in the footsteps of pop legends Abba.

It would see holograms of Geri, Mels B and C, Emma Bunton and Victoria playing their biggest hits.

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