Caravan club sites in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire covers two landscapes with very different driving. The Cotswold escarpment and the wolds behind it are narrow lanes and steep banks. The Severn Vale and the Forest of Dean are gentler. Both sit within twenty minutes of the M5, which makes the county one of the more convenient places in England to base a caravan.

Where the sites are

The Cotswold Water Park around South Cerney and Cirencester is the biggest cluster, with a hundred lakes and flat, well-drained ground. A second group sits in and around the Forest of Dean near Coleford and Christchurch, close to the Wye Valley and Symonds Yat. Smaller numbers sit on the Cotswold edge near Winchcombe and Stow, and near Tewkesbury for anyone using the county as a staging post north or south.

Getting there

The M5 runs north to south, with Junction 11a for Cirencester via the A417 and Junction 13 for Stroud. The M50 and A40 bring you in from the Midlands and South Wales.

The A417 between Gloucester and Cirencester is under major reconstruction — the Missing Link scheme replacing the old Air Balloon bottleneck with four miles of dual carriageway. Work is expected to run into 2027, with narrowed lanes, a 40mph limit and a temporary alignment near Brockworth. Allow extra time and follow the signed route rather than an older sat nav map.

Local notes

The old Birdlip Hill road and the lanes climbing the escarpment at Frocester, Painswick and Cleeve are steep and narrow with blind bends. Reach the wolds on the A417, A419 or A429 instead of cutting up the scarp.

Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury and Castle Combe are unsuitable for outfits at any time of year — nowhere to turn and nowhere to park. Cirencester and Tewkesbury both have proper long-stay parking if you need to shop with the van still hitched.

The season runs late March to the end of October, and Cheltenham race week in March affects availability across the north of the county.