Go Cotswolds is a fun, friendly, family-run guided tour company from Stratford-on-Avon

Hi! We’re Tom and Lisa Benjamin, the husband-and-wife owners of Go Cotswolds.

We’re both British, but we met in a backpacker’s hostel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2007. A friendship was made, then love blossomed. Six years later, we got engaged in South Africa. In 2014, we got married on the pitch at Tom’s cricket club!

Between us, we’ve travelled to more than 50 countries around the world. In 2017, our daughter Zoe was born – she had a passport from the age of 2 months old, so now the adventures continue as a family of three.

But, wherever in the world our family wanders, there’s no place like home. Home for us is a small town called Alcester, 10 minutes down the road from Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Here, on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, is where Tom grew up, spending his youth hiking, running, and playing in the Cotswold Hills village cricket league.  That’s where his passion for the Cotswolds was born – and it wasn’t long before his infectious enthusiasm grabbed hold of Lisa too!

With our love for independent travel and a spirit of adventure, we founded Go Cotswolds to show visitors around this beautiful region we call our ‘back yard’. We create the kind of experiences we enjoy on our own travels, right here at home – fun, friendly, welcoming tours, with expert local guides who feel more like friends than teachers.

We’re also passionate about ensuring the Cotswolds stays beautiful for generations to come. Read more about our responsibility and sustainability ethos here. 

Our Driver-Guides

“People may not always remember what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”

That’s why the best part of a Go Cotswolds tour is your tour guide!

Our small team of driver-guides are all local to Stratford-upon-Avon and the Cotswolds. Tom and Lisa hand-picked each one, not for their historical knowledge or encyclopaedic brains, but first and foremost for their warm, friendly, kind personalities. Each one has a cool confidence and ability to make you feel at ease, without being brash, overbearing or ‘in your face’.

That’s not to say our guides don’t also have incredible knowledge! What sets us apart, however, is that our live tour commentary isn’t just a learned script – you’ll learn a lot, yes, but our tours are full of personal, unique, funny, heart-warming, interesting stories that only a local person could share.

Read our Tripadvisor reviews, and you’ll find our guests rave about our guides!

Our behind-the-scenes team

Our business simply wouldn’t function without our fabulous admin team! In fact, we don’t know how we ever coped without Sue and Patrick, who both joined Go Cotswolds in 2024.

Sue is our resident sales and marketing guru. She’s the one who handles all the bookings, answers all your questions, plans, writes and posts all our social media content, and brings all the good vibes to the Go Cotswolds office!

As a guest on our tours, you may never meet Patrick, but as our Transport & Operations Administrator, Pat literally keeps Go Cotswolds’ wheels moving! Pat makes sure our team of 8 guides all know which tours they’re doing, on what day, in which vehicle and with which passengers (no small feat!). He also ensures our vehicles are kept in tip-top condition by scheduling regular maintenance and cleaning, and keeping our fleet and drivers safe and legally compliant.

We’re a small business with a big love for the Cotswolds. Join us for a tour and discover why this beautiful region is so special to us.