India, May 27 -- With its dozens of quaint stone villages filled with cozy inns, snug pubs, and petite cheese shops, all surrounded by rolling hills traced with well-worn hiking trails, the Cotswolds are a wonderland of small pleasures. Despite covering almost 800 square miles and stretching across five counties-it's England's largest National Landscape-this bucolic swath of countryside feels scaled down to storybook perfection.

Years ago, I rented an Airbnb in Bath, the southern gateway to the Cotswolds, for several months, and spent my free time researching the various villages in the region I wanted to explore. Bibury was always at the top of my list.

Said to have been deemed the "most beautiful village in England" by 19th-century...