Where to Stay in Cheltenham: A Local's Guide to the Best Areas
Montpellier, Town Centre or Pittville? In a town this walkable, the area you pick shapes the whole trip. A local's guide to choosing your base.
Most guides answer "where to stay in Cheltenham" with a list of hotels ranked by star rating. That misses the point.
Cheltenham is small. Two hours direct from London to Cheltenham Spa, and compact enough that you can walk between most of the good bits in twenty minutes. What actually shapes your trip is not which hotel you book. It's which part of town you wake up in.
Get that right and you can stroll to dinner, walk home afterwards, and never think about a taxi. Get it wrong and you spend your weekend commuting across a town you could have crossed on foot.
For race week the stakes are higher again, because the area you pick has a direct effect on what you pay. More on that below.
This is a guide to Cheltenham by neighbourhood: who each area suits, what it feels like, and which places are worth your money. Visit Cheltenham has the full accommodation register if you want the exhaustive version. This is the opinionated one.
Where should you stay in Cheltenham?
Short answer, depending on what you want:
- Town Centre if it's your first visit, or you want everything on the doorstep and the widest choice of price points.
- Montpellier if you want atmosphere, independent restaurants and the prettiest streets in town.
- Pittville if you're here for the racecourse, or you want somewhere quieter with a park at the end of the road.
Everything else is a variation on those three. The town is genuinely walkable, so none of these is a bad decision. They're just different trips.
Montpellier, the one for atmosphere
Montpellier is the epicentre of independent Cheltenham. Tree-lined streets, Regency terraces with ornate ironwork, and a tight cluster of restaurants, wine bars, boutiques and galleries you can work through on foot.
It's the area people mean when they say Cheltenham is beautiful.
Who it suits
Couples, weekenders, and anyone whose idea of a good trip involves wandering without a plan and ending up somewhere good. Less ideal if you're travelling with small children or need budget rates, because neither is Montpellier's strength.
Where to stay
Queens Hotel Cheltenham sits at the top of the Promenade and is the town's landmark address, a great columned Regency pile that has been putting up visitors since 1838. It scores 7.8 with us. It's also the most convenient grand hotel for the racecourse transfers.
Malmaison Cheltenham on Bayshill Road is the more contemporary option, also 7.8, with the group's usual dark, clubby styling behind a period facade.
Both put you a few minutes' walk from the best concentration of restaurants in town.
Town Centre, the one for convenience
The Town Centre covers the Promenade, the High Street and the Brewery Quarter. It's where the widest range of rooms is, from Regency townhouses to the reliable chains.
Cheltenham has more listed hotels here than in every other area combined, so if you're comparing on price this is where you'll find the range.
Who it suits
First-time visitors, anyone arriving by train, and travellers who want to step out of the door into the middle of things. It's also the sensible choice if you're combining Cheltenham with day trips, since the coach and bus links are all here.
Where to stay
Hotel du Vin Cheltenham is the pick of the bunch at 8.2, occupying a Parabola Road townhouse with the bistro the group is known for.
The George is a solid 7.8 and markets itself hard to racegoers, with organised transfers on race days.
The Little Manor and Crescent Place by Mansley both score 8.2 and suit anyone who prefers a smaller, quieter operation to a full hotel.
For budget, the Premier Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Travelodge properties are all here. None of them will surprise you, which is rather the point when you're back at eleven and out again at eight.
Pittville, the one for the racecourse
Pittville is the quiet Regency neighbourhood north of the centre, built around Pittville Park and the Pump Room. It's residential, green, and noticeably calmer than the middle of town.
It's also the closest of Cheltenham's neighbourhoods to the racecourse, which makes it the smart base in March.
Who it suits
Racegoers who don't want to rely on transport, walkers who want a park on the doorstep, and anyone who'd rather stay somewhere that feels like a real neighbourhood than a visitor district.
Where to stay
No.38 The Park is the standout at 8.2, a townhouse hotel on Evesham Road roughly fifteen minutes' walk from the racecourse gates. On race days that walk is worth more than it sounds.
Cotswold Grange and Clarence Court Hotel both score 7.4 and sit in the same bracket, comfortable and well placed without the price tag of the grander addresses.
Laurel House scores 8.2 and holds a 4.9 Google rating, though it's a small operation, so book early.
Where should you stay in Cheltenham for the races?
Stay in Pittville if you can, the Town Centre if you can't, and book far earlier than feels reasonable.
Race week is not a normal week. Well over 200,000 people come through across the four days, and every one of them needs a bed, a table and a taxi.
The pricing follows accordingly. Analysis by Mybettingsites.co.uk during the 2025 festival found a five-night stay for two adults averaging £3,288 on Booking.com during festival week, against £1,081 the week before. That's a 204 per cent increase for the same room. Airbnb followed the same curve, from £589 to £1,717.
Three things follow from that.
Book in advance, not in January. The better-value rooms go a year out. If you're looking in February for March, you're shopping in the worst market in British hospitality. Visit Cheltenham keeps a festival hotel availability page that's worth watching if you've left it late.
Consider one area out. Charlton Kings, Leckhampton and The Suffolks are all short taxi rides from the course and price more sanely, because they aren't competing for the same racegoer traffic.
Check what's included. Several hotels bundle racecourse transfers, which is worth real money when a race-day taxi is neither cheap nor easy to find. The Jockey Club's travel guidance is the authority on getting there.
One last piece of local colour. The racecourse sits on the edge of Prestbury, a historic village with a reputation as one of the most haunted in England. Worth a wander on a non-race morning.
If you're in town for the week, there's plenty to do beyond the races, and the town is a good deal more interesting than the shuttle route suggests.
The quieter alternatives
Three areas worth considering if the centre feels too busy.
The Suffolks is a residential neighbourhood that has quietly built one of Cheltenham's better food scenes. Beaumont House scores 7.8 and is the pick here.
Charlton Kings keeps a genuine village feel, with The Charlton Boutique Hotel at 7.3 and the larger DoubleTree by Hilton nearby.
Leckhampton sits on the southern edge with Leckhampton Hill and the Devil's Chimney above it. Georgian Lodge scores 7.2 and suits walkers who want the hills from the doorstep.
All three trade a little convenience for a lot of calm.
What about apartments and guesthouses?
Worth knowing if you're staying longer than a couple of nights, travelling as a group, or bringing children. Cheltenham has a decent supply of both, and they often work out better value than a hotel room of equivalent quality.
Crescent Place by Mansley scores 8.2 and sits in the Town Centre, offering apartments rather than rooms. Beechurst Serviced Apartments, a certified B Corp, scores 7.8 and works well for longer stays. Hewlett Apartments is smaller again.
On the guesthouse side, The Portland Guesthouse in Pittville and The Dulwich in the Town Centre both score 7.8 and give you the personal, run-by-actual-people feel that the chains can't.
The trade-off is usually breakfast and a front desk. If you'd rather have a kitchen and more space, that's an easy swap to make.
How far is Cheltenham Racecourse from the town centre?
The racecourse is about 1.5 miles from the town centre, which is roughly a thirty-minute walk. From Cheltenham Spa station it's further, around 2.5 miles.
On race days, Stagecoach runs a raceday shuttle from the station and the town centre, taking roughly 15 to 20 minutes. It runs continuously and is comfortably the least stressful option.
If you're staying in Pittville, you can skip all of it and walk.
Picking your base
Cheltenham is small enough that there's no wrong answer, only a best one for the trip you're planning. Montpellier for atmosphere, the Town Centre for convenience, Pittville for the racecourse and the quiet.
The one rule that matters: book early for March, and earlier than you think for the areas closest to the course.
Once you've settled on a neighbourhood, browse every hotel and guesthouse we've scored to find the room. And if you're planning the trip around it, our guide to 48 hours in Cheltenham will fill in the rest.
Meta Description: Where to stay in Cheltenham, area by area. A local's guide to Montpellier, the Town Centre and Pittville, plus the best base for the races.