Oxford, known for its prestigious university and stunning architecture, is a charming city with a rich history. This background attracts millions of visitors annually from all over the world. Whether you’re a history buff, interested in taking tours of Oxford, a literature lover, or simply keen to explore some of England’s most picturesque streets, Oxford has something for every traveller. Here’s a guide to help you make the most of your trip to this iconic English city. To leave the planning to someone else, book a place on our private Oxford and Cotswolds day tour.
Explore the University of Oxford
Oxford University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world, is the beating heart of the city. The university consists of 39 colleges, each with its own unique history and architecture. Some of the most popular colleges to visit include Christ Church, known for its grand hall which inspired the dining hall in Harry Potter. Balliol College is another highlight, as many prominent historical figures studied there. Many colleges allow visitors to walk through their courtyards, gardens, and chapels. Additionally, some offer guided tours to help you dive deeper into the university’s fascinating past.
Wander Around the Ashmolean Museum
For art and history enthusiasts, the Ashmolean Museum is a must-see spot. As it is the oldest public museum in the United Kingdom, it houses an impressive collection of art, archaeology, and ancient artefacts. These include Egyptian mummies, Renaissance paintings, and a large collection of works by iconic British artists such as Turner and Holman Hunt. The museum’s spacious galleries are a great place to spend a few hours, and entry is free. Thus, it is an excellent option for budget-conscious travellers.
Visit the Bodleian Library
A trip to Oxford wouldn’t be complete without a visit to its renowned libraries. The Bodleian Library, one of the oldest libraries in Europe, is a treasure trove of knowledge. You can take a guided tour to explore the historic reading rooms and view the beautiful architecture of this ancient building. Nearby, the Radcliffe Camera, with its distinctive domed roof, is one of Oxford’s most recognisable landmarks. While you can’t enter the Radcliffe Camera itself, it’s worth admiring from the outside. Alternatively, you might enjoy taking a walk around the nearby streets to get the perfect photo.
Stroll Through the University Parks
For a more relaxed experience, head to the University Parks, a sprawling green space located just a short walk from the city centre. The park offers idyllic walking paths, picturesque lakes, and plenty of space for picnics or to simply unwinding in the sun. In good weather, it’s a popular spot for both locals and tourists. The park also boasts stunning views of the surrounding colleges. So it’s a great place to soak in the beauty of Oxford while enjoying some downtime.
Take a Punting Trip on the River Cherwell
For a truly quintessential Oxford experience, try your hand at punting on the River Cherwell. Punting is a traditional activity involving navigating a flat-bottomed boat using a long pole. You can hire a punt and either take the boat out yourself or opt for a guided tour. As you gently glide along the river, you’ll pass through many scenic landscapes and picturesque college buildings. It’s a peaceful and relaxing way to explore Oxford from a different perspective. When you are ready to swap city spires for countryside, our guide to the Cotswolds is a good next read.
Other things to do in Oxford once you have seen the famous three
The Ashmolean, the Bodleian and a college or two will fill a first visit, but the city rewards anyone who keeps walking. The Divinity School, the medieval room beneath the Bodleian where students were once examined face to face, has a fan vaulted ceiling that stops most people in the doorway. On Broad Street the Sheldonian Theatre was designed by a young Christopher Wren and is still where the university holds its ceremonies, and a few doors along Blackwell’s looks like an ordinary bookshop from the pavement until you go downstairs into the Norrington Room and find that the floor keeps going.
The Covered Market has been trading just off the High Street since the eighteenth century and makes a better lunch than anything on the main street. The Turf Tavern is hidden down an alley off New College Lane and is easy to walk past twice, which is part of the fun of finding it. Getting there takes you under the Bridge of Sighs, the covered arch that spans the lane between two halves of Hertford College and is photographed about as often as anything else in Oxford.
Two museums most visitors walk straight past
A short walk north of the Bodleian, on Parks Road, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History fills a Victorian court of iron and glass, its pillars each cut from a different British rock and its arcades carved with plants and animals. Dinosaur skeletons stand on the floor in the middle of it, which is fitting, because Megalosaurus was described here and became the first dinosaur anywhere to be given a scientific name. The museum also keeps the remains of the Oxford dodo, generally reckoned to be the bird Lewis Carroll borrowed for Alice. Walk on through the far end of the hall and you step into the Pitt Rivers Museum, where the cases have been arranged by what objects are rather than where they came from since the collection arrived in the 1880s, so instruments, boats and masks from opposite ends of the world share a case in the half light.
The literary side of the city runs deeper than the dining hall at Christ Church. Alice began as a story told on a river afternoon to the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church, Tolkien wrote Middle-earth while teaching here and C.S. Lewis taught at Magdalen, and our round up of historic writers’ houses you can visit in England follows that thread around the rest of the country.
Green space and the two rivers
Christ Church Meadow is the walk to take if you have only an hour to spare. It runs down from St Aldate’s to the Thames and then back along the Cherwell with the colleges rising behind the trees, and cattle still graze it through the warmer months. At the far end of the High Street the Botanic Garden sits on the bank of the Cherwell beside Magdalen Bridge, the oldest garden of its kind in Britain, small enough to see properly and quiet even when the centre is busy. Punts are hired from beneath that bridge, which is where most first attempts at steering begin and where a fair few of them end.
Choosing when to visit
Colleges are working institutions rather than museums, so visitor access varies from day to day and can be withdrawn at short notice for exams, ceremonies and conferences. If one particular college matters to you, check its own visitor page the day before rather than trusting a guidebook, and have a second choice ready. Term time gives you the city with its students in it, which is the version most people picture, while the vacations make the buildings easier to get inside. On the first of May the choir sings from the top of Magdalen tower at six in the morning and much of the city is awake to hear it, which tells you how seriously Oxford takes its own traditions.
Fitting Oxford into a bigger trip
The centre is compact enough to walk end to end, and arriving is the awkward part. Driving into the middle is discouraged by design, so visitors coming by car usually leave it at one of the park and ride sites on the ring road and travel the last stretch in. From London the city works comfortably as a single day out, and it pairs naturally with the Cotswolds, which begin to the north west. If you are weighing up how much of southern England you can see between breakfast and dinner, our day trips from London show what one day realistically covers, and our round up of historic places every visitor should see puts Oxford in the company of the other stops worth the drive.
Tours of Oxford: Tours
Multi day tours: five-day England tour
Visit Oxford : Oxford
