ASAP Help Oxford and London
Feb 22nd, 2006, 10:32 AM
#1
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ASAP Help Oxford and London
I am a student that will be travelling alone in a couple days to europe. I will mainly be staying in oxford but I want to plan day trips to see england as I may not ever get the opportunity to be there again.
I have planned a trip to stonehenge by way of bath and plan to see london (any great tour ideas?) but I am not sure if there are any other places worth seeing that will fit in my tight schedule???
Thank you!!
I have planned a trip to stonehenge by way of bath and plan to see london (any great tour ideas?) but I am not sure if there are any other places worth seeing that will fit in my tight schedule???
Thank you!!
Feb 22nd, 2006, 12:08 PM
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Are you planning to use public transport? Take a number 20 bus up to Woodstock and wander the grounds of Blenheim Palace, visit the Oxfordshire county museum in Woodstock itself. The journey will take 20 minutes and there is free entrance to Blenheim Park (if you use the little gate near the Vermont Drive bus stop otherwise if you use the main entrance that general visitors go in then you'll have to pay). The county museum's free as well.
This can all be done in half a day giving you the rest of time to explore Oxford.
Just 45 miles north of Oxford is Shakespeare's Stratford on Avon which in recent times has become a little less easy to get to by train and bus from Oxford. Direct services have ended so by bus you'll need to change in Chipping Norton or by train make the switch at Leamington Spa (both take about 2 hours one way depending on connecting services).
This can all be done in half a day giving you the rest of time to explore Oxford.
Just 45 miles north of Oxford is Shakespeare's Stratford on Avon which in recent times has become a little less easy to get to by train and bus from Oxford. Direct services have ended so by bus you'll need to change in Chipping Norton or by train make the switch at Leamington Spa (both take about 2 hours one way depending on connecting services).
Feb 22nd, 2006, 12:33 PM
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Odd routing to do Stonehenge by way of Bath.
If I was doing it, I'd get the train from London to Salisbury then take a local bus to Stonehenge - but as that's only worth a 30 minute visit I'd then go to Avebury which is FAR more interesting. Then back to Salisbury & get the train to Bath.
http://www.wdbus.co.uk/htm/ta/sdo-stonehenge.asp
If I was doing it, I'd get the train from London to Salisbury then take a local bus to Stonehenge - but as that's only worth a 30 minute visit I'd then go to Avebury which is FAR more interesting. Then back to Salisbury & get the train to Bath.
http://www.wdbus.co.uk/htm/ta/sdo-stonehenge.asp
Feb 22nd, 2006, 02:20 PM
#4
Note that alwaysbigdreams is staying in Oxford - so info about itineraries out of London aren't too helpful.
<u>alwaysbigdreams</u>: "<i>. . that will fit in my tight schedule</i>". How tight? How long are you staying in Oxford. Also, what sorts of things do you enjoy - Castles, stately homes, gardens, shopping, scenery/hiking, clubbing?
<u>alwaysbigdreams</u>: "<i>. . that will fit in my tight schedule</i>". How tight? How long are you staying in Oxford. Also, what sorts of things do you enjoy - Castles, stately homes, gardens, shopping, scenery/hiking, clubbing?
Feb 22nd, 2006, 02:50 PM
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Castles and historic places are of interest, as I have been studying early british literature and find history to be entertaining, but also shopping and eating in the places locals would go would be great!
Also I am open to seeing a city by night if that is recommended otherwise I will be out and about in Oxford enjoy the nightlife with college students there.
Thank you so much for all of your help!I really appreciate it!
Also I am open to seeing a city by night if that is recommended otherwise I will be out and about in Oxford enjoy the nightlife with college students there.
Thank you so much for all of your help!I really appreciate it!
Feb 22nd, 2006, 03:11 PM
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About 4 1/2 years ago, just after September 11th, I visited a young friend who was studying in Bath for her junior year of college. It was Thanksgiving week, so I got to play house mom to a half dozen or so college students. We all cooked ourselves a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and had a feast. I have, understandably, fond memories of Bath, but regardless of my personal connections, Bath is awesome. I enjoyed everything about it so much that I'm lobbying to include a side trip there during our Ireland trip in August, though I'm afraid that's not going to work out. If you enjoy British literature you'll enjoy the Jane Austen home and references throughout the city, the Roman baths and Bath Abbey will appeal to your historical side, and the pubs, shops, and restaurants will wow you as well. Don't miss it!
Feb 22nd, 2006, 04:44 PM
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Alwaysbigdreams, I was about to suggest Blenheim and Stratford--basically everything henneth said. I also highly recommened Cambridge! This will be our 3rd summer there, my husband is a professor taking a bunch of students over to study. It is a great, lively and young city with lots to do. But I know you only have a week...my advice is to extend your stay if at all possible. So much to see.
Feb 22nd, 2006, 11:36 PM
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Hold it right there.
You're here (to study) for 7 days. You've already thrown two of them away on tourist gallivanting around the place.
If there's a personal problem you're not telling us about, my sympathy and ignore the next couple of sentence. Otherwise "I may not ever get the opportunity to be there again" is complete rot. Oxford is 40 minutes by bus from the world's best connected airport, and a hour by direct train from two of Europe's best connected low cost airports. When, in a few years, you're changing planes at LHR between California and Africa, you'll be able to see just as much of London by slipping into town between planes as you will by taking a whole day out of your seven.
What you MIGHT never have the chance to do again is spend a week studying with other people in the world's best designed learning machine. Time you waste discovering how incompetent Virgin Cross Country is at getting you back from Salisbury is time you're not spending arguing, flirting, pursuing odd cross-references to whatever you're studying in the city's extraordinary library system or doing what Oxford's better at than anywhere else - encouraging young people to mis-spend their youth, preferably accompanied by a great deal of alcohol. Don't even think of Cambridge: the journey's so slow (at least 3 hours each way) people are now flying.
Shopping? Awful except for books (and even there it's long way behind Portland, Oregon), as five minutes in Queen St or the Cornmarket will show.. Most people who live in Oxford go to Reading or Milton Keynes (DON'T!!!), the city's barely-adequate suburban strip centres (ditto, in spades), London, the web, Heathrow duty-free or whatever foreign city they're in this week. Or find something better to do with their time.
No-one comes into Oxford for fine eating. The historic centre is swarming with pubs that mostly get their income from the student population eating pleasant, only mildly overpriced, not remotely gastronomic gutbusters. None are worth choosing (or avoiding) for their food: the best way to decide which ones suit you is the time-honoured method of drinking in lots of them, and discussing your findings with fellow-students.
Advice on this board that the Lamb + Flag, or wherever, was nice will be hopelessly out of date, as the people you meet will sharply point out. The strip of bouncer-fronted bars (and their neighbouring chain restaurants) along George St is best avoided most evenings, though there's a surprisingly excellent Chinese cafe (French toast for breakfast, noodles the rest of the day) at the end closest to Worcester College, opposite the old fire station. Edamame in Holywell St is also sharp,and (I think) authentic. At any rate, its food doesn't have that stodgy sameness that characterises much of Oxford's eating. Nor, normally, does Al-Shami in Walton Crescent - though it was unusually mediocre the other week and might have slipped back into the prevailing miasma.
No stay in Oxford is complete without a late-night kebab from the vans on St Giles after a few dozen pints. I understand stomach pumps are kept conveniently close by.
You're here (to study) for 7 days. You've already thrown two of them away on tourist gallivanting around the place.
If there's a personal problem you're not telling us about, my sympathy and ignore the next couple of sentence. Otherwise "I may not ever get the opportunity to be there again" is complete rot. Oxford is 40 minutes by bus from the world's best connected airport, and a hour by direct train from two of Europe's best connected low cost airports. When, in a few years, you're changing planes at LHR between California and Africa, you'll be able to see just as much of London by slipping into town between planes as you will by taking a whole day out of your seven.
What you MIGHT never have the chance to do again is spend a week studying with other people in the world's best designed learning machine. Time you waste discovering how incompetent Virgin Cross Country is at getting you back from Salisbury is time you're not spending arguing, flirting, pursuing odd cross-references to whatever you're studying in the city's extraordinary library system or doing what Oxford's better at than anywhere else - encouraging young people to mis-spend their youth, preferably accompanied by a great deal of alcohol. Don't even think of Cambridge: the journey's so slow (at least 3 hours each way) people are now flying.
Shopping? Awful except for books (and even there it's long way behind Portland, Oregon), as five minutes in Queen St or the Cornmarket will show.. Most people who live in Oxford go to Reading or Milton Keynes (DON'T!!!), the city's barely-adequate suburban strip centres (ditto, in spades), London, the web, Heathrow duty-free or whatever foreign city they're in this week. Or find something better to do with their time.
No-one comes into Oxford for fine eating. The historic centre is swarming with pubs that mostly get their income from the student population eating pleasant, only mildly overpriced, not remotely gastronomic gutbusters. None are worth choosing (or avoiding) for their food: the best way to decide which ones suit you is the time-honoured method of drinking in lots of them, and discussing your findings with fellow-students.
Advice on this board that the Lamb + Flag, or wherever, was nice will be hopelessly out of date, as the people you meet will sharply point out. The strip of bouncer-fronted bars (and their neighbouring chain restaurants) along George St is best avoided most evenings, though there's a surprisingly excellent Chinese cafe (French toast for breakfast, noodles the rest of the day) at the end closest to Worcester College, opposite the old fire station. Edamame in Holywell St is also sharp,and (I think) authentic. At any rate, its food doesn't have that stodgy sameness that characterises much of Oxford's eating. Nor, normally, does Al-Shami in Walton Crescent - though it was unusually mediocre the other week and might have slipped back into the prevailing miasma.
No stay in Oxford is complete without a late-night kebab from the vans on St Giles after a few dozen pints. I understand stomach pumps are kept conveniently close by.
Feb 23rd, 2006, 05:24 AM
#11
alwaysbigdreams: You are only in Oxford a week?? You say you are a student - does that mean you are taking a course IN Oxford -- or did you just mention that as an aside? If you are taking a class while in Oxford - then take every bit of Cotswold's says advice and stay put.
But if you are simply a "poor" student who is basing in Oxford for a week's visit to England -- Then you can go to other places. Cambridge doesn't make much sense tho'. There are no really convenient connections to the place. Stratford/Warwick Castle is a great day trip - but a bit inconvenient by public transport. Woodstock/Blenheim is a no-brainer since it is so close and w/ good bus connections.
London day trips are OK - but you will only see a tiny bit in a day. There is an inexpensive direct bus service called the Oxford Tube that will save you over the cost of the trains.
But if you are simply a "poor" student who is basing in Oxford for a week's visit to England -- Then you can go to other places. Cambridge doesn't make much sense tho'. There are no really convenient connections to the place. Stratford/Warwick Castle is a great day trip - but a bit inconvenient by public transport. Woodstock/Blenheim is a no-brainer since it is so close and w/ good bus connections.
London day trips are OK - but you will only see a tiny bit in a day. There is an inexpensive direct bus service called the Oxford Tube that will save you over the cost of the trains.
