Oxford
 

Hi. We will be traveling to England the week between Christmas and New Year's and are considering going directly to Oxford for a few days. We spent a week in London a few years ago and thought we might stay outside of London this time. We would do a few day trips by rail from Oxford, then return to London. Any comments? Is it worthwhile in terms of sites to see or perhaps less expensive to stay in Oxford as opposed to London? Thanks for your help!

I have visited Oxford on several occasions but only from London. Might be a bit dead during the time you'll be there, all the students will be gone, and the train trip is not insignificant. But you'll have it to yourself, and the bookstores are WONDERFUL! I'd love to stay there a few days and not really sightsee, but rather just do ordinary things there like shopping, movies, etc. and get a feel for living there.

I probably wouldn't base in Oxford for a winter week. I lived outside of Oxford for several years and LOVE the town -- but with the colleges shut and nearby Blenheim Palace closed, it would not really be that great a place for a first time visitor.

If you are looking for a nice town to stay in with rail connections to see othere places I would choose 1) York, 2) Edinburgh (as long as you are back in London before NY eve because Hogmanay is terrific but is probably already pretty much totally booked up), or 3) Bath.

Any of these would give you an entirely different experience than London.

I'd stay in London and visit Oxford and envrions from there.

Regardless, consider that Christmas and Boxing Day fall on a Sat/Sun this year. Things that normally shut for the 25th and 26th may be closed on the 27th as well.

There's a limit to where you can travel comfortably to by train from Oxford (getting to Salisbury/Stonehenge for example is a real pain, though the road journey is quite fast). You should check timetables carefully: trains don't always run to weekday frequencies between Dec 26 and Jan 4, and Britain's rail system often uses this period for serious construction work. Getting to Stratford (though why?) is easy, and Bath's reasionably accessible. Updates on this start at www.nationalrail.co.uk

Hotels aren't immensely cheaper than London. Hotel rates over Christmas/New Year can be very erratic in provincial Britain, with some places desperate for business and others imposing very high rates for minimum stays. Shop around and use Priceline aggressively.

Oxford absolutely doesn't close down at Christmas. From Dec 27, its (congested and really rather tacky) shopping area will be as crammed as everywhere else in Britain with people buying up whatever Topshop and Carphone Warehouse stock Father Christmas didn't bring them. This means road traffic will be worse than usual - but the medieval three-quarters of the centre will be emptier than usual. Not deserted.

Its considerable collection of student oriented bars and restaurants (quite a few gloriously medieval, the rest the mid-90s inventions of marketing people) will mostly be open and half-empty (all those videophone shoppers having gone back to the suburbs). The bookshops will be open, and probably as busy as usual (undergraduates, after all don't read that much: it's Oxford's grown-up population who keep the shops going). Oxford's covered market, BTW, just before Christmas, is an absolute joy. It's STUFFED with hanging pheasants, boar, hare and all the other wildlife that's usually roadkill on the lanes in the nearby countryside.

I don't think the colleges are closed: the only one I've checked specifically (Christ Church) closes only on Christmas Day, and even then IS open if you're coming to a service in the cathedral. Opening times for things connected to the university, or its colleges, are at www.ox.ac.uk/visitors.

And they can't close the medieval streets, or Christ Church meadow, at any time.

Culturally, Oxford is outstanding for music, and this isn't entirely to do with the university: expect a great number of reasonable concerts during this time. It is simply awful for films, with just one art house and an extraordinary number of megaplexes stinking of popcorn and showing Tom Hanks. Don't expect an orgy of Fellini retrospectives.

The fact that Blenheim is officially closed (though they can't and don't close the free public rights of way across the Park) reduces the number of coach parties to the area as a whole.

You certainly won't be coming to a ghost town.

Hi. Thanks for all your suggestions! We may end up back in London after all. Just thought it would be easier to travel to Windsor, Stratford-kids have never been there- and see Oxford as well, for a little less time and money. Will take all your comments to heart!

Oxford is a great place to base yourself if you're driving. The rail links are not so good, and London is a better place if you're travelling by train.