Oxford and Hampton Court from London in a day?
 

I'll be in London in April for 8 days and would like to visit Oxford and Hampton Court. Is it possible (or advisable) to try to "hit the high spots" of both in one day? It looks pretty easy to get to either place directly from London - but does anyone know about the train situation between Oxford and Hampton Court? Thanks for any advice.

No - it would be VERY difficult to do HCP and Oxford in one day. HCP takes about 3/4 of a day just by itself including R-T transport from Waterloo in the center of London.

Oxford takes about an hour on the train each way from Paddington plus a minimum 1/2 a day in the town just to see a bit of the highlights.

Consider Oxford a full day's trip, and HCP 1/2 to a full day's trip.

Even HCP and Windsor (which is MUCH nearer than Oxford) is a pretty frantic two-fer . . . . . . .

The quickest train route from Oxford to Hampton Court is to go back to Paddington, get the tube to Waterloo then get the train out to Hampton Court. That'll take about 135 minutes. You can - though it probably costs more - go "straight", changing at Reading, Virgina Water, Weybridge and Surbiton (yes, all 4 of them). But that usually takes longer and you've more chance of missing a connection.

Most colleges that are open at all open only in the afternoon, so if you want to try this you need to be at H Court when it opens and travel to Oxford over lunchtime.

Is it advisable? Well it's doable, and if you want to see them both and this is the only way you can do so, then do it. Unless you want to do the maze, H Court can easily be run through in a couple of hours. It'll stay light till 8 or so and the last train from Oxford to London is around mignight. Four or five hours in Oxford is fine to see the outsides of things and you'll have a couple of hours to see inside one or two things.

No, don't do it. You'll easily spend a full day just walking around Oxford and visiting all the colleges.

Hampton Court you can spend a full afternoon just meandering around.

I don't think you could truly enjoy either places if you tried to rush through both of them on the same day, even if it was easily done geographically.

Hi linda,

IIRC, we spent a full day to/from Oxford and almost a full day to/from HCP.

I would not recommend trying to do both in one day.

They will both be there for your next visit.

((I))

Thank you all for your kind advice. I can see from your replies that I couldn't do justice to both places in a day and the transportation could be a real hassle. This is the kind of feedback I was looking for. Typical me - trying to cram too much into too little time! Thanks again, Linda

i did oxford, cambridge, and hampton court on my last stay in london. i'd rank them (in order of preference): cambridge, hampton court, oxford. cambridge is just enchanting and go punting while you're there. also some good indian food there in cambridge...king indian? or something like that, behind a tappas restaurant.

If you can, take a boat ride to Hampton Court and you will be arriving in the same way they did when the palace was built.

Ucsun, that would be the Curry King, behind La Tasca on Bridge St :). Good cheap curry. Students' favourite. :)

Just putting in a vote for Cambridge over Oxford (although I'm perhaps ever so slightly biased. Alright, very...). It's just 'prettier', somehow. Oxford is possibly more imposing and majestic, I suppose. Cambridge is more compact, everything's on a slightly smaller scale (although King's College chapel and the main entrances of St John's and Trinity are pretty impressive) and I think it would make a nicer daytrip than Oxford. But like I said, I'm horribly biased :)