Our daughter is in summer school at Oxford and we would love a recommendation for a convenient B & B or hotel. Our budget is $200 USD per night and we will have a rental car. We don't have to stay right in the historic district but I don't want to be too far out since we only have a few days (also going to Ireland). I've already checked tripadvisor.com but didn't find much info. Thanks.

Which college is she attending?

I haven't stayed in an Oxford B&B/hotel for years (I usually stay for a week or more and rent a cottage or flat) -- maybe some others will be able to give you suggestions.

But just a couple of comments. You won't be using your car <u>IN</u> Oxford. It is great for excursions out into the country - but much of the city center is nearly impossible to navigate and parking is difficult. So you will need to look for a place that has parking and just leave the car and walk or take buses in Oxford itself.

While I haven't stayed at any of these here are a couple that firends have used and were OK and have free parking ( IMHO -Don't put too much faith in Trip advisor - it is a good add'l resource but anyone can post anything and one never knows if they have an agenda)

http://www.galaxie.co.uk/
http://www.oxfordcity.co.uk/hotels/parklands/

My favorite hotel would be the Randolph - but parking there is about &pound;20 per day.

We stayed at the Linton Lodge off the Banbury Road and enjoyed it very much. The full English breakfast was great. It has parking on site. It's a Best Western Hotel.

When my daughter was a student at St. Edmunds (Teddy Hall) we visited several times, sometimes with a car and sometimes coming in on the bus from London or a train. When we did have a car we spent a weekend at the Old Black Horse on the London road...nothing fancy but adequate (I think we paid about 75 pounds a night) and they did have a car park and I don't recall them charging for parking. It was about a 5-10 minute walk down to the high street and her college. The other time we drove into Oxford we actually stayed in Woodstock which a lovely little village about a 10-15 minute drive out of Oxford proper. The Feathers is a lovely hotel and I think we paid about 145 pounds...loved walking around Woodstock and had several lovely meals there also. When we didn't have a car we stayed at the Eastgate which is right on the High Street and very convenient to most of the colleges and the covered market etc. It was also fine but we were there right at a celebration time and it did get a little noisy at night. I would avoid some of the b&amp;B on the abington road...did that once and wouldn't do it again. Hope this helps a little.

With a car, I'd agree that staying somewhere outside of town is a good option. We recently stayed in Woodstock to visit our daughter at Oxford, and found it worked well. We liked the village atmosphere, and Blenheim Palace was convenient for a visit. Less that 10 minutes drive into Oxford center. The B&amp;B where we stayed was fine, but more value-oriented; if we were returning, I'd pay a bit more for a B&amp;B with more atmosphere (at 200 USD, you should do ok). We checked at the oxfordcity site mentioned above, and smoothhound.co.uk for listings.

Woodstock would be great - then if you do drive to Oxford (you could take local buses in to town) park at the Pear Tree Park and Ride lot. Free parking and frequent inexpensive buses into the city center.

A car in Oxford is almost certainly a nuisance. And if your daughter's staying in a &quot;real&quot; college, staying too far from the centre deprives you of the atmosphere. Staying out of town altogether means you've the pain of driving in and out and faffing about with the Park+Ride - trivial by the standards of many places, but still meaning you're missing Oxford's real charm, which is that everything's walkable (and universally walked). And incompatible with the city's alcohol-centred culture.

I've minimial knowledge of the city's hotels. But the screaming absence of any B+B recommendations on this board seems to confirm the suspicion that would strike anyone walking or driving past them.

There are a handful of conventional hotels more or less in the centre - Randolph, Eastgate, Royal Oxford, Malmaison, Old Bank. Most of them are, depending on dates, currently on offer within your budget at expedia.co.uk and lastminute.com. Three others - the Cotswold Lodge, the Linton Arms and the Old Parsonage - are in the leafy, quiet Victorian residental area a walkable five-ten minutes from the centre.

Others listed on those sites as being in Oxford aren't - mostly stuck on roundabouts along the city's charmless ringroads, and great if you've got a dozen sales calls to make in central England tomorrow. Really, really horrible though if you thought you were having a night in the city of dreming spires.

In your shoes, I'd check the availability of the conventional city centre hotels. If affordable, I'd stay there, and make my way to the hotel from your airport by bus or train (there are direct buses from Heathrow and Gatwick that actually stop outside the Eastgate, for example). I'd then collect a hired car at Oxford at the end of the stay.

Unless someone comes on with a really good B+B.

My wife and I stayed at Costwalds Lodge in Janurary (also to visit our daughter who is attending school at Green College) and found it very nice and within easy walking distance from the city center.

http://www.signpost.co.uk/london_and...xfordshire.htm

Good sources for B&amp;B's in England are the AA website (www.thaaa.com) and www.smoothhound.co.uk. There's also Sawday's but not a lot of information free there. I have found the AA ratings to be very reliable, and have had great B&amp;B experiences in England.

The problem is that there just aren't many B&amp;B's in Oxford.

One suggestion would be Marlborough House on Woodstock Road.

CotswoldScouser mentioned the best ones (hotels)in central Oxford.I can vouch for the Randolph and the Old Parsonage but have always thought the Cotswold Lodge looked very nice and on my next trip plan on tryng the Malmaison Castle. This year it's the Old Parsonage again. Both the Randolph and the Eastgate are part of the Macdonald group.

I wouldn't stay outside Oxford centre unless you go for Woodstock. A good choice if you have a car (use Park&amp;Ride as suggested) You do not want to be driving in Oxford unless it's to get to your hotel.

Thanks everyone. My daughter is at Worcester College. We have reservations held at Linton Lodge and at Marlborough. Any opinions between the two? They are about the same price. 85-90 GBP incl VAT and breakfast.

Since I don't have experience with both, I suggest you check tripadvisor.com The reviews can't always be trusted but in general provide some idea of what to expect.