YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS IN OXFORD
 

I am planning to go to Oxford for a week towards the end of March (how cool does that sound!).

My questions for esteemed and wise Fodorites:

Firstly the hotel:
I know that the university provides lodging in dormitories. However, DD is planning to come with, and all in all I think it will be easier to stay in a hotel.

I will attend a conference at the Harris Manchester College. Am I correct or am I wrong in thinking that the university area is fairly compact, and that lodging that is 'central' or 'near the university' will be near this college as well? Can 'near' possibly mean 'walking distance'?
I do not mind staying a bit farther out if I can find something that is within easy access with a bus - are there specific areas that you can recommend?
I am looking for an 'ordinary' nice 3 or 4star hotel ... any recommendations?

Strangely enough, I have had my fill of cute, old-fashioned creaky hotels for the moment; something modern and clean would suit me better (but I am not really picky). I have had a look at the hotels in Oxford, and they seem to be filling up fast. I should probably book asap.

I will have more questions to follow - this is the pressing one for now.

Thanks!

It depends what you mean by walking distance.

Manchester is about the furthest college from the city's centre (say a 12 min walk from Carfax, the central crossroads). Many people rely on bikes to get there, though I've never understood such laziness.

Your criteria are tricky in Oxford, where there's a really strong case for staying within walking distance of the centre. There are a fair few "modern" (what's that got to do with cleanliness? Slutty housekeepers tend to prefer working in square-shaped hotels) places a mile or two out - but all like refugees from Legoland, and you might as well be in Cincinnati, except that life around I-71 is rather more fun than around the A34 Ring Road.

There are no new hotels within a 12 minute walk of the centre - and newness in Oxford most certainty isn't ordinary.

I'll leave specific recommendations to those who use these places. Lists (select "North Oxford") at https://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/venues/hotels

Note that Oxford prices are usually at London levels, and comfort's rather lower.

PS:

"The university provides lodging in dormitories. " Fortunately, it does no such thing, though possibly "dormitory" means something different in your dialect from what it means in English

That means your conference is during a university vacation. In theory, your daughter might be able to stay in the same college at the same time. Look it up at http://www.oxfordrooms.co.uk/

That MIGHT offer both of affordable rooms - with character (and Manchester's too new to be properly creaky) and within walking distance of the centre.

AND, quite a lot of the rooms on Oxford Rooms are on new staircases: no new hotels have been built in central Oxford for the past century, but several thousand residential rooms have been added within colleges in the past 20 years. Oxford Rooms tends to select from these.

Flanner has nailed it, the centre is mixed in with the town, the dormitories (think Harry Potter when you think of Brits) don't exist but you can get either student concrete boxes or old rooms on staircases (often much nicer) out of term. The term staircases means just that with individual rooms and or suites (I guess) leading off.

In college you will not find slutty housekeepers but very high standard cleaning.

Rooms in my old college are not "ensuite" not sure about others. This may affect your decision, though the days of lots of baths with a beer crate in the middle are long gone.

Flanner, you are right, I am wrong. I agree that modern does not equate clean. I recently had a bad experience with a place that relied too much on 'character' and not enough on simple good standards. Let me try to rephrase: I am not picky, any nice, middle of the road hotel will do, the age is not important.

What is more important is walking distance to the conference. 'Walking distance' is a relative concept. Again, let me rephrase: it would be nice if I could find a place within 20 - 25 minutes - or less - easy walking to the college.

Reference to 1-71 and Ring Road: I have no idea what this means - I assume the Ring Road is in LegoLand. Then I will prefer not to stay there.

Reference to 'dormitories'; this is from the conference web site.

"Manchester is too new ... " Yes - it seems to me the current buildings are only from 1893 ... relatively new. Can you believe that the first guy who started this College was a certain Mr Wellbeloved!

Harris Manchester College isn't that far from St Giles so you could stay in any of the B&Bs along the Woodstock or Banbury Rds and be w/i an easy bus ride of the general area. There is another thread going w/ suggestion for places to stay in those roads.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...m#last-comment

Hi Flan,

>Slutty housekeepers tend to prefer ....

Did you intend "slattern"?

((I))

http://youtu.be/a_YKKzJeHWo

This kind of maid?

Thanks everybody for your responses. Thanks especially Janis for the link, I missed it for some reason.

Thanks also to Bilbo and Flanner for explaining some of the intricacies of lodging in Oxford. Must say, I WAS wondering about slutty maids in square boxes ... sounds like the title of a really trashy short story!

My hotel is booked.

Pretty sure by "Legoland" flanner means "the United States", though I suppose it could mean "Denmark." (He seldom misses a chance to poke gentle fun at The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, bless him.) I seem to remember that you live in Dubai or thereabouts.

"Pretty sure by "Legoland" flanner means "the United States""

No I meant Legoland: a place where everything is built in cubes.

There are parts of the US with real character: but the strips of newish rectangular buildings that line a large slug of Britain's urban fringes are identical to similar strips in Italy or France (or Denmark) and differ from those bits of the US that don't have character only in being a fair bit pokier. And often having sluttier housekeeping.

Incidentally, it's not quite true that "There are no new hotels within a 12 minute walk of the centre". The Malmaison isn't new like new hotels are in other cities (bits of it have just had their 1,000th birthday): but it reopened, tarted up after its former lives as castle and local jail, about five years ago and is definitely in the city's historic core.

Personally I loathe the chain (they describe their generally reasonable restaurants as "iconic dishes, served with a twist", and rebrand everything in sight, as in "The Mal Buck's Fizz, with Mal Bubble Time Champagne", which unticks just about every box in my book). But their quite sweet staff have been nice to successive flannerpooches at a couple of branches, and the showers are hot and robust.

You remember well stokebailey - I do live in Dubai ... Legoland par excellence. This also gives me the opportunity to travel to Lego-less places :)

Oh, sorry, flanner.

http://www.ashmolean.org/

don't miss the Ashmolean Museum, easy to overlook in all the other awe-inspiring places in Oggsford.

This quote does not have any relevance to anybody / anything at Fodor's, it just made me smile:
@RichardDawkins: Of course we must respect the RIGHT of people to hold stupid beliefs. But that doesn’t mean we have to respect their stupid beliefs.

Thanks for the link above PalenQ - I see they have a great art exhibit while I am there. I am so looking forward to it.

What to do:
I will have two full days free, and also most early mornings and evenings. Please tell me: what are your favourite places in Oxford? What should a first timer see and do? Maybe things a little out of the way, a bit off the touristy track?
I love beautiful interesting buildings, music, art, theatre, nature, books, food ... For years and years I have been enamoured with the work of CS Lewis and Tolkien (amongst others).
I would rather skip something than standing in line for hours to see it. I am a novice traveller, and I am still discovering what works for me. One thing I am coming to realise - I seem to prefer the slowest of slow travel.
Would it make sense to do a day trip from Oxford - given the fact that I will not rent a car? I would love to see something of the countryside.

If I had this time to enjoy I would look at
1) attend some music in a college chapel (there is lots on, some good some not so good) but the position adds value
2) Walk by the Isis in the meadows
3) Visit the Botanic gardens, not fantastic but full of history
4) Pop into a few colleges and walk in their gardens
5) Drop by Shelley's monument
6) The Ashmolean needs 4 to 6 hours but is free so do it over a few days
7) shop on little trendy street (little clarendon) and buy deli food from the places near there
8) avoid the tourist thing of the baby and bird (angel and eagle) pub unless you really want to see the sign "Tolkein ****d here"
9) book onto the Bodlian tour (I've no idea if it any good but others speak highly of it)

A number of people on this forum have done trip reports on places connected with Tolkien and Lewis, which are mostly out of the historic centre (not much more than 10 mins by bus, but they're in different places) - all I think tagged "UK".

Use the ADVANCED search function, going back 10 years or so. You'll obviously get a lot that Morse-related if you search "Lewis, Oxford" - but that may be useful anyway.

For plays and music: https://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/whatson/index.html Not listed: liturgical music, which Oxford's quite good for

Art's (as in paintings and miniatures) not big in Oxford: the biggest single act of cultural vandalism in Europe's history was the deliberate burning of practically every single illustrated manuscript in the city at the beginning of the Reformation. Goodish, but small, permanent collection at the Ashmolean. Specialist, changing exhibition at the gallery in Christ Church. Temporary exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford.
Usual university city small galleries: https://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/events/art

Far stronger on architecture: not just the usual mediaeval stuff, but a surprisingly large proportion of the past 30 years'good UK buildings - though predictably an even larger proportion of the past 30 years' schlock .

Nature: Botanic Garden, most accessible college gardens (Worcester and Magdalen are best), Christ Church meadow.

I've scarcely even seen a queue in Oxford, except for the bus to the Park & Ride. Or, to be honest, anything particularly touristy, apart from some horrid souvenir shops and the Harry Potter obsession with Christ Church dining hall (just one of 40 in the city)

Flanner and bilboburgler have given you a lot of good suggestions. Just wanted to confirm that really nothing in Oxford is 'touristy' apart from a few shops selling postcards and t-shirts. You will run into tourists - you won't run into touristy schlock.

For out of town one day you could take the bus to Woodstock - but you'd really want to do that in the main part of the day, so I probably wouldn't sacrifice one of only two full days in Oxford.

One thing I loved doing in Oxford was to take the footpath along the river north - a really bucolic setting - a few miles up is a country pub - so for a nice walk along the canal - looks like a canal anyway - head out of town a bit and savor an English country pub and its grub!

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Oxfor...ed=0CCoQ8gEwAA

Building on the last two suggestions to do with countryside

You need to tell us a bit about what you're asking about. Oxford's got reasonably exotic wildlife (and wilddeath): Magdalen's gardens include a fully populated deer park, cattle graze most of the time on Christ Church meadow in the middle of town and the Natural History Museum, which re-opens next week, includes THE dodo that inspired Lewis Carroll.

Many English towns have greenways: all-pedestrian routes, almost entirely separated from traffic, from the city centre out to the countryside, then connecting with our immense network of open footpaths. Oxford has more than most - and they don't go through the miles of deindustrialised wasteland their equivalents elsewhere do. PalQ's idea takes you along the Thames slightly west of the town, across Port Meadow (when it's not flooded to the Trout Inn at Wolvercote (and then, ultimately, anywhere in England), but there are similar pathways in most other directions, hinted at at http://www.oxfordcityguide.com/ee2/i.../ParksMeadows/

The knee-jerk reaction to your countryside question might be "get a tour to the Cotswolds", but you might not care for that. Problem is that the 7-8 mile walk (or bus) to Woodstock, the nearest pretty village (though its townfolk are easily riled if you don't call it a town, since they achieved the status as recently as the 1470s, so still haven't got over it) is also pretty dull.

The Cotswolds - undulating landscape, Cotswold lion sheep, honey-coloured buildings and general cuddliness - start at the other side of Woodstock.

One possibility is to get the train to Charlbury (hourly: 15 mins), then walk the 7 miles across undulating fields, stuffed with right kind of sheep, through villages and the grounds of Blenheim Palace to Woodstock, whence a 30 min, every 30 min, bus back to Oxford.

As everywhere else in the world, the sun sets round Oxford about 6 pm, God's time, (and rise around 6 am) in the last week of March. That natural 6 am/pm becomes 7 when our clocks go forward on March 30. You can do this Charlbury/Woodstock thing in about 5 hours, central Oxford to central Oxford.

Another great walk is along the Thames (Isis) to St. Mary's Church at Iffley. Go down St. Aldate's pass Christ Church and over Folly Bridge, take an immediate left and follow the path to the Iffley Locks, cross the locks then turn right up the hill to the church. St. Mary's is a wonderful example of Norman architecture and a Romanesque jewel. This is one of my favorite churches in England and a nice walk too. There is a pub along the way if you need to stop for refreshment.

Love that hotel maid video, Miss P. It confirms suspicions and gives me new ones.

http://www.thetroutoxford.co.uk/home/

Yes indeed flanner it was the Trout Inn I ended my first half of walk at and though I did not have the pub grub advertised on the home page I did have a pint of bitter... or two .... or three - seems to be a traditional if upscale country pub but looks can be deceiving to the casual tourist.

Kovsie, I'm one of the Tolkien fans who visited Oxford. I wrote about it in my trip report: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...b-may-2007.cfm

We visited Merton College, where Tolkien taught, walked past Christ Church and Magdalen but couldn't go in, went a ways down Addison's Walk, had lunch at the Eagle and Child, and visited Tolkien's grave at Wolvercote Cemetery.

Unfortunately, I can't find the site I used to plan where we went in Oxford, but this one covers some of the same sites. http://www.tourinaday.com/oxford/jr-tolkien-tour.php

Lee Ann

Lee Ann - I read right through your 2007 trip report. Great stuff! Thanks for taking time to write it, and for posting the link. I was wondering about going to Blenheim - but you convinced me rather not to spend some my precious time there. I do not do 'ostentatious' very well.

OH MY! Now I am looking forward to this trip even more. Thank you flanner and bilboburgler and everybody else. These are wonderful suggestions. Let me do some homework - then come back to you.
Flanner, the idea of a hike is so great. Just because of time constraints I want to ask: is there a shorter route - sort of a 'cotswolds lite' for this time?

"You can do this Charlbury/Woodstock thing in about 5 hours, central Oxford to central Oxford."
flanner: I have read your post again, and see that I misunderstood the first time - it is 5 hours in total, not a 5 hour walk. If the weather agrees, this is something I would love to do. Are the paths marked? I do not want to get lost among all those sheep (although I have grown up on a sheep farm in Africa ...). Still, in light of limited time a shorter walk may make more sense this time.

Historytraveller: =- how long did your walk take?

PalenQ: a walk with a definite aim (food) makes for motivation! How far is it?

I assume I will have to choose one good walk only.

Reading this thread, now I want to go to Oxford.

Kovsie, Spring in England is beautiful, and late March - mid May is my favourite time to visit. I'd second the outdoor activities and country walks if you can fit any in.

When I'm in the area and have free time on a Sunday I love to go to the coffee concerts at the Holywell Music Room. A beautiful space, great acoustics and great music. See http://www.coffeeconcerts.co.uk . Follow that with a browse in Blackwells book shop at 48-51 Broad Street (if wet) or the Botanic Gardens (if dry) and I'm set up for the week.

My daughter and I walked from Bakewell to Haddon Hall a few years ago, and it was a highlight despite unmarked trail and stinging nettle overgrowing the path for 50 yards, us in knee length skirts. The Bakewell TI office didn't have a clue about local walking paths, but luckily our B&B had an old pamphlet with directions like: "Past the second stile walk along fence towards the river." It was an adventure that we loved.

Oxford paths are better trodden, I bet, and I'm putting that walk on my list for next month.

What about a side trip to Cambridge? Those of you who live there, would that be manageable?

DH and I lined up along the Thames to see the Oxford-Cambridge race. The Bodlian was part of our tour. We, as non-students, were not allowed in the various colleges--has that changed?

PalQ's idea takes you along the Thames slightly west of the town, across Port Meadow>

ain't the Thames called the "Isis" up in Oggsford country?

TDudette: oooo I have enough trouble deciding what to enjoy in Oxford! I will have so little free time - Cambridge will have to wait for the next time. But it can always go on the 'dream list'.

Mathieu: I assumed that spring will still be far off while I am there ... maybe I will see the very first signs. This is one of the things I really crave here in Dubai - the change of seasons.

Stokebailey: please tell us all next month how your walk went!

Grindeldoo: Blackwell's is on the list for 'definite do'! The coffee concert sounds lovely.

<b> "ain't the Thames called the "Isis" up in Oggsford country?"</b>

No.

It's called "the river" (to distinguish it from the canal). Sometimes, when clarity is needed (to distinguish it from its local tributaries), The Thames.

Tourist guides, I'm told, still say it's called the Isis - as it seems to have been (at least by some) when Brideshead Revisited was a reasonably accurate guide to daily life, and young gentlemen at the Varsity (you'll notice there are no women at the university in Brideshead) used a deliberately opaque language: they played footer and rugger (though that's only part of the reason most were called rugger buggers) and walked along streets called The Broad and The Giler.

As I understand it, practically all those terms are now avoided by both the city's full-time inhabitants and by its resident undergraduates. You can date alumni and Fellows almost precisely by which, if any, bits of the old dialect they still use.

<b>"Are the paths marked? "</b>
Yes, but not necessarily in any way you might easily understand.

If you decide you've got time once you're here, come back to this forum and I'll refer you to a site with clear directions. Or find a way of emailing you a copy of the relevant bit of a guide I'm producing.

<b> "We, as non-students, were not allowed in the various colleges </b>
As written, not the case. Access to colleges is restricted (they're people's residences and places of study), varies across the year and tightly restricted at exam time, but only a couple have ever banned non-members altogether, and all sorts of people have cards for less restricted entry. General details at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/visitors_friends..._the_colleges/

<b> I assumed that spring will still be far off </b>
Of course not: you've visiting the real Oxford, not the one in Missouri. Except after the kind of very severe winters only Americans usually get, the first signs of spring appear here around Candelmas (Feb 2), which roughly coincides with Snowdrop Sunday when we all go and look at huge drifts of flowering snowdrops. This year's been so warm, we're all worried too much has already come out too soon, so a late frost might wipe a lot of premature flowers out.

If we avoid that, Lady Day (March 25) will be high spring the way we're currently going

Kovsie, as Flanner has indicated, you should be slap dash in the midst of Spring at the time of your visit in a normal year.
Here in S.Ontario (Canada), we have either snow or freezing temps well into April, so no hint of Spring blooms other than Crocus and Snowdrops until late April. However my relatives in various parts of the UK send us pictures (to gloat at us) of blooming Rhododendrons from as early as late January / beginning of February.

I've visited England three times between mid-March and mid-May and there's always been plenty of floral colour to see. From the common early spring bulbs and swathes of Daffodils and Bluebells in March, to bands of the bright chartreuse of rape seed fields and bunches of Wisteria hanging from twisted old boughs in May. Very beautiful.

Having lived most of my early life in Africa where everything grows all the time only varying on rainfall, and where now treasured garden plants were once weeds to us, I've come to love the more obvious seasonal aspect of nature, and I suspect you do too.

How nice to be wrong (about spring time in England)!
I just saw the temperatures (between 2 and 7C) with 5 hours sunlight per day - it sounded exactly like Prague over Christmas (although the good people of Prague did mutter about how warm it was).

>>with 5 hours sunlight per day<<

Where ever did you see anything like that? Daylight hours at the end of March are nearly 13 hours per day.

Now, of course there could be an entire overcast day w/ no sun'shine' at all. But even a rainy day will usually have periods of sun.

Janis, I consulted this one:
http://www.holiday-weather.com/oxford/averages/march/

Again: I am glad this is wrong.