Oxford is a compact city of colleges, and nearly everything on this page sits within a short walk of Carfax, the crossroads at its centre. The colleges are working institutions, so the big ones sell timed tickets and close for exams, services and private events, while the university's museums are free. The Eagle and Child, the Inklings' pub, is on the United Kingdom page; this page covers the rest of the city and a day trip to Blenheim Palace.
Plan around term. During the three eight-week terms the college choirs sing evensong and the streets fill with students; outside them the chapels go quiet. Punts run from February to November, and the best views of the spires come from a church tower or a gap in a college wall, not from a tour bus.
Tour the Bodleian, from the Divinity School to Duke Humfrey's
Broad Street
30 or 60 minutesBook ahead
Stand under a carved ceiling with more than 400 crests in the university's oldest teaching room, then enter its oldest reading room.
What it is
The Bodleian Old Library can only be visited on a tour. The Divinity School is the university's oldest teaching room, built between 1424 and 1488 under a carved ceiling with more than 400 crests, and Duke Humfrey's Library is its oldest reading room. Convocation House is where Charles I's parliament sat during the Civil War, and Chancellor's Court is where students were tried. Film fans will know the Divinity School as the Hogwarts infirmary.
How to do it
The ticket desk is in the Weston Library on Broad Street, whose ground floor and exhibitions are free. The 30-minute tour, daily from £12.50, takes in the Divinity School and Duke Humfrey's Library; the 60-minute tour, from £17.50, adds Convocation House and Chancellor's Court. Tours meet in the Proscholium, the entrance to the Divinity School.
Good to know
Children must be 11 or over, and there are stairs but no lift.
Climb the University Church tower over the Radcliffe Camera
Radcliffe Square
No booking needed
Climb 127 worn medieval steps to a gallery looking down on the domed Radcliffe Camera and across the spires.
What it is
Radcliffe Square is the stone heart of the university: the round, domed Radcliffe Camera, built to James Gibbs's design between 1737 and 1748, ringed by All Souls, Brasenose and the Bodleian. The Camera is a working library, open to the public only on the Bodleian's weekend walking tour (£30, with 30 minutes inside), so see it from above instead. The tower of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, on the High Street side of the square, dates from 1280.
How to do it
A 127-step medieval turret stair climbs past the bell-ringing chamber to a gallery looking down on the Camera and across the spires. Tickets cost £7, and the tower opens Monday to Saturday from 09:30 and Sunday from 12:00, last admission 16:30.
Good to know
The stair is steep and worn in places, and children must be at least 8.
See the Great Hall and the cathedral of Christ Church
St Aldate's
Timed entry
Climb the fan-vaulted staircase from the Harry Potter films to a Great Hall where the college still dines.
What it is
Christ Church is a college and a cathedral in one, refounded by Henry VIII in 1546 on Cardinal Wolsey's college, around Tom Quad, the largest quad in Oxford, under Wren's Tom Tower. The visit climbs the fan-vaulted staircase seen in the Harry Potter films to the Great Hall, still the college dining hall, then crosses to the cathedral. A multimedia guide is included.
How to do it
Tickets go on sale each Friday at about 10:00 for the following week; booking online guarantees entry and saves £2. On the day, adults paid £22.95 on weekdays and £24.95 at weekends in autumn 2026, and slots when the Hall or cathedral is closed are marked and cheaper. Tickets are redeemed at the Visitor Centre in the Meadow, reached from St Aldate's through the War Memorial Garden.
Browse the Ashmolean, Britain's first public museum, for free
Beaumont Street
Free
Wander for free from Egyptian antiquities and Minoan pottery to Uccello and Picasso in Britain's first public museum.
What it is
Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is Britain's first public museum and calls itself the world's first university museum; the present building on Beaumont Street, with its classical portico, went up in the 1840s. The collections run from Egyptian antiquities and the Minoan pottery left by Arthur Evans to paintings by Uccello, Titian, Rubens, Constable and Picasso, and one founding treasure, the 17th-century mantle of the Powhatan chief from Virginia, is still on show. The paid autumn exhibition, Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess, runs from 8 October 2026 to 11 April 2027.
How to do it
Entry is free and no booking is needed. It opens 10:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:45. Gloucester Green coach station is a few minutes' walk away.
Good to know
A free ticket guarantees entry on busy days, and booking for the Aphrodite exhibition is strongly recommended.
Best time
Any day from 10:00; book only for the Aphrodite exhibition
Walk from the dinosaurs into the Pitt Rivers Museum
Parks Road
Half a day for bothFree
Walk past dinosaurs and the dodo, turn left at Darwin, and step into a museum of more than 600,000 objects.
What it is
Two free museums share one door on Parks Road. The Oxford University Museum of Natural History is a Victorian court under a glass roof held up by cast-iron columns, filled with dinosaur skeletons and the dodo linked to Lewis Carroll, and it hosted the famous 1860 debate on evolution. The Pitt Rivers Museum was founded in 1884 with the private collection of Augustus Pitt Rivers and now holds more than 600,000 objects in packed cases over several floors.
How to do it
Walk straight past the dinosaurs, turn left at the statue of Darwin, and an arched door leads into the Pitt Rivers. The natural history museum opens daily from 10:00 to 17:00; the Pitt Rivers opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 and on Mondays from 12:00, or 10:00 on bank holiday and half-term Mondays.
Good to know
Give the pair at least half a day.
Time needed
Half a day for both
Best time
Tuesday to Sunday; the Pitt Rivers opens at 12:00 on Mondays
Build a lunch from butchers, cheesemongers, bakers and cookie counters in a market trading since 1774.
What it is
The Covered Market opened on 1 November 1774 to clear untidy stalls from the main streets, and it still runs as a warren of avenues between the High Street and Market Street, with a lane through to Cornmarket. Its counters include David John Butchers and the Oxford Cheese Company for picnic supplies, Hamblin Bread for a loaf, Sartorelli's for pizza, Georgina's or Brown's Cafe for a sit-down plate and Ben's Cookies for dessert, with a pint at the Market Tap.
How to do it
It opens Monday to Wednesday from 08:00 to 17:30, Thursday to Saturday until 22:00 and Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00, though each trader keeps its own hours. Build lunch from the counters.
Good to know
Look up for the White Rabbit lantern, a nod to Alice, who was dreamt up in this city.
Push a punt for up to five people up the Cherwell past Magdalen College, or downstream past the Botanic Garden.
What it is
Magdalen Bridge Boathouse sits beside Magdalen Bridge at the east end of the High Street. Upstream, the river winds past the grounds of Magdalen College; downstream, it passes the Botanic Garden and skirts Christ Church Meadow towards the Thames.
How to do it
It hires punts every day from 1 February to 30 November, weather permitting, from 09:30 until 21:00 or an hour before sunset. A punt takes up to five people and costs £35 an hour, and it must be back at the boathouse at least half an hour before sunset. Booking is not needed, though it is advisable on busy weekends. If you would rather sit back, a chauffeured punt costs £50 per 30 minutes for up to four passengers.
Walk a free loop of river and college views past the college boathouses and a herd of Old English Longhorn cattle.
What it is
Christ Church Meadow's paths make a loop of river and college views a few minutes from Carfax. The Venetian Gothic Meadow Building lines the Broad Walk, the college boathouses face the Thames, known here as the Isis, and in the flood-plain fields in the middle Christ Church keeps a herd of pedigree Old English Longhorn cattle.
How to do it
Enter from St Aldate's through the War Memorial Garden and follow the Broad Walk, with the Meadow Building on your left. Turn south down Poplar Walk to the Thames, then follow the bank east to where the Cherwell flows in and walk north beside it. Leave by Rose Lane, next to the Botanic Garden, or return along the walls of Merton. A free trail guide is online, or buy the printed booklet in the college shop.
Good to know
The meadow is open free during daylight hours all year except Christmas Day.
Take the bus to Blenheim Palace, Churchill's birthplace
Woodstock
A full day from OxfordBook ahead
Take a frequent bus to the palace where Winston Churchill was born, the nation's reward to a duke for a 1704 victory.
What it is
Blenheim Palace, on the edge of Woodstock north-west of Oxford, was built between 1705 and 1722 to designs by Sir John Vanbrugh as the nation's reward to the 1st Duke of Marlborough for his victory at Blenheim in 1704. It is the birthplace of Winston Churchill and has been a World Heritage Site since 1987.
How to do it
Stagecoach buses S3 and S7 run from Oxford to Woodstock four times an hour, every day; the S3 starts at the railway station and both stop on Magdalen Street. They drop you outside the main entrance, a 10-minute stroll from the palace. Tickets must be bought online in advance.
Good to know
Come by bus or train and the code GREEN20 takes 20% off, with proof of travel shown on arrival. A day ticket also converts into a free annual pass.
Find the Turf Tavern down its alley under the city wall
St Helen's Passage
No booking needed
Find a pub down a twisting alley once called Hell Passage, with one side running along the old city wall.
What it is
The Turf Tavern hides at the end of St Helen's Passage, once called Hell Passage, a narrow, twisting alley between Holywell Street and New College Lane near the Bridge of Sighs, and one side of the pub runs along a surviving stretch of the old city wall. It grew up just outside that wall, beyond the reach of the colleges, and opened around the end of the 18th century as the Spotted Cow. It trades on its legends: it advertises itself as the place where Bob Hawke, the future Australian prime minister, downed a yard of ale for a world record in 1963, though a historian has shown the record was set elsewhere.
How to do it
Look up at the Bridge of Sighs on the way in from New College Lane.
Hear a college choir sing evensong for free, open to anyone, with no dress code and no need to belong to any faith.
What it is
Evensong is the most Oxford thing you can do for free: a sung evening service by a college choir, open to anyone, with no dress code and no need to belong to any faith. New College Chapel has one of the best-known choirs. Look for Jacob Epstein's statue of Lazarus inside. At 21:05 every night, Great Tom rings 101 times from Tom Tower.
How to do it
In Michaelmas Term 2026 (9 October to 5 December) New College sings at 17:45 on Saturdays and Sundays and at 18:15 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; on Mondays the Clerks, the adult voices, sing alone. Outside term, or on a Wednesday, go to Christ Church Cathedral, where choral evensong is at 18:05 on most days and worshippers enter by Tom Gate on St Aldate's.
Drink real ale at the Lamb & Flag, the other pub the Inklings used, across St Giles' from the shut Eagle and Child.
What it is
The Ellison Institute of Technology, which bought the Eagle and Child in 2023, received planning permission and listed building consent in October 2025 to restore and reopen it, with Foster + Partners keeping the two parlours and the Rabbit Room where Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and the Inklings met.
How to do it
Until it opens, cross St Giles' to the Lamb & Flag, the other pub the Inklings used, which reopened in October 2022 as a community-owned pub run by the Inklings Group and is known for real ale. You can still photograph the Eagle and Child's frontage and painted sign on the way, and the Ashmolean Museum is a few minutes' walk south.
Good to know
Check before you go: the Eagle and Child has been shut for several years, and no reopening date has been announced.
Trains run from London Paddington and London Marylebone to Oxford about every 30 minutes and take around an hour; the station is a 5 to 10 minute walk from the centre. The Oxford Tube coach runs from central London to Gloucester Green, the coach station in the middle of town, 24 hours a day and up to every 10 minutes, with no need to book. Drivers should leave the car at a Park and Ride on the edge of the city.
Getting around
Walk. The centre is small, several streets are closed to traffic, and the colleges, the museums and the Covered Market are minutes apart; Christ Church to the Ashmolean is an easy stroll up Cornmarket. Buses fill the gaps: Stagecoach S3 and S7 run to Woodstock for Blenheim Palace from Magdalen Street, and the S3 also from the railway station. A bike is the local way to get around, but the centre is just as quick on foot.
How many days
In must30's view, two full days: one for the Bodleian, Radcliffe Square, the tower climb and Christ Church, ending at evensong, and one for the Ashmolean, the museums on Parks Road, the Covered Market and a punt or a walk round Christ Church Meadow. Add a third day for Blenheim Palace. Oxford also works as a day trip from London if you pick one college, one museum and one view.
When to go
Spring and early autumn are the best compromise: punts on the river, choirs in term and fewer groups than in July and August. Michaelmas term 2026 runs from 9 October to 5 December, and college choirs sing evensong only in term. Punts can be hired from February to November. Colleges close at short notice for exams and events, so check each one's website on the morning you go, especially in May and June.
Where to base yourself
The centre, between the High Street, Broad Street and St Giles', puts everything on this page within walking distance. Jericho, just north-west of the centre, is quieter and close to the station and the Ashmolean. East of Magdalen Bridge, the Cowley Road has a long run of restaurants and generally cheaper rooms. In the university holidays some colleges let student rooms as bed and breakfast; Christ Church does at Easter and in summer, with breakfast in its Great Hall.
Questions travellers ask
Can you visit Oxford colleges?
Many colleges admit visitors, usually for a fee and at set hours, and all of them close at times for exams, services and private events. Christ Church sells timed tickets online, released each Friday for the following week. Check the college's own website on the day you plan to go.
Is Oxford a good day trip from London?
Yes. Trains from Paddington or Marylebone take about an hour and the Oxford Tube coach runs around the clock. In one day, choose Christ Church or a Bodleian tour, add the free Ashmolean and Radcliffe Square, and end with evensong or a pub before heading back.
Can you go inside the Radcliffe Camera?
Only on a guided tour, because it is a working library. The Bodleian's Radcliffe Camera and City of Oxford walking tour, on Saturdays and Sundays for £30, spends 30 minutes inside. On other days, see it from Radcliffe Square or from the tower of the University Church.
When can you go punting in Oxford?
Magdalen Bridge Boathouse hires punts every day from 1 February to 30 November, weather permitting, from 09:30 until 21:00 or an hour before sunset. A punt takes up to five people and costs £35 an hour. Booking is only advisable on busy weekends.
How do I get from Oxford to Blenheim Palace?
Take Stagecoach bus S3 from the railway station or Magdalen Street, or the S7 from Magdalen Street; together they run four times an hour, every day, and stop at the palace's main entrance in Woodstock. Buy palace tickets online in advance, and use the green travel code for 20% off if you came by bus.
