City centre
First-timersAround the Bodleian and the High: colleges, the covered market and everything on foot.
Oxford city guide
Things To Do In Oxford
The oldest university in the English-speaking world, a covered market, a domed library you can climb, and the pub where Tolkien and Lewis argued about their books.
1
Hostels in the city
8.8
Average, from 5,379 reviews
1096
Teaching recorded here by this date
39
Colleges
£0
Entry to the Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers
Older than Cambridge, and a working city besides
Teaching has gone on at Oxford since at least 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and thirty-nine colleges are folded into a city that also builds cars at Cowley and has an ordinary life beyond the gowns.
The Bodleian is one of the great libraries — a legal deposit library entitled to a copy of every book published in Britain — and the Radcliffe Camera at its centre is the building on every postcard.
Christ Church has the hall the Harry Potter dining hall was modelled on, which drives a large part of the visitor traffic and the ticket price.
The Ashmolean, Britain's first public museum, and the Pitt Rivers, an unreformed Victorian ethnographic collection in dense glass cases, are both free and both remarkable.
One long day, or two.
Where to stay
A small centre, with cheaper beds along the two main roads out.
Jericho
Independent and quieterNorth-west: Victorian terraces, good restaurants, a canal and an arthouse cinema.
Cowley Road
Local life and valueEast across the Cherwell: the city's most diverse street, cheap food, live music and no visitors.
Orange labels are neighbourhoods, dots are the 1 top-rated hostels. Map © MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Things to do
Things to do in Oxford
The Bodleian Library tours are the best thing here, from about £10 for the Divinity School to £20 for the full tour including Duke Humfrey's Library. The Radcliffe Camera can only be entered on the extended tour.
Climb something. The University Church of St Mary the Virgin tower at about £6 gives the classic view over the Radcliffe Camera and the colleges; Carfax Tower is cheaper and lower.
Christ Church at about £20 is the expensive one, with the cathedral, the hall that inspired the Harry Potter set and a meadow walk. Worth it if you want one college done properly.
The Ashmolean is free, holds Britain's first public museum collection and takes two hours easily.
The Pitt Rivers, behind the Natural History Museum, is free and arranged by type rather than culture in dark Victorian cases — one of the strangest and best museums in the country.
More on things to do in Oxford
Free things
Free things to do in Oxford
The Ashmolean, the Pitt Rivers and the Museum of Natural History are all free and all substantial.
Several colleges admit visitors free at quiet hours, and the Bodleian's Divinity School courtyard, the Bridge of Sighs on New College Lane and the whole of the High Street cost nothing.
The University Parks and Christ Church Meadow are free, and the meadow walk runs down to the Thames, called the Isis as it passes the city.
Port Meadow, an ancient common grazed for a thousand years, is free, enormous and where the city swims in summer.
The Eagle and Child and the Lamb and Flag on St Giles' are where Tolkien and Lewis's Inklings met; going in costs the price of a drink.
Food and drink
Eating and drinking in Oxford
The Covered Market, trading since 1774, is the centre's good option — pies, cheese, a famous cake shop and cheap lunch counters at £6 to £12.
Cowley Road is where the city actually eats: Pakistani, Ethiopian, Caribbean, Polish and Middle Eastern at £8 to £15, and a ten-minute walk from the centre.
Jericho has the better restaurants and the calmer rooms.
A pub main is £14 to £19 and a pint £5 to £6.50.
The historic pubs are worth one evening: the Turf Tavern, hidden down an alley and where a future Australian prime minister set a beer-drinking record, and the Lamb and Flag and Eagle and Child on St Giles', both tied to the Inklings.
Nightlife
Going out in Oxford
Pub-led in the centre and more interesting on Cowley Road, which has the live music venues, the late bars and the crowd that is not in a college.
College bars and balls take most student energy and are largely closed to outsiders.
The O2 Academy and the Bullingdon on Cowley Road carry the touring gigs, and Oxford has produced more bands than a city this size should have.
A pint is £5 to £6.50 and cocktails £9 to £13.
Term time here runs in three eight-week blocks from October to June, and out of term the evenings are quiet.
Getting around
Getting around Oxford
Walk. The centre is about a mile across and largely pedestrianised, and cycling is the local default with hire at £15 to £20 a day.
Buses cover Cowley, Jericho and the park-and-rides at about £2.50.
Trains reach London Paddington in an hour and Birmingham in an hour and twenty. The Oxford Tube and X90 coaches run to London around the clock for about £15 return, which is cheaper than the train and only a little slower.
Heathrow is an hour by the Airline coach, about £30, with no change in London.
Driving into the centre is discouraged by design, with traffic filters, bus gates and expensive parking.
Costs
What Oxford costs
Similar to Cambridge and expensive for its size. Dorms are £22 to £40, a pub main £14 to £19, and a pint £5 to £6.50.
A day is £55 to £95.
Three free museums and the meadows cover a lot of it. The costs are college entries — Christ Church at about £20 is the steep one — and the Bodleian tours at £10 to £20.
The coach to London at about £15 return is markedly cheaper than the train, runs 24 hours and is the standard way in and out.
Safety
Staying safe in Oxford
Oxford is safe, and the hazards are bicycles and water rather than crime.
Cycling volumes are high, bikes move fast and quietly, and the roads through the centre are narrow with buses squeezing past.
Bike theft is the most common crime in the city, so lock anything hired properly.
The Thames and the Cherwell run through the meadows and people swim at Port Meadow and Wolvercote in summer. There are no lifeguards, the water is cold, the current is stronger than it looks and there are weirs — swim where other people are swimming and not after drinking.
Emergency number is 999, or 112.
Day trips from Oxford
A baroque palace, the Cotswolds and London in an hour.
Blenheim Palace
A baroque palace in Capability Brown parkland, Churchill's birthplace and UNESCO-listed. Entry about £35.
The Cotswolds
Honey-coloured villages, drystone walls and walking between them. Burford and Chipping Norton are the nearest.
London
Close enough to do from either direction.
Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare's birthplace, his grave, and the Royal Shakespeare Company on the Avon.
What's on
What is on while you are there
Choristers sing from a tower at six in the morning on 1 May, and the whole city turns up.
Staff pick
9–24 October
Oxford International Song Festival
The Oxford International Song Festival in Oxford, United Kingdom, is recognized as the world’s largest festival dedicated to classical song, presenting over 70 curated…
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7 November
Oxford Round Table Fireworks
The Oxford Round Table Fireworks is a beloved annual event held in South Park, Oxford, drawing families and visitors from across the city and…
Staff pick
8 November
Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra deliver lively shows filled with boogie-woogie piano, classic covers, and swinging brass. Led by the acclaimed…
Staff pick
26 November
The Skids
The Skids are a Scottish punk rock band formed in 1977 in Dunfermline. They gained prominence with their 1979 hit "Into the Valley" and…
Staff pick
3 December
The Skids
The Skids are a Scottish punk rock band formed in 1977 in Dunfermline. They gained prominence with their 1979 hit "Into the Valley" and…
Staff pick
4–6 December
Oxford International Film Festival
The Oxford International Film Festival in Oxford, United Kingdom, is a BIFA-qualifying event that celebrates independent filmmaking in an intimate, boutique setting. Hosted at…
Staff pick
5 December
Moving Pictures - Rush Tribute
Moving Pictures is a tribute band dedicated to celebrating the music of Rush. They perform faithful renditions of Rush’s classic songs, capturing the energy…
Staff pick
19 December
The Smyths: A Tribute to The Smiths
The Smyths are a tribute band dedicated to recreating the sound and spirit of The Smiths. Their performances capture the energy and emotion of…
Hostels
Where to stay in Oxford
A small scene for a city this visited, so book ahead — particularly around May Morning and graduation weekends. Live from Hostelworld.
When to go
Term time for atmosphere, summer for college access. May Morning is the one date worth planning around.
Jan
Cold and quiet. Term running and museums free
Feb
Grey. Cheapest beds of the year
Mar
Improving. Colleges accessible
Apr
Good. Blossom on Addison's Walk
May
May Morning on the 1st. Exam term closes many colleges
Jun
Balls and exams. Beautiful, restricted, expensive
Jul
Warm, full of summer schools, colleges mostly open
Aug
Peak visitors and students away. Best college access
Sep
Superb. Quiet before term, weather holding
Oct
Term restarts and the city refills. Good value
Nov
Dark and damp. Very quiet
Dec
Cold. Christmas market and carol services
Bar height is temperature. Colour is how busy it gets:
quiet
busy
peak
Average highs. Oxford sits in the Thames valley and is milder and damper than the numbers suggest, with a genuine tendency to fog in late autumn.
What your trip will cost
Pick how you travel. Per person per night, in pounds.
The doing line covers a college entry and a Bodleian tour. Blenheim Palace at about £35 sits outside these figures.
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- Beds—
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- Doing things—
Oxford travel questions
The ones we get asked most.
Oxford or Cambridge?
Oxford is a bigger working city with more going on beyond the university — Cowley Road, the car works, a proper music scene. Cambridge is smaller, flatter and greener, with the river at its centre. Both are about an hour from London and neither disappoints.
Can I see the Harry Potter hall?
Christ Church's dining hall was the model for the film set rather than the filming location itself, and entry to the college is about £20. The staircase there was used in the films. Go early — it is the busiest ticket in the city.
Which colleges can I visit?
It varies by college and by season. Entry is £5 to £20 where charged, several are free at quiet hours, and many close to visitors during exam term from late April to mid-June. Check the individual college before building a day around it.
What is the cheapest way from London?
The Oxford Tube or X90 coach, about £15 return, running 24 hours from Victoria. It is cheaper than the train and only a little slower, and it drops you in the centre.
Are the museums free?
Yes — the Ashmolean, which holds Britain's first public museum collection, the Pitt Rivers and the Museum of Natural History. The Pitt Rivers in particular is one of the strangest and best museums in the country.
What is May Morning?
At six in the morning on 1 May, Magdalen College choir sings from the top of the tower to thousands of people on the bridge below, and the pubs open early. It is free, it is genuinely unusual, and every bed in the city books out.
Where do I eat cheaply?
The Covered Market in the centre, trading since 1774, does lunch at £6 to £12. Cowley Road, ten minutes east, has Pakistani, Ethiopian, Caribbean and Middle Eastern food at £8 to £15 and is where people who live here go.
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