How to repair damage to wooden worktop?

[Brokensunrise]

Over a period of time my lovely wooden (oak I think) wooden kitchen worktop has become damaged in a few places, it's gone quite dark round the taps I guess from water and also a quite a few marks from when wet tins and mugs have been left out on the side (not my doing!!). I know I can sand it down and oil it, but to be honest I'm not really up to the job myself - what have other people done and have you hired a professional? If so what kind of tradesperson do I need? I really want it done well..

Thank you!

We have done it ourself (I say we, it was DH) completely sanded it back & re oiled.
It was a horrible messy job, he used an electric sander with rough then smooth paper. There was dust everywhere. We have re oiled it about 10 times since but It still needs more & everything marks it.
We are now seriously considering a new work top

Oh! I bought a small sander and sand ours regularly. Sand an area, run a damp cloth over it. Sand the next area, damp cloth... Repeat until it is all done.

Have a look, go again where needed, damp cloth, then one light continuous run lengthways, finish with a damp cloth!

Leave for a while until dry, apply very thin layer of Danish oil. Leave for at least 4 hours, repeat - I do it just before I leave for work, 2 or 3 days in a row.

The hard work is done in less than an hour!

You have to give in and accept the black water staining though!

Op just google worktop sanding, plenty of service providers across the country.

After sanding bleach will lighten the dark areas.