Talk to me about 2 days in Oxford please!

[KilledByWitches]

A place I've always wanted to visit, the history, the architecture, the Inklings, the dinosaurs in the Nat History Museum especially the dinosaurs.

We're staying outside of the city so can anyone recommend a park and ride please? Also, is everything walkable? Can I walk from Dinosaurs to Primark to Hertford Bridge etc?

Recommendations extremely welcome!

I've only been to the Ashmolean so can't comment about museums but Oxford doesn't seem like a massive city to get round. I live in a town not too far and do it as a shopping trip.
Don't miss great ice cream in the covered market though they didn't have the rhubarb one last time I went and if a weekend, the market and street food thing behind the bus station...so much choice but my faves are the Syrian and Japanese stalls.

Thank you @katscamel. Rhubarb ice cream definitely worth a try!
Can I ask where you park when you go into town?

There are several park and ride car parks in Oxford. It depends which direction you are travelling in from.

All the park and rides are fine, juts use the one closest to where you are staying. The whole city centre is very walkable.

Don't miss the pit rivers museum when you are in the natural history one. And, if you haven't already, make sure you book (if you still need to: it's a covid thing).

Le bistro pierre is a fab French restaurant worth visiting, as are the cocktail bars on Little Clarendon Street and further into Jericho

Get punts / rowing boats / pedalos from Magdelen College

And pick a few colleges to visit inside. Most are reopen now for visitors that have booked. I find Christ Church vastly overrated (apart from the lovely meadows), but Worcester, Brasenose, Trinity, Oriel, Exeter, Keble are all varied styles. Oh and if you can get a tour of the Bod or the Rad Cam they will give you a great architecture fix

All easy to walk too and from
Think the museum you have too book at the mo?
Primark is in middle so yep can get to anywhere from primark!

I wasn't aware I had to book the museum so thank you! I'd have been gutted to have not seen the dinosaurs. I think then we will just park up, wander and see what we find.
I didn't know you could look inside the colleges either so thats wonderful.
My rowing skills are not brilliant and DH sends us round in circles so punting might be interesting.

Thanks again all!

Ashmoleon Museum is fantastic - free to visit but you need to book a time slot.

We did a walking tour with a company called Footprints which was excellent and included entry to Exeter College, The Divinity School (the location for the Infirmary in Harry Potter if you’re into that!!) and loads of stops at interesting places - highly recommend.
The Botanic Gardens are nice but small.
We did do the audio tour of Christchurch College which we really enjoyed.
It’s all very walkable.

In terms of the park and ride buses (maybe a very dull addition to this thread): there are 2 bus companies in Oxford and I think the P&R are the Oxford Bus company (other one is Stagecoach). If you were to want to use other buses for a day, you may be able to get a combined ticket to cover all Oxford bus ones, or a P&R plus open top bus tour one if that appeals, rather than a 2 trip return. Parking a car in Oxford is either difficult or expensive most of the time (it is a little quieter at the moment so at the weekend it wasn't too bad). There are sometimes metred spaces in Wellington Square or Keble/Parks Road if you are aiming for the museums up that way.

Thanks @Ormally
We're staying East of the city so looks like Thornhill Park and Ride would be the preferred place. I plan to head into Oxford and just wander, though I have booked tickets for the NHM so thanks all again for that.

Quite fancy the Ashmoleon as well but unsure if I can persuade DH toward another museum 😂

Thornhill is best for the east and comes in over Magdalene bridge. You can then get off on high street either near Queens College or near covered market. Or it carries on to the Westgate centre. Coming back try and get on it outside the Westgate centre (castle/Norfolk street) as it's emptier so more choice of seats. It does also stop on high street again.

Walking is fine. Christ church meadow to the ashmolean is maybe 20-30min. If you're going to NHM first, it's maybe 15-20min from where you get off bus depending how much you sight see.

If you want good views I know carfax tower is open (don't need to prebook but might have to wait a bit for peoole come down). Not sure if the university church tower is open again but that is good if it is. Also not sure if st Michael at the northgate tower is open.

The covered market ice cream.and chocolate shop is indeed fab (iscream it is called). He does special seasonal fruit ice creams on top of his usual range (sometimes foraged ie blackberries or customers give him excess fruit from their gardens!) which is probably why pp only got rhubarb once, assuming we are talking the same shop.

And yes Christ church is expensive and over rated. There might be a service on while you are there is you really wanted to see the cathedral

Take loose change for the Park & Ride. Hideously complicated and frustrating otherwise.

The other thing I just thought of is that there will be a very big annual funfair on St Giles soon - Sept 6th and 7th. They set up a few days before and having St Giles out of action is quite disruptive to the road system = also some places do close for that. Just in case the days happen to be those.

If your rowing/punting aren't up to much try one of the pedalo style punts - they are much easier to use!

Thanks again all.
@Ormally we’re headed down next week so will miss the fair

@terrywynne thank you. As a self confessed ice cream addict I will have to seek that one out. Good to hear it’s walkable, albeit at a slow pace for me hah
@MydogWillow change noted. I don’t usually have much cash on me so will put some change to one side over the week.
@aftonwater punting could be a goer. Even we can’t go wrong in a pedalo 😂

Just to say about the Ashmoleon if you’re trying to persuade DH - there is a “highlights” trail that’s all marked out or there is a “top ten” list in the map which takes an hour max 😊

Park and ride is complex because there are two types of machine. One is the family ticket machine which is parking plus bus ticket for a family (2 adults plus up to three children). Do not use this machine if there are two of you!

Use the smaller parking only machines to pay for the car park. Then pay for a two together return ticket (thats a slightly cheaper ticket for two adults who will be travelling together) on the bus. All the Oxford bus companies do contactless pay now so no need for cash.

At thornhill, the machines are around the outside of the building. If it is making no sense at all you can normally find a staff member inside the building if there isn't one loitering outside to help out.

@KilledByWitches

Thanks again all. *@Ormally* we’re headed down next week so will miss the fair *@terrywynne* thank you. As a self confessed ice cream addict I will have to seek that one out. Good to hear it’s walkable, albeit at a slow pace for me hah *@MydogWillow* change noted. I don’t usually have much cash on me so will put some change to one side over the week. *@aftonwater* punting could be a goer. Even we can’t go wrong in a pedalo 😂

I am also an ice cream addict! iScream is definitely my favourite shop; the fruit ice creams always test of real fruit not flavourings (and they will let you have a test spoon). G&D's have a bit of a cult following but I don't rate their flavour selection nearly as much and think they are overrated. And yes I have eaten far too much ice cream in Oxford over several years of visits

I recommend not letting anyone take hold of your bank card even for a second if you are eating out at the Pieminster there🙂

Don’t miss the (King) Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean. Very small but exquisite.