Oxford, anyone?

[bundle]

we're visiting friends there this weekend, so apart from the lovely city itself what can we do with our kids ? (two 4 yr olds, two babies well one is a year, the other 8 mths)
thanks

bump

Are you staying in the city itself? Getting into Oxford is a bit of a pain, and there are loads of things to do on the outskirts, if that's what appeals. Oxford itself is not terribly child-friendly: tends to be heaving with tourists and students and traffic fumes.

Blenheim Palace (Woodstock, c.8 miles north of Oxford) is lovely - huge grounds to walk round, little train to ride on, adventure playground, maze, butterfly house, etc.

In the city itself the University Museum is brilliant (and free) for dinosaur enthusiasts. I think it opens at 12pm most days - they do have a good website if you search on Google.

I usually take the kids on a tour of the bookshops when we go to Oxford! But that's our thing - might not suit you.

HTH - have a lovely time.

thanks roisin, we're in n.oxford, i think so there should be some nice parks too.

There are two parks in North Oxford. Cutteslowe has a good playground, duckpond, snack bar, aviary and a little railway that operates on Sundays. The University Parks are more beautiful, and are great for running around in, but have no play facilities for children.

The University Parks are right by the University Museum - there are ducks to feed there.

I'd recommend the Ashmolean museum for lunch or tea - lovely staff who coo over your kids, lots of highchairs, space, great food available in kids sizes and delicious cakes ...... it's not cheap but ok for a treat. The Ashmolean itself can be good - there are lots of animals to look at in the section on Indian art, the Egyptian things can be good too - lots of amulets of all sorts of things to look at. We go with our 2 age 1 and 3 and they seem to like looking at all the wierd and wonderful things in cabinets. Also second the vote for the University (Natural History) museum. It's quite old fashioned but the cases go down to ground level so lots of things are at kids eye level and then there are boxes of things for them to handle.

Christchurch Meadow is nice to wander around.
Have fun!