A day trip to Oxford with children
The first day of our Summer holiday mini break was a day trip to Oxford. Below we’ll explain a bit about what you can do during a day trip to Oxford with children.
We decided on a mini break to Oxford and Warwickshire because we have Merlin Passes which Warwick Castle is included on. This means we can access around 30 attractions across the UK for ‘free’. We bought our passes using Tesco Clubcard vouchers so in many ways it does actually feel free!
Why Oxford?
As there is a long weekend at the end of August we thought we’d make the most of it and go then when we could take 3 days to explore. We found an Airbnb (fairly easily which surprised us at short notice!) and decided to stop at Oxford on the way to break up the journey.
What can you do in Oxford with children?
Oxford is a city famed for its Universities and you could easily fill a day just exploring those. But as we were doing a day trip to Oxford with children with us, who would probably get bored of too much academic based exploration we decided to do our own little walking tour, interspersed with Afternoon Tea and the University of Oxford Botanical Gardens.
We’d been warned in advance that the traffic in Oxford is terrible but as we were there fairly early (around 10am) we took our chances and went to the Westgate Shopping Centre to park. It was a breeze! It’s clearly quite new and being in the centre of the city we couldn’t ask for more really.
Once we were parked we headed to Oxford Castle and Prison where we walked up the mound (you have to pay £1 for this, including children). It was fairly nondescript but had reasonable views. We then had a little walk around the perimeter of the Prison and Castle before heading to the covered market. They do regular tours of the inside of the prison but we decided against it with the girls somewhat short attention span!
The covered market was brilliant – so much better than we expected, with quirky little boutiques and cute cafes along bunting lined walkways. It felt very english and pretty 🙂 We walked around for a good hour peering into shops and salivating over all the delights on offer in the Cafes and Restaurants.
Afternoon Tea with Children
From there we headed to for our Afternoon Tea reservation at The No1 Folly Restaurant on the banks of the river. It’s the first time we have braved afternoon tea with the girls and it was really lovely. We ordered two to share and extra scones for the girls and it was more than enough. It wasn’t cheap at £55 for the 4 of us but it was delicious and a lovely thing to do together.
After lunch we took a walk to see some of the University Colleges, taking in Christ Church, Magdelan and Trinity. They are so impressive – it must be amazing to study there amongst such history and grandeur.
Oxford University Botanical Gardens
A nice calm addition to the day was a visit to the Oxford University Botanical Gardens, this cost £12 (£6 each for adults) and the children (under 5) were free. They are stunning. I think we were there at a very good time of year with so much in bloom, and on a gorgeous sunny day, but I can imagine it’s impressive year round.
We wandered around there for an hour or so, stopping for ice cream and to watch the punting along the way, before heading back to the car.
Summary on our day trip to Oxford with Children
We’d walked 12,000 steps and spent most of the day in Oxford so we felt we could head North to Warwick and our Airbnb satisfied with a sightseeing day done to its fullest.
We would definitely recommend a day trip to Oxford with Children. There is plenty to do and its such a beautiful City.
