Oxford Travel Guide

The `City of Dreaming Spires’, the university town of Oxford stands at the confluence of two rivers- the Thames and the Cherwell, and is known primarily for its colleges, although it offers a lot besides degrees and doctorates. 

One of the loveliest cities in this part of England, Oxford has a number of excellent museums, including the oldest public museum in the country, the Ashmolean, which has a very fine and vast collection of Egyptian finds. Other well-known museums in the city include the Oxford Museum, which is perhaps best known for its collection of photographs, and the Pitt Rivers Museum, acclaimed as one of the finest ethnographic museums in the world. In addition, the city has some of the loveliest gardens in the country - the Botanical Gardens, for instance, are widely known for their beauty and variety.

But, of course, what Oxford is really known for are its colleges. Many of them, like Christchurch, which, incidentally, is the largest and has a beautiful chapel, are almost legendary. Most of the colleges in Oxford are renowned for their architecture, their ivy clad walls and for the beautifully manicured "quads" within them, and the illustrious souls who have studied in them.

Oxford is fortunately, very easy to get to- there are regular daily trains and buses from other English cities: the train from London takes just an hour; the bus, an hour and a half). Within Oxford, there are lots of good hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses and hostels; restaurants and pubs aplenty, but little nightlife. There are frequent dramatic productions - local theatre often staged by students- and concerts of classical music, usually held at venues such as the chapels of colleges like Merton, Christchurch and New College.