Five Days in Oxford
Five days means you can stop rushing. Explore the outer neighbourhoods, take day trips, and start to feel like you belong here.
Days 1-3: The essentials
Follow the three-day itinerary. Don't rush it — if anything, slow down. Linger in the Ashmolean. Have a second pint at the Turf. Go back to the Covered Market for breakfast on day 2.
Day 4: Headington, Iffley, and south Oxford
Morning: Bus to Headington. The Shark House on New High Street is genuinely surreal — a 25-foot fibreglass shark sticking out of a terraced house roof since 1986. The council tried to remove it. The shark won. Walk through Headington Quarry park — it's where C.S. Lewis lived and is buried (Holy Trinity churchyard).
Lunch: Head back towards town but stop in Iffley village. It's a 15-minute walk from the centre but feels like a Cotswold village. Iffley Lock on the Thames is a lovely spot. The Magdalen Arms nearby does some of the best food in Oxford — seriously good British cooking.
Afternoon: South Oxford is residential but rewarding. Walk the Thames Path south from Folly Bridge. The Head of the River at Folly Bridge is a solid pub with river views. Or cross to The Isis Farmhouse — a proper middle-of-nowhere pub accessible only by foot or boat.
Evening: Pierre Victoire for affordable French bistro food on Little Clarendon Street. Then drinks at Freud — a cocktail bar inside a converted church. The building alone is worth the visit.
Day 5: Day trip or deep dive
You have two good options:
Option A: Blenheim Palace. Bus S3 from the city centre, 30 minutes. It's where Churchill was born, and the grounds are spectacular — Capability Brown at his best. The palace itself is unapologetically grand. Budget a full day if you do the gardens properly.
Option B: Deeper Oxford. Skip the day trip and instead explore what you've missed. Some suggestions:
- More colleges: Merton has the oldest quad in Oxford. Wadham has beautiful gardens. Worcester has a lake. They're all less visited than Christ Church and more rewarding for it.
- Blackwell's Bookshop: Spend a proper morning in the Norrington Room underground. It's the largest single room selling books in England.
- The canal: Walk north along the Oxford Canal from Hythe Bridge Street through Jericho towards Wolvercote. It's flat, quiet, and passes narrowboats and allotments.
Evening: Your last night. The Bear Inn — the smallest and oldest pub in Oxford. Then dinner somewhere you wanted to try earlier in the week but didn't get to.