Oxford City Guide

Christchurch College
If you're a Harry Potter fan, no trip is complete without a wander around this college's grounds. The building is absolutely beautiful! You'll certainly recognise some things! It's a £4.50 entrance fee and you can stroll around to your hearts content.

The Randolph
Like I mentioned in my pervious post, my boyfriend surprised me with afternoon tea. The Randolph is a gorgeous old-fashioned five star hotel in the heart of the city. It's very charming! It's a lovely place to go if you're celebrating a special occasion. We opted for the yummy full afternoon tea which consisted of a selection of sandwiches, fruit scones with clotted cream and jam alongside afternoon pastries. The bakewell tart was my favourite!

Malmasion Oxford
I love a quirky place to rest my head and this hotel ticked all the boxes. It's set in a converted prison in a medieval castle. It's so luxurious and definitely somewhere to book if you fancy a little treat. I won't say too much as I'm going to write a separate post on it later this week.

The Vaults and Garden Cafe
I found this on Trip Adviser when I was researching some places to stop for breakfast. It's set in the Church by All Souls College, not too far from the high street. You join a canteen style queue as you place your order on what homemade food you'd like to sample - get your partner to grab a table as it gets very busy! We opted for the full breakfast which consisted of organic eggs, air-cured bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and giant butter beans in a tomato sauce. It was pricey at £7.95 but it tasted delicious. Sometimes it's worth splashing out!

St Johns College
Lily mentioned this was her favourite college so we set off to hunt it down. This college was free to enter and it has gorgeous grounds. If it was a little warmer, we would have spent a lot longer exploring.  It's so cool to think that people actually study and live here and the incredible history that the walls could talk about.

Cafe Loco Oxford
This was a recommendation from Hannah - when she mentioned it was Alice In Wonderland themed I was sold. It's again quite pricy - sense a theme? - but the portions were a good size. It's a great place to go for lunch after you've visited Christchurch. It offers table service which is great after you've been on your feet all day. I opted for a tasty pesto, mozzarella and roasted vegetable panini to help refuel before we headed off home. Make sure you get a cake from the takeaway section!

 

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin
I'm a sucker for a good view so I was very excited when I found out you could climb up the church tower for £4. After quite a lot of huffing and puffing, we finally reached the top and were rewarded with some stunning views. It was such a bright day and we could see for miles. It was well worth the dollar and provided some gorgeous pictures. Try not to lean on the wall as my boyfriend got pooped up on the cooing pigeons nesting there!

Oxford University Museum of Natural History
After spending a small fortune, we decided to venture to the museum after reading it was free. It's not too big but you can still whittle around an hour in there taking in all in. They had a good selection of dinosaurs - always a winner in my book - and some cool stuffed animals. There's a cafe upstairs too if you fancy some cake! It's set in a beautiful building.