Oxford in One Day: A Day Trip from London

Can you see Oxford in one day, as a day trip from London?

Yes, absolutely!

It’s totally doable to travel from London to Oxford, sightsee, and then head back.

But we have to warn you.

It will be a long, tiring day.

And, to be honest, we think you’ll regret not spending longer in Oxford.

But, if you can only go for one day now, it’s still better than nothing – especially with the way prices keep increasing in Oxford.

Read on for info and tips on the best way to travel to Oxford from London.

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

Use this when planning a trip to Oxford

We’ve got 4 other Oxford posts that you might want to check out – especially if you change your mind and decide to stay in Oxford for more than one day!

• Oxford on a Budget: 11 Ways to Save Money – because prices keep going up and everyone likes to save money, right?
• 3 Days in Oxford: A Harry Potter & His Dark Materials Itinerary – see all the magical HP and HDM locations, if you have more than one day in Oxford.
• Best Budget Accommodation in Oxford: Stay at The Mad Hatter’s – if you do spend a night in Oxford, stay at this cool Alice in Wonderland guesthouse on a budget (only 4 rooms, so don’t wait to book!).
• Evensong in Oxford: What to Expect as a Visitor – one of the best free activities you can do in Oxford!

If you have any questions about planning a trip to Oxford, give us a shout on our Instagram.

And if you wish someone could just do the planning for you, so all you have to do is enjoy a stress-free, magical holiday in Oxford, book a call with us and we can help!

Can you visit Oxford in one day?

If you’re travelling to London, but, as a Potterhead, you want to add Harry Potter locations in Oxford to your itinerary, is it possible?

Yes!

You can definitely do a day trip to Oxford from London – and we’ll tell you the best way to get there.

And it works for non-Harry Potter fans as well, of course! Though why you wouldn’t love the magical story is beyond us, to be honest with you.

Pro tip: the Oxford Tube, which we’ll tell you more about shortly, runs pretty much 24/7, between Oxford and London. So, technically, if you’re mad like us, you can do a reaaaally long day trip to London, leaving at the crack of dawn and coming back at night.

Btw, if you’re looking for the best place to stay at in London, grab our free accommodation guide. We share our 5-step Booking.com process for finding the best stays and avoiding scams in the guide.

Oxford 1 day itinerary

Here’s the thing. We cannot tell you what you should see in Oxford in one day.

We don’t know if you’re a Harry Potter fan. Or His Dark Materials. Or Inspector Morse. Or Alice in Wonderland. Or any other work of art that has a connection to Oxford.

Or maybe you just want to see the famous university city.

Either way, you’ll have to decide yourself, what exactly you want to see in Oxford.

And how early you’re willing to get up for it. 😉

But, we will help you build your Oxford in one day itinerary:

• If you want to see Harry Potter or His Dark Materials locations in Oxford, here is a list with tips.
• Make sure you check out how to save money in Oxford – it’s an expensive city, even if you’re visiting just for one day.
• One of the best ways to save time (and money) is to eat on the go, rather than sitting down in a restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here are great, budget places we ate at in Oxford, plus a supermarket meal tip.
• Good news? Oxford is very compact – the main locations are close together, so you won’t waste time travelling between them and you don’t have to plan public transport either.

How much can you see in Oxford in one day?

We know we said we can’t give you a one day itinerary for Oxford – you have to build it yourself based on what you want to see – but let’s do a little example.

If you were visiting Oxford in one day, you could:

• Travel early in the morning, for example on the 7:11 am Chiltern Railways train (eat breakfast on the train to save time)
• Get to Oxford at 8:37 am and walk to the Covered Market – it takes 15 minutes and you will pass Oxford Castle Quarter and Carfax Tower on the way
• Check out the market (and maybe grab second breakfast or coffee too) and then head to Christ Church College for 10am opening time
• Do a self-guided tour of Christ Church College, seeing the famous Harry Potter staircase

• Say you spend 2 hours at Christ Church College (unlike us). You can then swing by Tesco Express on St Aldate’s to grab a meal deal for lunch and head to Bodleian Library
• You’ll pass the famous Radcliffe Square along the way
• Do a 60-minute guided tour of Bodleian Library (Hogwarts Hospital Wing and Library!) at 1pm
• Walk 10 minutes from Bodleian Library to Museum of Natural History & Pitt Rivers Museum (they are connected)
• Spend 2 hours exploring the museums. On your way back, if you’re hungry, grab food to go from Najar’s Place or The Alternative Tuck Shop

• It’s around 5pm now, so you still have an hour till one of our favourite Oxford experiences – an evensong
• Use the hour to explore the centre – visit the famous Blackwell’s Bookshop, the whimsical Scriptum or the Wonderland Alice’s Shop
• Attend an evensong at one of the colleges. Find out what to expect (and how to choose the best one) here
• After the evensong, grab a proper dinner before your journey back to London, for example in Ramen Korner
• If you still have energy, do an evening walk around the centre of Oxford to see how magical the city looks after dark
• Head back to London on the 21:19 Chiltern Railways train (to save money). You’ll get to London Marylebone station at 22:45.

With this one day Oxford itinerary, in less than 16 hours, you can see around 11 sights, get food, and smash your daily walking target too!

If you have any questions, give us a shout on our Instagram.

And if you wish we could help you plan the best Oxford day trip – we can! Just book a call with us and we’ll make sure we share all the tips with you, so you have a stress-free day!

Now, let’s talk about the different transport options, between London and Oxford, so you can choose the best one for you.

How to travel from London to Oxford

Since we’re crazy and we decided to do a side quest in London, while in Oxford, to see a terrible theatre show, we had to do the journey between London and Oxford 4 times during our 4-day trip.

What we struggled with was figuring out the best option to travel – one that would suit our schedule and budget, since we were trying to save money.

The information we found online was confusingly written, which is why we decided to write this post.

Here are the 4 options of travelling from London to Oxford.

1. FlixBus

When we visited Oxford, FlixBus didn’t have a route from London to Oxford.

At the time of writing this article, it does, albeit with a limited number of connections.

The best thing to do is check the FlixBus website before your trip.

Here is what you need to know:

• The bus is a slow option, taking around 2 hours (plus traffic, which can be infamously bad in London)
• FlixBus is currently the cheapest option though
• In Oxford, the bus will drop you off centrally, on Beaumont Street
• In London, you can get on at Victoria Coach Station, in Hammersmith or Heathrow Airport

2. Oxford Tube

Confusingly named, this is actually a bus, not an underground, despite what most travellers assume at first!

We already mentioned Oxford Tube, because it has two big advantages:

1. It offers frequent connections and you can take any bus, allowing you to stay flexible
2. It runs pretty much 24/7, so you can get it even in the middle of the night, if you need to

For current ticket prices, full schedule and a list of stops, check the official website.

Flexible travel with Oxford Tube

We used the Oxford Tube when coming back from seeing the Hunger Games On Stage.

Other than being an awful show, since we went on night 3 of opening, there wasn’t any running time published.

We didn’t know when the show would finish, how fast we would get the subway, and which transport back to Oxford we would be able to get.

Booking a train in advance would mean gambling – if you want the cheapest fare, you have to choose a specific train, and if you miss it, that’s your money wasted – you have to buy a new ticket.

Oxford Tube is flexible – we bought the ticket in advance and then just activated it in an app when we got to the bus stop.

For you, this might work on the way back from Oxford after your day trip.

If you’re not sure when you will want to leave – maybe the weather will turn awful on the day and you will want to cut your trip short. Or maybe you will be loving Oxford so much that you will not want to leave (we did warn you to stay the night!).

Not being tied to a specific train on the way back to London, but having the freedom of jumping on any Oxford Tube might be ideal for you.

3. Chiltern Railways and Great Western Railway (GWR)

We are combining the 2 train options between London and Oxford, because a lot is similar when it comes to trains.

Should I take a bus or a train from London to Oxford?

The one big difference between taking a train instead of a bus?

Trains are faster and won’t get stuck in traffic.

Yes, they can be delayed, but overall, you’re probably going to get to Oxford faster by train than a bus.

The 3 disadvantages of taking a train:

1. They are more expensive than buses

When buying train tickets, check all the ticket options. The cheapest is always the advance ticket, but, as the name suggests, you have to book it in advance (at least a few days to get the cheapest price), which means having a solid plan/itinerary in place.

2. The cheap tickets are not flexible

The cheapest advance tickets are only valid for that one specific train you book.

We talked about flexibility here – if you need to stay flexible, Oxford Tube, or a more expensive flexible train ticket (usually called “anytime”) are your best options.

3. They drop you off at Oxford train station which is a bit further than the bus station, meaning a longer walk for you

Still, it’s not a 2-hour hike: you can get to the famous Covered Market in 15 minutes from the Oxford train station, for example (vs a 5-minute walk from the bus station).

Taking a train from London to Oxford

How do you decide whether you should take Chiltern Railways or Great Western Railway from London to Oxford?

• GWR leaves from London Paddington station. Chiltern Railways from Marylebone station.
• Chiltern Railways take around 20-30 minutes longer than GWR. But, they can be much cheaper, especially if booked in advance.
• We haven’t taken GWR train before, only Chiltern Railways, to save money, but we did hear that GWR tends to be a lot busier, since it’s the faster service.

Best way to decide?

• If you want to get to Oxford fast, regardless of the cost, choose Great Western Railway.
• If you want to save money, or be on a less busy train, choose Chiltern Railways.

Pro tip:

Always book the train tickets on the railways’ official website. You avoid scams and higher prices on third party websites.

Do use the third party websites, for example Trainline, when comparing train schedules though, since they offer all train options, so you can compare them easily.

Btw, if you’re flying into Luton airport and travelling to Oxford from there, we covered that in this post.

For Gatwick and Heathrow, there is a direct connection to Oxford run by Terravision.

Remember, if you have any questions, you can drop us a DM on our Instagram, or book a call with us, so we can help you plan how to see Oxford in one day without stress!

We hope we showed you that seeing Oxford in one day is totally doable – even if your legs might fall off by the time you make it back to London.

If you want a more relaxed itinerary, keeping all your limbs from falling off and seeing more of Oxford, stay the night.

We highly recommend The Mad Hatter guesthouse – it has just 4 rooms, adults-only, there’s a quirky bar downstairs and everything is Alice in Wonderland themed! Oh, and you can stay there on a budget!