Hello,
My husband and I will be in London for 2.5 days. We thought we might try to squeeze in a quick day trip to Oxford or Cambridge whichever route was the most convenient and cost effective.
I searched the travel forum for answers to this question as well as the Rick Steves site, but could not find a specific answer. We are scheduled to be in London 8/3 -8/5.
Thanks
Nicole
Oxford is about an hour from London Paddington Station.
Cambridge is about 50mins from London Kings Cross Station.
Both are served by direct train taking about one hour each way. See www.nationalrail.co.uk for schedules and online booking. If you can commit to a roundtrip ticket at least 24 hours ahead, you can probably get a discount. Tickets are also sold in the station. Of course, London has more than enough to see in this short time without a side trip, so you're trading off competing options.
Coach services from Victoria to Oxford are also available from the Oxford Tube or Oxford Express companies. They will be slightly cheaper than train, but slower. Especially on a weekday moring and evenig during the peaks, even though you'll be against the main flow.
Do you mean that you will be there the day after tomorrow?
Be aware of the tube strike.
Follow this other thread
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/yet-another-london-underground-strike for updates. If you are planning to make the journey on the day of the strike consider going to the city served by a station nearest your hotel - preferably walking distance - because transportation within London will be difficult.
