Day trips from oxford

The Cotswolds are not easy on your own without a rental car. The only town with a train station is Moreton-in-Marsh, a quick train trip from Oxford. Moreton seems to be sort of the bus hub for the area. You could certainly take the train to Moreton and pick up a bus to one of the little places; be careful to check on return transportation, though. The difficulty (not limited to the UK) lies in connecting multiple small villages on a single day, especially when every day must start and end with the Oxford/Moreton train. The villages are tiny, so you probably won't want to spend a great deal of time in any single one of them; you'll want to see several unless your intention is to do a village-to-village walk.

What I opted to do is take a one-day small-group (van) tour that departed from Moreton-in-Marsh train station. I used GoCotswolds. I had no difficulty training in from Oxford to meet the tour.

The source for UK train schedules is nationalrail.co.uk. For buses you can either try Googling something like bus from Moreton in Marsh to Chipping Campden or use rome2rio.com. If you keep drilling down on rome2rio you'll eventually find the name of the bus company running the route you are interested in, and often also a link to the company's website. Do not trust the specific information (fares, travel times, frequencies) shown on the rome2rio website itself. It is highly likely to lead you astray.

The end of November is not a great time to be visiting the Cotswolds, as there will be no colour left in the gardens and the weather is likely to be cold and wet.

You can get from Oxford to Bath in about 1.5 hours, changing at either Didcot Parkway or Reading.

Oxford to Salisbury involves 2 or 3 trains, depending on the time of travel and most journeys are c 2.5 hours each way. As it will be dark by 4pm, this is too much for a day trip. Is Stonehenge really a must see? It’s small and disappointing in my book!

Depending on where you go in the Cotswolds by the end of November many businesses will have their small Christmas trees on the outside of the shops, over the doors, probably with white lights on. Very scenic.

Best after dark, but then at the end of November much of the day may well be dark.

The beautiful views over the rolling hillsides and Cotswold stone chocolate box villages are less impressive under the likely leaden grey skies or in the rain. November and December just don't show them off to their best, sorry. The good side is you will likely see few tourists.

Bath is a fairly easy self-journey: train changing at Didcot for at least an hourly frequency; direct coach possible but limited services.

Salisbury for Stonehenge: train change at Basingstoke (or possibly Reading on a Sunday). No coach option.

Consider taking in Blenheim Palace nearby Oxford.

I recommend Becky's Secret Cottage tour - it's a family-run business and they meet you at the train station in Moreton-in-Marsh. They may be booked up already but I would go on their website and check it out. It was a highlight of my trip in September 2017!

Also, I recommend Blenheim Palace, we toured there in Nov. 2013 and it was a highlight of that trip! We stayed 2 nights in Oxford and 2 nights in Bath on that trip.

For Blenheim Palace, we had our hotel arrange a private car as it was cold and blustery that day. The driver drove us to Blenheim and then came back later in the afternoon to take us back to Oxford. Perfect!

There's actually a lot to see right in Oxford. I think you may not need as many out-of-season, awkward-by-public-transportation, day-trips to fill your time as you expect. The Ashmolean and Pitt-Rivers Museums are both excellent and large (and very different), and the tourist office does a walking tour that gets you inside a college or two.

Both Oxford and Bath will have Christmas Markets while you are there for some Holiday activities with the locals. I would definitely recommend Blenheim Palace and Woodstock (Scenic Village) as they are only 30 mins by bus from Oxford. You can take the train to Salisbury, average trip 2 hrs both ways. Then see the Cathedral and take a bus to Stonehenge on one ticket. Stonehenge admissions are time ticketed, so you my have to purchase in advance. It is not easy to get around the Cotswolds without a car. Lacock a National Trust preserved village is another day trip; now covered in tours that feature Harry Potter locations. Bon Voyage!

the bus only takes about 27-30 minutes, and then it is walking into the property.

Thanks everybody. I knew the leaves would have fallen but had not thought of the flowers in the Cotswolds.

I took the bus between Oxford and Blenheim Palace. It was very convenient. If I remember, there are a couple of lines from which to choose.

How about taking the train to Marylebone station in London and walking to the Wallace Collection. This museum was one of my favorites and it has a lovely cafe for breakfast, lunch, tea or cocktails.