Oxford and Blenheim Palace in 48 hours?

I think the 9pm opening is for people who are readers at the library (you need a special card to get in) , I think it closes for visitors at about 5pm. The best way to visit is on a guided tour, which get booked up.

Are you driving to Blenheim or going by public transport? It’s a while since I have been there, but I recall the tour (which had to be with a guide then) took about an hour. There are also large grounds and gardens. Tripadvisor often indicates how long people spent at an attraction but I’d guess at 2 hours as a minimum and more likely around 3 or more You then need to add on the time to get back to Oxford. If you’re planning to drive, be aware that Oxford City council has more or less declared war on the motor car - much of the centre is pedestrianised with a tortuous one way system and exorbitant parking fees.

If you’re looking for a pub, I like the Turf Tavern which is very central. They claim it to be where Bill Clinton didn’t inhale!

A lot of the Colleges charge visitors for entry, Christ Church particularly, but there are some that are free. Most are worth a look. There are a number of walking tours available. If you want to have a brief peak in a college which has a “closed “ sign up, it can be worth speaking to the porters in their lodge (small room at the entrance) telling them that you have (a recently invented) child/grandchild who is very interested in studying there. It may get you

For Sunday, Christ Church meadow (free) and the towpath by the river is pretty on sunny day.

One thing; have you checked with the cruise line what time you’re likely to be able to leave the ship? I doubt that immigration will be open at 5.30 and once it is they often disembark the ships on the basis of highest deck (ie most expensive cabins) first, at least the two cruises I went on did. You could be hanging around for a while.

We have done both Oxford and Blenheim and you should be able to so Blenheim in 2-3 hours.

Unless you have a rental car, not sure how you would get there, but it is not real far from Oxford.

We did a walking tour of Oxford for some hours then explored on our own. You don't want a car in Oxford, since parking is nil.

From the Blenheim website:

"Stagecoach Bus S3 runs from Oxford City Centre to Woodstock, four times an hour, 7 days a week. Buses stop outside the main entrance, from there it's a 10 minute stroll through the park to Blenheim Palace."

"We offer 20% off Palace, Park & Garden tickets for visitors arriving by bus – on our website use the code GREEN20 at checkout."*

https://www.blenheimpalace.com/visitus/getting-here/

You won't need a car. You can take the bus. It's a 19 minute ride.

Or by taxi if you prefer. The Blenheim website lists these:
"Booking a taxi in advance can provide the cheapest, most convenient journey. Visit townhousewoodstock.co.uk, minicabit.com or Woodstock Taxis to plan your trip."

Woodstock is the village right outside the entrance gates to Blenheim Palace. It has several good pubs for a drink or a meal. You may wish to visit one of these before you head back to Oxford after visiting Blenheim.

Edit: My post has been edited to reflect the information below provided by isn31c concerning buses from Oxford to Blenheim/Woodstock.

To comment on what you said here: "This is where I don't know what will happen, because I have no concept of how long it will take to tour the palace..."
Take a look at this page from the Blenheim website.
We toured the State Rooms, saw the bedroom where Churchill was born, then went to the lunchroom and sat on the back terrace, then visited the enormous gift shop.
We were there for three hours.

However....they have added some things to see since our visit. Things on this page that have been added:
https://www.blenheimpalace.com/visitus/
The "upstairs" tour
The "downstairs" tour
The stables tour
The Churchill Exhibition
Buggy Tours of the Formal Garden
You can also walk as much as you want in the grounds and gardens after touring the house. See, on the link/page I gave above:
Formal Gardens
Tree Trail

The gift shop is huge. They have some great items, including books about Blenheim, Churchill, English History, Gardening and more.

It is possible it will take you most of a day to see it all. If you have no interest in the garden or going for a walk throughout the grounds, that time is reduced significantly.

I will also say that at the time we visited, the food in the lunchroom was nothing special. So if you wanted to leave Blenheim when you are finished sightseeing, walk out the front gates into the tiny town of Woodstock, and have a late lunch at one of the pubs, I would say that would be a good move.

I hope this information has helped you calculate just how long you will be at Blenheim.
Quick tour of the palace could be done in 2 hours, not lingering here and there.

We were at Blenheim on the weekend. Can roam around on your own; no guided tour, unless you request one. I think you see a few additional rooms on a guided tour.

The palace itself does not take that long, the grounds can take many hours. I thought it was overpriced. The best part of the visit was the Churchill exhibit at the back, which is free to anyone. Inside there was a rubbishy fashion exhibition which took away from the rooms somewhat.

And Christ Church tickets go quickly. A general walkabout is good, include Addison's Walk.

In Oxford, have a look at the Ashmolean Museum.
It's fantastic. Like a miniature version of the British Museum.

Picking up on the comment by BillS719, the Bodleian Library does run after hours tours on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2nd July to 12th September. Tours are at 5.15 and again at 6.30 and last for an hour.

I spent all day at Blenheim going round the Palace and exploring the grounds - they are huge! Allow yourselves plenty of time so you don't have to rush.

Bill: Ok, that’s interesting. I will look into it more about the 9pm closing time. I didn’t know it would only be for card holders.
Thank you for the Turf Tavern recommendation. That’s one of the ones we have on our list!
That’s funny about inventing a child or grandchild. LOL. That's some interesting advice.
Also, I didn’t mean to imply I thought we’d be off the ship at 5:30am. I was just saying, we’ll be off the ship at an early hour. Like, we’d probably be able to catch a train by 8 or 9am. We actually will be in a suite so may be able to get off even earlier!

Geova: Thank you! We will not have a car. I will look into walking tours for sure. They’re always great!

Rebecca: Thank you for all the details you took the time to give! We won’t have a car. We will take the bus. Thank you for that info. I was on the Blenheim Palace website last night but was overwhelmed by all the sights on their grounds and was trying to figure out which we'd even want to go to. We probably won’t go walking around the gardens – or if we do we’ll just get a taste of them. We simply want to fit in so much and I’m most interested in seeing the palace and the Churchill exhibition! And thank you for your opinion on the lunchroom. I saw that they have afternoon tea, and thought how much simpler it would be to just do tea there, but it’s really expensive and their reviews aren’t that great… Thanks for mentioning Woodstock! I will look into eateries there!

Gundersen: I saw the ad for the fashion exhibition but it will be gone in September anyway, so we won’t waste our time! Thanks for telling me about the Christ Church tickets. I will get on their site ASAP and see what tours are available and act quickly!

Wasleys: Sadly we will not be there during those days of the week, nor will we be there before 9/12. Thank you for that tidbit though! It could help someone else who reads this. :)

As happens so often, the website information is wrong. The S7 does not start from Oxford Rail Station- only the S3 does that. The only station the S7 runs from is Oxford Parkway- on the Chiltern route to Oxford from Marylebone.
If you are arriving from Southampton the Parkway station is well out of your way.

Both used to start from the Rail Station- but not now.

The S7 has a final destination of Witney and the S3 Chipping Norton

Following up on Bill's post (and someone may correct me) I think a pre-booked guided tour (which he recommends) is the only way to access the Bodleian Library. The latest tour is 6.30pm, and the late tours don't run on Fridays.

https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/tours/library-guided-tours

Other than that it's only open to University and Reader card holders. I suppose otherwise it would be mighty disruptive having visitors constantly coming through while you're studying.

Regarding the Bodlean: you can see the buildings of the old library on Broad St and I think there’s a small exhibition of some special items which don’t require a tour. But, the most interesting bits, including Duke Humphrey’s library where the books are chained to the shelves, can only be seen by a guided tour.

We were just in Oxford. We also visited the Blenheim Palace by bus. We spent a long time walking around the grounds and toured everything you could without an extra ticket and left by mid afternoon. There were some “extra” rooms available for 5 pounds each. I didn’t buy any of them (upstairs and/or tour of kitchen) assuming that could see without a guide and didn’t want to be tied to a specific time. Well, guided tours are only way can see the rooms. So make your choices accordingly.

I agree the Churchill museum was most interesting part of the palace. It told a lot of the history. There an audio tour that comes with admission. And I agree that the fashion exhibit had no merits.

If you take the bus, you get a discount on admission tickets.

And we just brought sandwiches and ate on a park bench in the grounds.

Thank you Beth, Bill, isn, and Simon!
I will look into the Bodleian Library tour. And Beth, thank you for sharing your experiences at Blenheim!

I took a good tour of the university in 2017. I don't remember whether it was run by the Tourist Office or by the university. We were told that at challenging times (around holidays or exam periods, I guess), the commercial tours may not have access to as much as the more official tours.

I don't know about the timing, though. You'd need an afternoon tour for your arrival day or quite an early tour for your last day.

The tour we took last month was City and University tour through Oxford Walking Tours. All the guides are former students. It was recommended by B & B host. We thought it was fabulous and would also highly recommend it.

We also went to the Ashmolean Museum. It really is lovely.

There is a pizza restaurant at Blenheim just outside the walled garden which has better food than the main cafe. We ate there and it was pretty decent and prices reasonable. I don’t know how much indoor seating they have but the outdoor space was nice with big umbrellas. The main cafe options up by the house were very poor. We had a cup of tea there later and I felt sorry for people trying to get something to eat because what was available looked very sad.

I was in Oxford back in 2019.

I spent the better part of the day at Blenheim. I took a garden tour and a “Downstairs” tour and I thought both were very interesting and well worth the small fee. The downstairs focused on the staff who would have worked at Blenheim and it was complete with the bells used to summon the staff to the various rooms in the house (a la Downton Abbey). The gardens are fantastic and the grounds are huge. I do think the specialty tours are worthwhile if you have a particular interest. I booked on arrival at Blenheim.