Oxford not in guidebook

There are some world class museums in their subject in Oxford, not least the Ashmolean which has had an extensive refit in recent years. Odd when you go round to see that some of the pieces were donated in the 1600s.

Steves does have a couple of pages on Oxford in full or in part in this website:

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/england/oxford
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/britains-oldest-university-towns

Rick doesn't seem to be able to forgive Oxford for also being to some extent even today an industrial city, as well as a University (or two!).

Oxford used to be in the book.

It would be a great shame if it had been taken out.

Maybe it got the Vicenza treatment that Rick spoke about last week.

It is a true world class city with centuries of incredible history and some decent colleges.

If you wind up in the Covered Market mentioned above, pop in to MooMoos and have a really good milkshake with endless varieties of flavours. Yum. Order at the order window... wait .... pick up at the pick up window.

If you want a small guidebook that covers Oxford, take a look at "Let's Go: London, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh" by Let's Go books. It covers Oxford thoroughly, and is lightweight, having only 290 pages, printed on newspaper stock. Lightweight enough to throw into a backpack and take with you.

A book that covers Oxford thoroughly is "England, The Rough Guide" by Rough Guides. This is a larger book, perhaps 990 pages; much heavier if you wanted to take it along with you.

Or you could just print out a few of the pages here and take them with you:
http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Oxford

And if you are a fan of the Inspector Morse TV series you can have a drink at the Randolf across the street from the Ashmolean Museum before enjoying the scenic Oxford backdrop the the Morse crime scenes.

Oxford is in my 2011 England book and it's listed as being in the current England book on this website. It's not in my Great Britain book.

I vastly prefer Oxford to Cambridge...so many more nooks and crannies, museums, and beautiful lanes to explore. Cambridge is nice but it's a little more compact with not as much to see. My opinion, of course!

Don't worry I have another guide book that includes Oxford and I'm definitely planning to go there someday. The Ashmolean museum looks amazing. I do like RS though and have used his advice many times and it's been helpful so I was just curious.

Thank you for the tips Keith. Definitely interested in the library.

For what it's worth, my mom and I spent a few hours in Cambridge and two nights in Oxford on our trip in May, and we both preferred Oxford for its architecture and convenient transport links. We stayed at the Lakeside Guesthouse, which I'd recommend. We took a guided tour of Christchurch College (wonderful), attended evensong at Christchurch Cathedral (beautiful) and took a bus to Blenheim Palace. Oxford was the last stop on our trip, and on departure day we took the convenient Airline bus to Heathrow. Point being - use your other guidebook and go to Oxford, even if it isn't Rick's favorite.

You don't need a guide book to enjoy exploring Oxford. We took a morning coach from Victoria Station, returning to London after dinner. Coaches ran at 20 or 30 minute intervals.

Find the Oxford TI near the bus station for a map and just explore. Museum as others noted is a worthy stop and free if my memory is correct.

http://www.visitoxfordandoxfordshire.com

Bill Bryson isn't too crazy about the City of Dreaming Spires either. His gripe has to do with the architectural insults built in the 1960's and 70's. See pp. 132-135 of his very funny "Notes from a Small Island."

But nevertheless we hope to see Oxford on our next visit to the UK. Rudy Maxa has a nice segment on the city in his "Outside London" travel video. They must have managed to avoid filming the ugly buildings.

Maybe the secret is to stay within walking distance of the city centre and most famous sights, as we did. Other than our taxi ride to the coach station, we stayed in close proximity to Christ Church/Bodleian Library/Radcliffe Camera, etc. From our narrow perspective, it was a gorgeous city.

Meant to add - I love Bill Bryson's books. Not too many authors can make me burst out laughing as he does! I'm sure there's an element of truth to his perspective, but I dare say he has a talent for accentuating the less-than-idyllic, albeit in a humorous, rather affectionate way.

There are architectural books that cover the development of modern buildings within Oxford colleges from an academic rather than a humorist's viewpoint.

Eef is correct, the England Guidebook has a chapter on Oxford, including additional chapters on "southern" England from Cambridge to Land's End that are not in the Great Britain Guidebook.