We will be in Oxford January 9-12th. We are just tourists, and want to visit the main attractions in the area and possible beyond. Looking for recommendations in or near the city center as we will not have a car.
What we like - but not deal killers:
Breakfast included.
B&B style, but hotel would be ok if there were comfortable common areas to hang out in
Close to eating places and transportation
no more that $200 per night.
Thanks for any ideas!
Be sure to visit Blenheim Palace - about 7 miles NW of Oxford .https://www.blenheimpalace.com
Have you had a look at booking.com or similar as a starting point? You’ll see that your budget is too low for a centrally located hotel with breakfast. $200 is only about £150. You will need to be out of the centre and even then I’d say this is a low budget for a good standard B&B.
I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Oxford, mainly because I had points for a free night, but it was a good location and I believe reasonably well-priced (although more than your budget).
Here are a few recent threads that have some Oxford hotel suggestions in them.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/oxford-8fd934a4-5afc-49cb-809c-96c635480159
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/oxford-hotel-recommendations
You also might consider staying in university housing, which is usually a lower cost and contingent on students not being there, although when I checked, it looked like there were opportunities for a stay throughout January. Someone on this forum recently stayed at the Rewley House and really enjoyed her stay there. https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/accommodation
Being January helps on price but not as much as you might think. Stretch your budget up towards £180 though and places like the Malmaison start to become available at present.
The Premier Inn Westgate (good more budget central option) is already sold out during that period.
Yes, good point about keeping the currency in mind. I'm getting the credit card bills from my recent trip and that 1.5X exchange rate hurts.
When we were in Oxford years ago we stayed at Cotswold House, which is a B&B a bit out from the center of town on Banbury Rd. It's on a main bus line into town, with buses every 10 minutes or so - we never found it a chore to go back and forth, and the room was much cheaper than something closer in. I believe we took a cab from the train station, and the bus back to the train when we departed.
There may be other similar lodgings along Banbury Rd near the Summertown suburb - take a look on Google Maps.
