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UK Trip Report April/May 26 - Part 1 Oxford and Chester

Posted by (California Central Coast 🐚) on

Trip Report-5 weeks in England and North Wales (April 11 to May 15, 2026)

Intro: I love to plan travel. I began planning this trip in May 2025 as soon as we returned from our Spring 2025 trip to British Columbia, Alberta and Alaska. I did a lot of research and also enjoyed listening to 6 Great Courses on the history of the British Isles, from Celts and Romans to Henry VIII. I also spent a lot of time on the forum; reading trip reports and discussions and asking many questions. I really appreciate this forum and the people who make it so friendly and informative. In that spirit I want to share my experience, just in case it is useful or valuable to someone. Some people just have a way with words and that’s not me, but I’ll try my best to make it interesting and of value.

My husband and I are both 73. Our travel style is (ideally) to stay in one place for 4-5 days, to plan one or two activities on each day, make a dinner plan and then be flexible about the rest of our day. This worked really well for us and led to so many amazing adventures and discoveries!

This trip report has turned out to be very long so I am going to break it into sections.

Weather: The weather was basically perfect for us. We had more rain in Oxford than anywhere else and had some hail while we were out walking the tow path. Fortunately we enjoy taking rain walks. For the rest of the trip, we had a mix of some sun, some rain, lots of clouds but mostly it was windy and very chilly. I had to wear all my layers including my rain jacket as a wind breaker to be comfortable most days. That said, I prefer cool or cold weather when I am doing so much walking. Something I hadn’t noticed in past visits: train platforms are particularly cold, like wind tunnels.

Transportation: We took the Airline Bus directly from Heathrow to Oxford. We primarily used trains and buses. We find the trains and buses in the UK very enjoyable. We tried Hop On/ Hop Off buses in Chester and in York. We enjoyed getting the overall feel for the places but didn’t take advantage of the Hop Off or 24 hour value of them. We rented a car from Arnold Clark (recommended on the forum) in Edinburgh and dropped it off 5 days later outside of Newcastle upon Tyne. Arnold Clark was excellent from beginning to end. We had decided before we left that we were going to prioritize health and comfort over cost where transportation was concerned. This translated to grabbing a taxi or calling an Uber more often than we have in the past. We did this when there were hills or stairs because of my knees and so that we could keep going until we were tired and then get a ride “home”.

Oxford - 4 nights
Hotel: Cotswolds Lodge Hotel- We loved this hotel. I had hesitated because of some mixed reviews and its location a bit outside the city centre, but it turned out to be an excellent choice for us. Our comfortable ground-floor room, good breakfast and bus service to town right outside the door made for an easy stay. The hotel also has a restaurant and a cozy bar serving food in the evenings. What made it really special was the staff were genuinely welcoming and friendly. Josh, in the bar, became a particular favorite. Even though this was one of the more expensive places we stayed, we would happily stay here again.
Food: We enjoyed dinner at Pierre Victoire, a French bistro. Afternoon tea at The Alice in the Randolph Hotel was somewhat disappointing. We liked both the atmosphere and the food at Turf Tavern. On our day trip, we returned to The Bridge Tea Room in Bradford on Avon. It was as good as we remembered.

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Highlights: On my “memory lane day”, we used Oxford Blue taxi service on a recommendation from the forum for our day trip to Boars Hill and they were great. In Boars Hill and we found the house I lived in when I was 18 and and returned to my old local, The Fox Inn. Back in Oxford, we stopped in the Queen’s Lane Coffee House, a favorite haunt from my student days, and walked by St. Clare’s College where I studied. This day was great fun for me (including a wonderful connection with our Oxford Blue driver). Other highlights included the Oxford Botanic Gardens, time spent wandering the Oxford’s streets and a day trip to Bradford on Avon with a canal boat ride that included the history of the Kennet and Avon Canal and a ride over an aqueduct, having some time to just wander around Oxford. The enthusiastic volunteers at the Bradford Museum, the TI and on the canal boat added greatly to our experience with their knowledge and helpfulness and were very much appreciated.
Challenges: My husband, unfortunately, had forgotten one of his medications and he had to spend time on arranging a doctor’s appointment, going to the appointment and picking up the prescription. Fortunately, he was able to do this and it didn’t interfere too much with our plans.

Chester- 3 nights

Hotel: We stayed at the Hotel Indigo Chester. It was a good location. We had stayed at the Indigos in Bath and Cardiff a few years ago and liked them both. While the Chester Indigo wasn’t quite at the same level, it was comfortable, clean and met our needs. We tried both dinner and breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, The Forge, but were disappointed with the food. On the positive side, we had Sophie, at the front desk, who seemed to take us under her wing, always making sure we had extra water bottles and treats, and she offered good suggestions for places to visit around Chester. We probably would look for other lodging in Chester another time.

Food: As mentioned, the food at the hotel restaurant was disappointing but we had excellent dinners and service at both twenty eight and Chef’s Table neighboring restaurants that appear to be connected in some way. One afternoon we stumbled upon a pub called the Cornerhouse for lunch and it was great. We shared a “platter” which was similar to a charcuterie board and was delicious. The Jaunty Goat was good for breakfast, a toastie and smashed avocado toast. We also enjoyed a visit to a speak-easy style cocktail bar called Prohibition. Finding it was part of the fun - there’s no sign outside so we had to ask locals on the street for directions.

Highlights: We both loved Chester Cathedral. It was quiet and uncrowded, allowing us to just wander and see everything we wanted to see. Walking the city walls was another highlight. One day we took a train to Ellesmere Port to go to the National Waterways Museum. My favorite exhibit was the stables, which explained the lives of the horses that towed the canal boats before engines were introduced. I was fascinated to learn how the horses memorized their routes and knew exactly when to slow down or stop at locks. However, I had to hold my nose during the visit to the stables as there was some virtual reality going on and it smelled very strongly of horse manure. We also enjoyed learning about the daily lives of the families who lived and worked on the canal boats.

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Oh thank you, Katiecem, for the trip report! I am looking forward to following along. You are giving me some wonderful ideas of things to do - like the canal boat trip and the waterways museum in Chester.

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640 posts

MapLady - I'm so glad you are finding things in my report to add to your list.

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11886 posts

One of the really unusual things about Chester Cathedral is the surviving Consistory Court Room (at the west end of the South Aisle) dating from a time when the Church dealt with legal matters well outside strictly Church discipline.
It's also not often realised how large the Diocese of Chester once was- it used to cover much of the Lake District as well as a substantial part of the Yorkshire Dales.

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