Seeing Bath, Oxford And Some British Countryside 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This is part two of our England trip from May of 2024. If you want to hear about our three days in London you can check that out here.

After our three awesome days in London, we wanted to see more of England and get out of the city. We read a lot of books, and Liz regularly has Bath appear in books she reads, so this was a no-brainer to do a day in Bath, especially with how easy the train is.

One Night In Bath

Bath isn't very large and it's only about a 2-2.5 hour train ride from London, so it makes for a very easy day trip. However, since we were moving on to Oxford next, we stayed one night so we didn't feel rushed. We were also carrying bags around along with a toddler.

We stayed right in the center of the city at Abbey Hotel. Everything in Bath is very close, and you will find yourself doing laps around. We found a really cool cidery up the hill with a nice view and a ton of different ciders.

There was this really awesome courtyard sort of behind our hotel just off of area where the Baths are that felt hidden and had a really good pub.

This is one of the rare instances we paid for admittance into a touristy attraction, which are the Roman Baths. It's unique and the main reason Bath is what it is, plus it wasn't very busy. They do have those audio narrators where you input a number at a location you are at, and it will give you the backstory, so that was quite nice. We obviously didn't get to fully check everything out because we were still actively chasing a toddler and keeping him from going into the baths.

To finish the trip on the day we left we hiked up to Alexandra Park which has an awesome view of the city. But also it has a really awesome playground at the top as well.

Three Days In Oxford

There are too many place we have marked off to check out in England so we had to be very logical when determining where we wanted to go. For a 9 day trip we can fit in three different locations but we didn't want to spend too much time travling between. So we spend 3 days in Oxford.

Oxford made sense on several levels. It's essentially between London and Bath, the main two places we were visiting. There's a lot of awesome architecture not to mention Harry Potter ties. Its very easy to get to by train and still has a good network of busses that run in the city with more to do outside of the city.

To get this out of the way early, I wasn't that impressed with Oxford. It was way busier than I expected, even busier than a lot of London. However they did have a nice variety of resturants and pubs. So we did what we do best, walk a ton around the city.

We stayed at the Voco Oxford Spires (IHG Hotel). It is a 20-minute walk, or a 5-minute bus ride from central Oxford, but without the craziness, so I'm very glad I picked it. It also has a pretty nice breakfast. And once again, right across the street was a fantastic playground.

If youre new reading the blog, playgrounds are a big deal with traveling with a 2 year old. We have to run ours like a greyhound.

Along that street as well that runs into town are 2-3 really awesome pubs and places to hang out, drink, eat and large outdoor areas our kid could play with his cars.

First Day Trip- Blenheim Palace

While in England, you have to see some Castles and Palaces, right?!?

Blenheim Palace is about a 25 minute drive, 40 minute bus north of Oxford. I didnt know much about it before going other than it looked cool but i am sure glad we went. I had zero idea it was where Winston Churchill was born and his family is from. The tour through the main part is very quick, you have to pay extra to go upstairs and to some other parts. But you can wander all around the outside of the grounds all you want.

Landon of course loved running around and playing with all of the rocks and digging.

Getting there was a bit of a pain since we took the bus, but the closest bus stop is still another 25-minute walk, partially along a country road. Still very much worth a visit though.

They also have an add-on to a kids' play area that is very cool and has a large river water feature, so that could be worth it, especially if you are prepared for some water play (which we were not).

The Palace does host some other exhibits while inside of it, in portions I guess as a way to get repeat visitors, but it made it kind of weird. We were there for a fashion exhibit, which is quite a stark contrast to the Tudor style.

We still highly recommend going to Blenheim Palace.

Second Dry Trip- Biking in the country

We felt like we had already seen most of Oxford, but there's a lot of countryside and some cool places to eat that were not within walking distance, so we decided to rent some bikes.

We rented bikes from Bainton Bikes, who also offer bike tours. You can bike up to Blenheim Palace, which I almost wish we had done, but we also had a great time on our freelance bike.

Right by their bike shop is a large park and the canal you can bike next to. We picked a less bike-friendly path, actually had to walk the bikes a few times, and it really took us back to when we biked in Yosemite and took a wrong turn that was not a bike path and ended up being a 3-hour detour on sketchy ground, but that's beside the point.

First stop was a playground which was right by a small cafe. From there, we tried to bike along the canal, but the way we wanted to go was blocked off. So, we had to carry the bike (with the child in the seat) up some steps to the road and bike along the road pretty far to Eynsham where we found another playground.

Landon fell asleep on the bike, and it was nice that next to the road there was a very wide bike path. We also happened to meet another American from Boston, who was at the park with her son.

The bike back was not so enjoyable and was on a counry road. And yes i do mean on the road, not side walk or path, we were sharing the road with cars and large trucks passing by. That sure got the heart rate up and we were peddling fast to try and just finish. Liz was not a far.

But in the end we went to such an awesome place for some drinks and snacks called The Perch. This was such a nice little place with a large outdoor area and we were then on a perfect weather day. Highly recommend. You can also just cross the canal and its not far at all away from Oxford.

When we returned the bikes we told the guys at the shop we had a pretty long intense bike. He skeptially asked where we went with a grin thinking we didnt go far. Once we told him his face fell and he said some choice British emphasis words and agreed, we did go far.

Quick Tips

• one night is more than plenty in Bath- They also have places to store your bag if you just want to pop in for the day.

• Three nights is too much for Oxford unless you used it as a home base. I wish we had rented a car and explored the Cotswolds.

• Find some take away food to take on the train, our go to was shawarma wraps.

• most bike renal places have child seats

• maybe hire a car, tour bus or do the bike to Blenheim Palace because the walk from the public bus stop was not pleasant or short.

• Explore ALL of OXford not just wear the collages area. Lots of great food around the city like up in Jericho and places like The Perch.