Hotels in Oxford

Oxford is a small city with a very uneven spread of beds, and where you sleep changes the shape of a visit more than it would in most places. The historic core is compact enough that almost nothing inside the ring of colleges is more than ten minutes on foot from anything else, so a central room buys you the ability to come back to it mid-afternoon, drop your bags and go out again - which matters more than it sounds when the museums and college openings are scattered across the day.

The grandest addresses are the converted townhouses and coaching inns on the High Street, St Giles' and Beaumont Street. These are period buildings with the quirks that implies: sloping floors, awkward staircases, rooms that vary enormously between the cheapest and the best. They are also the properties with the good restaurants attached, and in a city where the best tables book out weeks ahead during term that is a real advantage. Expect to pay a clear premium, and expect parking to be limited, chargeable and sometimes off-site.

The mid-range sits slightly out from the middle - the Banbury and Woodstock roads to the north, Iffley and Abingdon roads to the south, and the streets around the station. These are largely Victorian villas converted into hotels, with a handful of chain properties near the river and the business park. You lose a few minutes' walking and gain both space and value, and the northern approaches in particular have very frequent buses.

Bed and breakfasts and guest houses are the traditional Oxford answer and there are still a good number of them, concentrated in Headington to the east, along the Abingdon Road and in the residential streets north of Summertown. They are typically family-run, breakfast is included and taken properly, and many have off-street parking, which is the single most useful thing you can have here if you are driving.

Whenever you come, book early for late June, when graduation ceremonies fill every room in the city, and for the start of the academic year in early October.