Weston-on-the-Green

Weston-on-the-Green itself has no hotel, so anyone wanting to stay overnight is best looking to its larger neighbours. Bicester, four miles away, has a mix of budget and mid-range chain hotels close to the A34 and M40, handy for Bicester Village and for an early start to the motorway network. Oxford, roughly ten miles south, offers a much wider spread, from budget chains on the ring road to boutique and historic hotels in the city centre, many within walking distance of the colleges and museums.

For something more in keeping with the village's rural setting, the surrounding Cherwell Valley villages — Bletchingdon, Islip and Kirtlington among them — have country inns and bed-and-breakfasts, while self-catering cottages are scattered throughout the area for visitors who want a quiet base with their own kitchen. Wherever you stay, Weston-on-the-Green's location just off the A34, with Islip and Bicester's two stations nearby, makes it an easy add-on for a day trip whether your base is in Oxford, Bicester or further afield in the Cotswolds.

The village itself is small, but it sits inside a ring of some of Oxfordshire's best-known attractions, all within a twenty-minute drive.

• Bicester Village — the designer outlet shopping destination on the edge of Bicester, around ten minutes away, is one of the most-visited retail sites in the country and a good rainy-day option.
• Rousham House and Garden — a few miles north-west in Rousham, this early-Georgian house keeps one of the most complete surviving landscape gardens designed by William Kent, begun by Charles Bridgeman in the 1720s and developed by Kent from 1738; the ponds, cascades and "Eyecatcher" folly are still much as 18th-century visitors saw them.
• Oxford — the university city is roughly twenty minutes by car or a short hop from Islip or Bicester station, for the colleges, museums and river along the Cherwell and Isis.
• Blenheim Palace — Sir John Vanbrugh's Baroque palace and its Capability Brown parkland at Woodstock is a similar distance north-west, and pairs well with a Rousham visit for a day of Oxfordshire gardens.
• The Chequers, Weston-on-the-Green — the village's own 16th-century coaching inn, with log fires and a large garden, is worth building an afternoon walk around.
• Waddesdon Manor — the Rothschild family's French Renaissance-style chateau and gardens, just over the county border in Buckinghamshire, makes a further easy day out.

The Chequers in the centre of the village is the local focal point: a 16th-century inn with real ales, log fires and home-cooked food. Beyond the village, Bicester and Oxford offer a much wider spread of pubs, cafés and restaurants, from Bicester Village's own dining outlets to Oxford's long-established gastropubs along the river.

Camping around Weston-on-the-Green means the flat, sheltered farmland of the Cherwell Valley rather than anything wild or dramatic, and that's part of its appeal: gentle countryside, quiet lanes for walking and cycling, and fast road and rail links to Oxford and Bicester for day trips. As with everywhere else in England, wild camping on private land is not permitted without the landowner's explicit permission, so plan around one of the area's established sites rather than pitching in a field or wood on spec.

Godwin's Caravan and Camping Site sits in the village itself, on a former dairy farm, while Weston Caravan and Campsite nearby is a small, peaceful spot within twenty minutes of Oxford, the Cotswolds, Blenheim Palace and Bicester Village, with Islip station a five-minute drive away for those arriving by train. A little further south in Bletchingdon, Greenhill Farm Caravan and Camping Leisure Park adds a stream-side pitch to the mix, and Huckleberry Farm offers a small family-run pop-up site with farm animals close to Bicester Village and Blenheim.

The valley's flat ground and hedged fields drain reasonably well, but as with much of lowland Oxfordshire the clay soil can turn heavy after prolonged rain, so late spring to early autumn is the most comfortable and driest window for tents. Caravans and motorhomes are well served year-round given the area's proximity to the A34 and M40. For those who'd rather not deal with guy ropes and groundsheets, several of the local sites and farms in the wider Cherwell Valley and Cotswold fringe offer glamping options such as bell tents, shepherd's huts and pods, giving a step up in comfort while keeping the same easy access to Oxford, Bicester and the Oxfordshire countryside.