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Last updated: 26/02/15

The Do: Plan for the day

With eternal gratitude to Gagravarr for his knowledge of Oxford, the proposed schedule for the day is now here!

When, Where and What
1400 Eagle & Child, St. Giles - Famous for being a watering hole for JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis among others
1500 Pitt Rivers Museum, Parks Road - Quirky museum, lots of interesting stuff, gets us out of the pub for a while, free admission
1630 Lamb & Flag, St. Giles (opposite Eagle & Child) - Great Oxford pub
1730 to 1900 Jam Factory - Evening FTers arrive, great beers
1900 Jam Factory - Dinner
2030 Leave Jam Factory for…
2045 The Bear, Blue Boar Street - Quirky little pub – just the one here then walk to…
2115 Radcliffe Square to see the Radcliffe Camera and Bridge of Sighs
2130 Turf Tavern, Bath Place off Castle Street - Great pub, big seating areas inside and out, cool hidden location
2215 Walk via Parks Road, Museum Road to..
2230 Eagle & Child, St. Giles and/or King’s Arms, corner of Holywell St & Parks Road. Second pass at the Eagle & Child for those who weren’t around in the afternoon, or failing that, the King's Arms isn't too fussy about admission time!
Later Freud, Walton Street, Jericho - last stop of the evening for anyone who’s up for a late one, this place is open until 0200 and is in a former church. You may well become theologically inspired before the evening ends…

I'd welcome your comments and any suggestions for improvement, I'm not precious!

If you want to have dinner with us at the Jam Factory then please tell me by Friday 27/02 at noon so I can confirm numbers. Easiest way is to update this wiki... see table below.

Live updates on the day

Please follow @FTOxford2015 on Twitter - I'll use this feed to update on location changes etc. through the day.

Arrival planning
Please post ETA / Handle / Dining yes or no / Dietary requirements

1400 / OxfordBlue / Yes / None
1400 / youngbaflyer / ?? / ??
1400 / DGM1985 / Yes / None
1400 / Sards / Maybe / None
1400 / Dark Blue / Yes / Meat!
1400 / Skye1 / Yes / None
1400 / KARFA / Yes / None
1630 / exilencfc / Yes / None
2045 / Ziz + 1 / No / None
Mid-to-late afternoon / Chris1979 / Maybe / none

Travel

Getting to Oxford - thanks to Skye1 for most of this info!

From LHR and LGW

The Airline, offers a coach from LHR, and a coach from LGW, (not the same coach, that is, a separate service to/from each airport) fairly comfortable, reclining seats, plug-in power at seat, reading lights.
http://airline.oxfordbus.co.uk/timet...wick#timetable


LHR service calls at Central Bus Station and T5, runs every 30 minutes [except late night/early morning]
LGW service calls at North and South terminals, runs hourly leaving LGW S at xx15 (and LGW N a few minutes before that)
Both services run 24/7.

RailAir, offers a coach service from LHR to Reading train station, and a train from there to Oxford (but I wouldn't recommend this, will be slower, more painful and more expensive than the direct bus): http://www.railair.com/

From London Paddington

First Great Western rail services, PAD to OXF is roughly an hour (slightly under an hour if its only "stop" is at Reading)
https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/
As this is FT and all about "loyalty", you can get Nectar points (woo hoo! what value!...said no one...ever) if booked from your on-line FGW account.
https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/.../nectarNov2014 . Being a Saturday, you can probably find some cheap AP tickets for about a fiver each way, if you don't mind limiting yourself to a fixed train.

From London Victoria, Marble Arch, Shepherds Bush, and Hillingdon, by Coach:, plug-in at-seat power, free wifi
The Oxford Tube
http://www.oxfordtube.com/
The X90
http://x90.oxfordbus.co.uk/
These run 24/7.

From Birmingham and the North
Direct Rail Service from Birmingham New Street, calling at Birmingham International Station, adjacent to BHX airport through to Oxford, on CrossCountry - hourly. These trains originate at points north ranging from Glasgow and Edinburgh through Newcastle, Leeds, Stoke, Manchester, etc. - you can get to Oxford (generally) either on a direct train or with one change at Birmingham

From the West

First Great Western trains to London from Cornwall, Devon, the Bristol area, and South Wales serve Oxford with a change at Didcot Parkway; almost all trains to London stop at Didcot and there are frequent services from there to Oxford.

You may find it faster to change at Swindon and take the 66 bus operated by Stagecoach which takes you right into the middle of Oxford in about an hour. Timetable here

From the South of England

CrossCountry http://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/.../places/oxford serve Oxford from Bournemouth on the route that runs via Winchester and Reading. Most services are direct or one change.

Coach/bus service, on National Express, from many points in the country:
http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

By Car

Oxford, despite being the birthplace of the Morris Motor Company, hates cars. Driving into the city centre should not be attempted if at all possible - traffic is dreadful, parking is very expensive, various roads are bus/taxi only and you'll get fined if you drive down them, cyclists of varying states of competence are everywhere, etc. Just don't try! Instead, park your car at one of the 5 park and ride locations around the city (by all major routes in), and hop on the frequent buses into the city.

There is no free parking available anywhere near the do, parking wardens are everywhere, and city centre parking during the day is very expensive. (There's a handful of free spots with no overnight time restrictions, but with 30 mins-2 hour daytime restrictions, in a few places fairly central, but they go very fast so shouldn't be relied on)

Accommodation

OxfordBlue would love to host all of you in his country mansion just outside Oxford's dreaming spires, but unfortunately he doesn't own one!

As others have observed, hotels in central Oxford are pricey. A few £ on bus or taxi will be more than paid back in reduced room rates. A quick scour on http://www.booking.com shows the following (prices correct at 02/01/15), include tax, single room, one night, excluding breakfast, all 3 star or above:

Malmaison - £215 (very nice - and it's a converted former prison!)
Randolf Hotel - £220 (nice grand hotel)
Mercure Eastgate - £205 (very occasionally crops up on the Accor Mondays list for £40)
Buttery Hotel - £80 (pretty good and very central)
Eurobar - £65 (can be noisy)
Westgate Hotel - £55 (decent, friendly 2* hotel by the station)

and various guest houses. There are also a handful of rooms still available in the various colleges that make up the university, which can make for a memorable and moderately cheap night's stay! See http://www.universityrooms.com/en/city/oxford/home for what's still available.

Alternatively, if you'd rather spend all your money on beer, then the Oxford Youth Hostel (which is pretty central, right by the train station) has twins from £45, quads from £85, so if you would really like to get up close and personal with other FTers, post in this wiki [or PM me/post in the forum if you can't edit] that you're willing to share a room and see if you get any takers... I am for one! I'll use the time-honoured lounge guesting thread format, suitably modified

[Willing to share]
arrival date / departure date / hotel (or any) / username / comments
28FEB / 01MAR / Any / OxfordBlue / I snore, you've been warned



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