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Millets Farm is truly homegrown and has been run by the Carter family since 1952. A unique destination bringing you great days out for the whole family. With a huge choice of activities and seasonal events, from indoor play, Farmyard Golf and Millets Wildside to PYO, artisan markets and summer maze.

A World Heritage Site, this vast, fancy pile, designed by John Vanbrugh in 1722, is billed as ‘Britain’s Greatest Palace’ – and what a wonder it is.

Home to the Dukes of Marlborough, with 2000 acres of parkland and 187 rooms, there’s a lot to see. Start with the gilded state rooms, followed by Upstairs (the room where Winston Churchill was born), Downstairs (the kitchen – still in use), stables, walks, walled gardens and a new family-friendly Autumn Tree Trail.

The University’s Botanic Garden is the oldest in the country (founded in 1621, it’s celebrating a 400-year anniversary). A 20-minute walk from central Oxford, the garden displays over 5000 plant species, some of them houses in glasshouses.

On the edge of the city, its woodland sister, Harcourt Arboretum, is a leafy paradise of rare trees, founded in 1835 by Archbishop Vernon Harcourt and offering 130 acres of meadows, bluebell woods, walled gardens and an Acer Grove – a blaze of colour in the autumn.

The world’s first university museum, the Ashmolean is a grand affair, all columns and pilasters, and home to fabulous collection of art and archaeology – Anglo-Saxon artefacts, drawings by Raphael, Minoan art and one of the finest collections of Egyptian sculpture outside Cairo.

The 200-year-old Oxford Canal – one of the oldest in Britain – meets the River Thames and its tributaries here in the heart of the city, offering miles of scenic riverbank, tow-path walks and a host of watery activities.

Look out for the college boathouses on ‘the Isis’ – where the college rowing crews race each other in the city’s two annual regattas, take a punt on the River Cherwell, a Thames boat trip with Oxford River Cruises or catch a misty Port Meadow sunset.

There is so much to see in this beguiling city and much of the action packed into a few photogenic streets on either side of the High Street. Among a long list of must-dos are the University’s 400-year-old Bodleian Library (Hogwarts Infirmary in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), the neo-Gothic Museum of Natural History, the Covered Market, the Hertford Bridge (Oxford’s answer to Venice’s Bridge of Sighs) and the medieval Carfax Tower (for great views over the city).

Take a hike through Badbury Forest to the summit of Badbury Hill where the relics of an iron age fort offer dreamy views over the Thames Valley.

Search for Badbury on the National Trust’s website – for a downloadable tree-spotting guide plus tips on ‘forest bathing’: turn off electronic devices, engage your senses, take it slow…

The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust’s largest nature reserve is set on the riverbanks of the Upper Thames where acres of wildflower meadows and winter wetlands, a refuge for wading birds (curlews, herons, little egrets). Look out for brown hares, holly blue butterflies, goldfinches and kingfishers.

The reserve is open all year round, access is via a network of footpaths (the Thames Path National Trail passes through) and entry is free. Don’t forget your wellies.

Murderers, hangmen, highwaymen and insurgents are among the unfortunates who have passed through the gates of this venerable institution – celebrating its 950th birthday in 2021. Some of them are still here: the prison is one of Britain’s most haunted buildings.

Guides in period costume bring the place to life on tours of the 18th century cells, the candlelit crypt and the Debtors’ Tower, meeting some of the prison’s former inmates on the way.

Never mind the dreaming spires, according to the guides at the Oxford Ghost Tours, the city is ‘a place of nightmares…stalked by morbid phantoms of the past’.

Walking the city’s streets after dark, the two-hour tours are a cauldron of spooky tales, horrible histories, humour and discovery, covering parts of the city you might not otherwise see.

This quirky museum of curiosities was founded in 1884 when General Augustus Pitt Rivers gifted his unique collection of global stuff to the University.

With an emphasis on anthropology and archaeology, expect the unusual. Seal-intestine clothing, Ainu hunting quivers, a Tanzanian canoe, Fijian tooth necklaces, an Icelandic bread stamp and Andean shrunken heads, are among 500,000 objects, all crammed into glass cabinets in the lofty galleries of a Grade I listed building.

A collection of 38 historic collegiate buildings scattered around the city make up the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford: Corpus Christi, Magdalen, Oriel, Queens, Trinity and the magnificent must-do Christ Church (College, Great Hall and Cathedral) are among the many that are open to the public.

Balliol, Exeter, the Radcliffe Camera (Science Library) and 14th century New College are covered by Oxford Walking Tours – five tours a day, on the hour, every day.

Set in Oxfordshire countryside, the famous shopping village is home to over 150 boutiques from the world’s most desirable brands: JILL SANDER, Mulberry, the White Company and more – all offering year-round savings on original retail prices. Restaurants, cafes and pop-ups include Ceconni’s farmshop café, La Tua Pasta, Laduree and Shan Shui.