Arriving

We've been back living in England now for 3 months so it's time to stretch our travel wings and seek out some more adventures. We decided to start small and take our kids back to where we got married, cue an Oxford mini-break. Illness and kids dictated that this trip would be short and slow so we arrived on a mid week late afternoon with no agenda other than the hotel we were staying in - The Malmaison Oxford Castle.

As far as the kids were concerned, as a starting point this was pretty great. The hotel is set in an old castle/prison and our rooms for the night were 3 prison cells converted into a bedroom with ensuite bathroom. And yes, this was where we had said our vows and partied the night away in Cell 5 and the old prison visiting room.

Before a kid friendly dinner at Prezzo's next door (kids ate free with O2 Priority) we took a tour around the old Castle climbing the 101 stairs designed to confuse and disorientate you to the view of Oxford at the top. (Under 5's aren't able to go up the tower so James stayed down with the littlest one.) The kids loved the gruesome stories and horrors of the castle as we explored the prison cells and the Norman crypt.

Main Day

We started the next day with breakfast at the hotel, sadly not yet back to the full buffet affair but there was plenty of choice for everyone. We bought tickets for the City Sightseeing Bus Tour aka big red bus and listened to the Kids Tour until we reached Christ Church College. It was amazing being able to have the kids listen in to something they find relatable and I was quite happy to listen to it too. In hindsight I would buy a 48 hour ticket for an extra £8 (per family) so that we could have used it again the following day with certain tired little legs.

Christ Church College for those in the know was the film location for the Hogwarts staircase, inspiration for The Great Hall and a must for our Harry Potter fans. Under 5s were pleasantly free and we chose to watch the Family Tour on their self guided multimedia tour. The kids - even the 4y/o - were quite happy and interested going around the college dipping into the tour, following the white rabbit, listening to the stories and finding the images on screen around them.

For lunch we headed to The Covered Market. This is a huge undercover area of tight walkways filled with quirky shops and plenty of places to eat and drink. I swear trying to find lunch options for our three is harder than dinner but we ended up at Taylors, swapping samosa's and half eaten panini's. Picking up a sandwich at M&S might have been easier!

We meandered through the streets and stopped to browse the books at Blackwells on Broad Street. As well as having one of the largest rooms filled with books for sale (The Norrington Room) it also has one of the best children's sections we've been to. The kids left happily with a book under their arms and we headed back across the city to The Story Museum.

There was an Art of Creating Comic Books exhibition whilst we were there and we wandered through the Whispering Wood listening to stories within the trees to reach it. The Enchanted Library had interesting and sometimes interactive exhibits which our 9y/o loved. We didn’t try out the cafe but it looked great and as you would expect it has a kid friendly menu. It would have perhaps been a better lunch stop for us.

After some much needed downtime back at the hotel - hello CBeebies - we had dinner at the hotel restaurant and called it a day.

Final Day

For our last few hours in the city we debated which museum to visit and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History won. This was a surprisingly good choice.

There is a second museum attached, the Pitt Rivers Museum. Both museums are free (donations gratefully received) and have a wealth of kids activity trails, also for free. We chose the Easter Trail which covered both museums and the kids loved hunting for facts around the museum. It also meant that we got to see the exhibits and occasionally be able to stop and read the blurbs.

The sensory (touch) tables and displays were fabulous. Imagine as a kid being able to touch an Allosaurus skull or snake skin, stroke a bear or feel a meteorite that fell from space.

We had a quick snack at the museum cafe - no food or drink is allowed anywhere else in the museum. It wasn’t the best cafe and having a picnic outside and trying out the coffee truck in the courtyard might have been preferable.

We walked back across the city to pack up our bags and hit the road. Around 20 mins out of Oxford we made our final stop at Mollies Diner for an early dinner. This was a fab little find and took us back to our Texan days with Mac 'n' Cheese, Buffalo Wings and Buttermilk Ranch. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Virgin Martini.

So there's our Oxford mini-break, there was more that we could have done with the kiddos in tow and we'd definitely go back again. The one thing we couldn't find were play parks, if you have any recommendations for play parks in the city please let me know.