If you are like me, a trip to England just wouldn’t be complete without a tour of one of the famous colleges: Oxford or Cambridge.  Both hold so much incredible history and beauty. However, if you are like me, you didn’t know if you should plan to see both, or just one or the other. I thought I’d give you a few tidbits to consider so that you could make an informed choice. 

When I was planning for my own trip, I had definitely heard the advice from the Rick Steves’ show that unless you have at least 1 month to spend in England, you shouldn’t do both Oxford and Cambridge.  Rick said that if you have to choose between the two cities, choose Cambridge. After going to both cities, I can definitely see why he might have made that recommendation; however, I had to be the rebel and go see them both.  I love history too much and couldn’t choose which one to go see.

Because I was the rebel, I can hopefully offer some more insight for you to help you make the decision that is right for you.  Overall, I think Rick gave pretty good advice as there are many similarities between the two towns, and I do agree with him, Cambridge is probably prettier; however, I think there are a lot of reasons that I  could give for visiting Oxford rather than Cambridge or in addition to Cambridge. 

Country Town Verses City Town

One of my big takeaways from visiting both places was that Cambridge seems to feel much more county.  There seem to be more parks and green spaces, and overall the pace of life there just seems to be a bit more relaxed.  My husband and I absolutely loved how peaceful and relaxed it felt there. Oxford, on the other hand, is part of a vibrant city which seems like it always has a lot going on at all times of the day and offers a lot more opportunities because of that.

New Verses Old

Cambridge definitely wins that game if you are looking for a town that has that old-world feel to it.  Oxford, while having a wealth of historic buildings that have that feel, has definitely modernized a ton so you will see tons of recently built buildings with a much more modern, sleeker look. 

Location, Location, Location

Anther point that should be taken into consideration is that Cambridge and Oxford lie in opposite directions from London with Cambridge being to the east and Oxford being to the west.  While neither town is that far from London, one thing you might want to consider is if there are other towns nearby that you want to see.  For example, if you want to see Canterbury, you might want to go to Cambridge. If you are going to the Cotswolds or Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill, you might want go to Oxford instead.  If you plan to visit Bath, visit Oxford as Oxford is a really short train ride away from Bath.

More Hostel Accommodations

One of the things I loved about Oxford was that it had many cheap hostels to choose from.  The hostel I stayed as was just a hop, skip and a jump away from the train station and it was super cheap and provided everything I needed.  When looking at the housing accommodations, I got the impression that Cambridge was overall more expensive for hotels and did not have the wide variety of great hostel accommodations that Oxford did.  

Nightlife

While I personally wasn’t looking for a club scene or that sort of nightlife, Oxford, I feel definitely offered more of that.  If you’re like me and you’re not looking for a wild party night life but just are looking for a place to grab a late dinner because you’ve been running around site seeing all day and forgot about eating, Oxford is much more helpful.  There are plenty of places open to grab a late bite to eat whereas Cambridge the options are more limited. 

Harry Potter Fan?

If you are a Harry Potter fan, you many have additional motivation to go to Oxford as some of the scenes from the movies were filmed there.  

C.S. Lewis or Tolkien fan?

Another thing Oxford has going for it is that is was the town of C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien lived and wrote.  You can even go to the pub where they met, The Eagle and Child.  (Word of advice, if you’re looking for food at The Eagle and Child and you are like me and don’t get around to eating until later, they might be out of food.  Go early if you want to get food there.)   

My Takeaways…

All in all, I have no regrets about visiting either of them.  Each town is unique and can provide you with the understanding of the colleges, but Cambridge I think is a better relaxing weekend trip with old-world charm and Oxford brings that fast-paced college life with all the excitement that comes with that out in full light so might be better for staying if you want to cheap accommodations and a ton going on.