Camping in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire Campsites

The city of Oxford’s dreaming spires and sandstone colleges clad in ivy are one of the big draws of Oxfordshire. This is a place where medieval towers of learning house thousand-year-old books and wanderers can get lost on cobblestoned passages, but they’re not the only attraction. The Cotswolds are dotted with butter-coloured cottages, rambling mansions and picturesque vistas, and the beauty of the Oxfordshire stretch of the Thames has inspired many literary classics, from Alice In Wonderland to Three Men In A Boat. Bicycling students in billowing robes, famous thinkers and brilliant artists have all fallen under Oxfordshire’s spell.

Camping in Oxfordshire brings you close to one of England’s most famous landscapes, the Cotswolds, full of glowing gold valleys and stretches of farmland that look almost ageless. The ancient force of the land comes out in full force at the White Horse, the mysterious chalk artwork carved into an Uffington hillside thousands of years ago, but Oxfordshire is also a place of modern pleasures, from the shopping Mecca of Bicester Village to the cinematic delights of the Harry Potter film sets. Refined and rustic all at once, Oxford has a magic all its own, without any need for a wand.

Reasons to visit Oxfordshire

Whether you're an avid reader, a film buff or an adventurer, camping in Oxfordshire brings nothing if not choice. There's all sorts to entertain everyone in the family, from quiet museums to adrenaline-fuelled activities. 

Literary wonders

The colleges and hidden pathways of Oxford have featured in hundreds of films and books, and no matter your taste you’ll find something to delight you in its story-filled history. Harry Potter fans can look at Christchurch College’s Great Hall, which famously doubled for Hogwarts, while Alice In Wonderland lovers can take punts down the Isis as Oxford don Lewis Carroll once did with his friend’s child, Alice. Lewis, Morse and Endeavour fans can seek out their favourite gloomy Oxford haunts brought to life on-screen, and the locations of Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights series are dotted throughout the city. Further afield, Downton Abbey fans will find filming location Grey’s Court perfect for a palatial day out.

Themed walking tours celebrating the region’s literary pedigree are popular. If you love your literature all in one place, exhibitions at the Bodleian and Weston Libraries take you into the world of rare and strange volumes, while the Story Museum runs child-friendly workshops and classes to spawn a new generation of storytellers — and has an excellent gift shop and tea room to boot.

Family fun

Getting close to nature is easy in Oxfordshire. The Cotswold Wildlife Park is one of the best in Britain, with regular penguin-feedings and interactions with exotic animals from emus to wolves to keep even the pickiest animal-lover enthralled. Children can even become trainee keepers for a day for close encounters with their favourite creatures. If your tastes are more reptilian, Crocodiles Of The World contains some of the rarest crocodiles to be found in the Northern Hemisphere, and the curious can have hands-on experience with these scaly critters.

Visitors in spring can visit the butterfly gardens of Blenheim Palace, the sprawling seat of Winston Churchill’s family, while smaller children will love Fairytale Farm, where they can meet and greet alpacas, chickens and a collection of other farm animals, including three miniature Shetland Ponies. And if museums are more your scene than farmyards, the Natural History Museum in Oxford contains some magical specimens, from giant dinosaur bones to the only surviving stuffed dodo in the world.

Watery worlds

Oxfordshire isn’t all about scholarly pursuits. The river is an amazing place for a day out; rent a rowboat or a punt from Oxford — or hire a student to punt you along — and enjoy the delights of picnicking on the water like Rat and Mole in Wind In the Willows, another classic inspired by Oxford waters. The Henley Regatta in the town of Henley-on-Thames happens yearly and draws thousands of rowing fans from all over the world, and rowing enthusiasts will find a lot to entertain them in the town’s River And Rowing Museum, which even has special regatta outfits and rowing activities for children.

Not satisfied with quiet boating? The Cotswold Water Park offers everything from canoeing to windsurfing classes, enabling you and your family to try your hand at something new or brush up on your existing skills.

Why choose Experience Freedom?

Camping and glamping in Oxfordshire are excellent ways to explore the region’s many charms, from Oxford’s stunning towers to the rolling hills of the Cotswolds. Select a region to learn more about the sites available in that location, or use the Search and Book function to look at the availability of your chosen site.