Oxford and Cambridge Universities Guided Day Trip from London
London, England
- 11 hours (approx.)
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Visit England’s famous university cities—Oxford and Cambridge—on a day trip from London. While the cities are near to the capital, reaching them can feel tricky if you’re a car-free visitor. This excursion offers convenient round-trip transportation from your London hotel, plus city tours that cover Oxford’s Bodleian Library and Cambridge’s Mathematical Bridge. You can even opt to include entry to Christ Church College and / or King’s College Chapel.
- See two of England's most prestigious universities, all in one day
- Go behind the scenes and spot highlights many other visitors miss
- Learn about both universities' history and famous alumni from your guide
- Travel in comfort aboard a climate-controlled coach
Why Travelers Choose This Tour
This budget-friendly group tour includes visits to two landmark universities at an affordable price.
What's Included
- Walking tour of Oxford and Cambridge
- Visit to Christ Church College (if option selected)
- Visit to King's College (if option selected)
- Professional Guide
- Luxury air-conditioned coach
- Gratuities
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Bulleid Way, London SW1, UK
Departure point: Bus Stop 1, Bulleid Way, Victoria, London, SW1W 9SH Check-in time: 08:00am. Departure time: 08:30am Return time: approximately 7:00pm This tour may end at Gloucester Road Underground Station, subject to traffic on the day.
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Operating hours.8:30 am
Itinerary
1
Oxford
1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Christ Church
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
3
Senate House
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
4
Corpus Clock
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
5
Mathematical Bridge
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
6
King's College Chapel
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
- Boarding procedures begin 15 minutes prior to departure
- Please note: the tour itinerary and order may change.
- Our vehicles are modern, comfortable, and kept to the highest standards of cleanliness, including a deep clean every day
- King’s College is closed on 20th July. A walking tour of Cambridge will operate instead.
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 53 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
John_L
Fascinating and well planned trip to see, experience and spend time with the history, architecture, culture and humanity of Cambridge and Oxford. Beautiful, green and scenic drives from London to Cambridge to Oxford and back to London. Incredible history shared of London, Cambridge and Oxford. This is "a must" tour to take if you are looking to take a day trip from London. Our guide, Morton, was extremely knowledgeable, energetic, kind and very customer focused. Our driver, Sonny, assured we were safe on the entire journey. Brilliant experience.
Reviews
4.1
based on 226 reviews
drc512, Oct 2025
Insufficient time in each place Guide spoke broken English and was impossible to understand. Guide also not professional or particularly concerned with needs if the group
Overall disappointed
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. We are sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. Our tours are designed to cover multiple destinations in a day, which can result in limited time at each location. We also aim to provide guides who are knowledgeable, professional, and attentive to all guests’ needs, and we regret that this was not reflected in your experience. Your comments have been noted and will help us improve our service.
Laurence_F, Oct 2025
The tour guide and our driver were great, the trip did not leave enough time to really see much of the areas and there history too much packed in to one day
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Thank you for your feedback. We’re pleased to hear that you enjoyed the professionalism of our guide and driver.This particular tour covers three destinations in one day, so the schedule is necessarily tight to ensure all sites are included. For guests who prefer more time to explore each location at a leisurely pace, we also offer tours with fewer destinations that allow for longer visits at each site. We hope to welcome you on one of those tours in the future.
Katherine_R, Oct 2025
Worst tour I've ever been on. Hardly any "guiding," 10 minutes of history, repeated in Spanish. We were taken to Kings College, then left on our own for an hour and a half, told to get lunch and find a bathroom. I was 2 minutes late for the bus and it left without me. I'm in my mid 70's and found my way back to London on the train and realized I actually didn't miss much. The bus was quite uncomfortable and there just was so little information imparted. I am sorry I spent so much, including the additional fees. There's too much driving and too little time spent, especially with no guidance. I was not aware that it was a bilingual tour, which meant we all had to listen to the same short history in two languages. Bad idea. It was the worst tour by far I've ever taken, and I've taken a number of Viator tours which were always good. I do NOT recommend.
Zheng_C, Sep 2025
Our guider Apple and driver Antonio are great. We enjoyed the tour very much and gained lots of knowledge from her.
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Thank you for your lovely review! We’re thrilled to hear that Apple and Antonio made your tour enjoyable and informative. It’s wonderful to know you gained so much knowledge during your experience. We hope to welcome you on another tour soon!
Denise_C, Sep 2025
It was a great tour. Cedric and Romeo were fantastic guides and drivers. I especially appreciated the very clear directions to get back to the bus.
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for your kind review! We’re delighted to hear that Cedric and Romeo made your tour so enjoyable and that their clear directions helped you feel confident navigating back to the bus. We’ll be sure to pass along your feedback and hope to welcome you on another tour soon!
Kaitlyn_L, Sep 2025
Our tour guide Apple and driver Mark were incredible! Both Cambridge and Oxford College Towns were stunning, however I wish we had more time in the later.
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re thrilled to hear that Apple and Mark made your tour so enjoyable. Cambridge and Oxford are both stunning, and we understand wanting more time in Oxford—your feedback is appreciated for future planning. We hope to welcome you on another tour soon!
Chris_Y, Sep 2025
Cedric was an excellent guide! Loved all of his historical context around the places we were driving through and visiting!
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for your feedback! We’re delighted to hear that Cedric made your tour so enjoyable with his excellent guidance and historical insights. It’s wonderful that you appreciated the context he provided while exploring the sights. We’re glad you had a great experience!
Shannon, Aug 2025
Dan the tour guide and Kiran the driver were both great! Dan was so knowledgeable!!!
Separate from the guide and driver, the time at each location was much too short. Would have done one or the other next time.
Response from Host, Aug 2025
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re delighted to hear that Dan’s knowledge and Kiran’s driving made a positive impression on your tour. We appreciate your honest comments regarding the time spent at each location and understand how more time at fewer stops might enhance the experience. Your input is valuable to us as we continuously strive to improve our tours. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you again and provide an experience better suited to your preferences.
James_K, Aug 2025
Booked Chinese Mandarin tour for Cambridge and Oxford as my wife doesn’t speak English. The tour was confirmed and paid for but found out from the tour operator (Gray Line Golden Tours) on the day of the tour that it was canceled and we were lumped into the English speaking tour. Viator did not notify us of this change at all before the tour. It was a great disappointment.
Response from Host, Aug 2025
We’re very sorry to hear about the inconvenience you experienced with your Cambridge and Oxford Mandarin tour. We understand how disappointing it must have been to be switched to an English-speaking tour without prior notice. This is not the level of service we strive to provide.Thank you for bringing this to our attention—your feedback will help us improve communication with our partners. Please reach out to customer service so we can assist you further and work towards a satisfactory resolution.
Hagop_P, Jul 2025
This is a nice and unique trip to visit Cambridge and Oxford universities and towns in one day if you are tight on time (as I was). Although, you spend a good chunk of time traveling in the bus (London-to-Cambridge-to-Oxford-to-Lindon) you still have good couple of hours or so to spend at each location. Our tour guide, Apolonia’s and bus driver, Steve’s organizational skills made it possible for us to save time while visiting the most important locations and buildings.
Samrat_D, Jul 2025
The trip was organized by Golden Tours. The coach was comfortable, and both Apple (our tour guide) and Steve (the driver) did a wonderful job.
The problem with the trip is that 6-7 hours are spent in the coach, not leaving enough time for the actual visit. Not the fault of the tour operator, its just the distance between the 3 places.
Barbarakazana, Jun 2025
This was advertised as a “guided” tour. We were shown two places in Cambridge and left on our own. In Oxford, people were accompanied to Christ church, otherwise, left on our own. I expected a guided tour through each city. NOT AS ADVERTISED.
Better to get your own transportation and get a separate , more comprehensive tour.
Suzanne_R, Jun 2025
Our tour was bilingual, English and Spanish, this was not known when booking. This made things more difficult, it took twice as long to do anything. We only had one tour guide with 43 people, half Spanish speaking and half English speaking. We missed out on a lot, was only given 20 min at Oxford because we ran out of time, we had to beg for more time. This was poorly planned and I feel very cheated out of a good tour. I blame the tour company for not having two tour guides for a such a large group and also being a bilingual tour. Would not recommend.
Bindya_M, Jun 2025
This was a great day trip!
I would recommend anyone traveling to buy tickets to christ church beforehand. I wish more information would have been specified in terms of itinerary. This way you can buy tickets either to go to Kings college in Cambridge and the selected time & tickets to Christ church( college) buy at christchurchtickeys.com- daily multimedia tour( you can show online tickets and get your tickets& audio sets- really worth it.
Oxford was really nice as its bigger and a lot to see. Cambridge is small but try to go to St Mary’s church all the way up to see the aerial view of cambridge- narrow steps- very doable for fairly active people.
If you are doing kings college ( if its open- then you will not find time to go to st Mary’s steps( you pay to go up)
Its approximately 2 hrs in rach place so there is only so mucg you can do. Its realky worth it! Our guide Sedrick was really good! Good history and fun facts as well guided us all the way in oxford. He even recommended a lot of spots to eat, where to explore , how to get around and how as very patient and was very clear with instructions! I was meeting a friend at Cambridge after 21yrs and he able to guide and tell me exactly at what time and place we could meet at the spot.!!!
Sedrick!!! You Rock!!!
Paritosh_P, Jun 2025
We were with Dan Xia from Golden Tours on 3rd June for this day trip. She was quite welcoming, engaging as well as informative on the history of both these places. I thought it was the best way to get a glimpse of both places in the same day for my parents. Shout out to Dan for an amazing day spent.
Marie_C, May 2025
The destinations are very nice, the guide and the the driver too, but here are 3 major downsides: 1-It implied too much walking on cubblestones at brisk place (my mother, 78, was struggling to follow); 2-We had not enough time to visit all the attractions we paid for (we had 1h15 to visite Christ Church in Oxford and to return to the bus, a 10 minutes walk, they said, more a 15 for us, and the audio guide alone is 1h30); 2-Considering what preceeds, way to expensive for what is worth. I do not recommand at all to take this trip, except if you’re really not interested in Cambridge and Oxford.
Clint_C, May 2025
This is a great introduction to both University towns in just one day. Our tour guide, Cedric, was fantastic. The tour will leave you wanting to experience both places in more depth. I can't wait to go back!
John_L, Apr 2025
Fascinating and well planned trip to see, experience and spend time with the history, architecture, culture and humanity of Cambridge and Oxford. Beautiful, green and scenic drives from London to Cambridge to Oxford and back to London. Incredible history shared of London, Cambridge and Oxford. This is "a must" tour to take if you are looking to take a day trip from London. Our guide, Morton, was extremely knowledgeable, energetic, kind and very customer focused. Our driver, Sonny, assured we were safe on the entire journey. Brilliant experience.
Roberta_K, Nov 2024
Two friends and I have taken many, many tours throughout the UK and Europe. We did not enjoy this one. Our tour guide Oliver inexplicably spent a lot of time outlining the admissions processes for enrolling at Cambridge and Oxford. (I don't think many on the bus were scouting colleges.) I would have preferred more history, more local color. I asked a question about Kings Church and was rewarded with an elaborate non answer. Oliver was more knowledgeable about Oxford. My main issue with this tour is time. There was simply not enough time to enjoy either location. It's not uncommon for the buses to drop off and pick up remotely. But those walks to and from the bus cut into touring time. Travelers must chose between touring a site, grabbing lunch, or finding a public rest room. (Travelers may bring a cold lunch onto the bus. There is a rest room onboard). I know it makes sense to combine Oxford and Cambridge. But this tour does not do justice to either location. I suggest splitting the tours. Surely there is enough to see in each city to offer separate tours.
Response from Host, Nov 2024
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're sorry to hear that the tour did not meet your expectations. Your comments regarding the guide’s focus on admissions processes rather than local history, as well as the time constraints at each location, are invaluable. We understand how frustrating it can be to feel rushed and to have to choose between exploring, eating, or taking a break. We will certainly consider your suggestion of offering separate tours for Oxford and Cambridge to allow for a more in-depth experience. Thank you for your insights, and we hope you might give us another chance in the future.
Stephanie_K, Sep 2024
1. Please give the guide some type of voice magnifier. Difficult to hear, esp since she switched back and forth between Mandarine and English. Hard to follow.
2. Give her a bigger sign or umbrella or guide card to hold high. She was hard to spot.
3. She needs to give better directions and explicit what happens when. Confusing.
CINNAMON_B, Sep 2024
Seeing the countryside. Seeing the amazing architecture. Being amongst history. The apple tree, the churches.
Xin_J, Sep 2024
Our bus driver failed to communicate effectively, and we were left behind at the University of Cambridge. We arrived at the meeting point on time, but the phone number provided by the tour guide was unreachable, and we couldn't get in touch with the group. Overall, the experience was terrible, and we also didn’t go to the University of Oxford. The phone number you provided was a dead number, and we couldn’t contact the group throughout the trip. I strongly suggest that you provide a valid phone number for future tours so that participants can reach the group.
chuncheung_l, Sep 2024
The guide was not friendly and what she said to us was not interesting and limited information! Not a good experience to go with Golden tour!
Carmen_S, Sep 2024
The tour description did not indicate that this would be combined with a chinese guide with chinese tourists. Our tour guide would repeat everything for the 8-10 English speaking on this trip. This constant repeating cut our time in half to see what we came to see. In addition the cultural difference between the western and eastern tourists was notable as we also wasted alot of time for a chinese tourist (who did not speak English) to return to the bus. We ended up leaving him, We also felt rushed time at the end to tour Christ Church. We paid extra for this piece.
Response from Host, Sep 2024
Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear that the tour did not meet your expectations, especially regarding the language arrangements and time management. We will review the tour description and logistics to ensure that such issues are addressed in the future. Your comments about feeling rushed and the cultural differences are also noted, and we’ll work on improving the experience for all guests. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention.
stavro, Sep 2024
I should have read the reviews more carefully. To begin, our guide Peter informed us once the bus door closed that Viator had to combine the English speaking tour (which I had paid for) with the Spanish speaking tour and that he would therefore have to say everything in two languages, which resulted in him speaking very quickly and often incomprehensibly as he jumped between languages in order to get through reams of information that he wanted to share. It was hard to follow. But the larger disappointment is that he provided few and rushed insights into the buildings and major sites once we arrived, and basically just pointed where to go and then where to meet the bus. I quickly realized that I need to go back to each of the universities (perhaps separately to give each justice) with a local guide with head sets who actually takes you around and talks about each key site. For example, we quickly walked by the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge without the precise explanation of its special features, which I literally had to Google myself. In a nutshell, do yourselves a favor and make sure that you have a local guide with headsets who really guides you through the experience rather than simply being chaperone. And I would also recommend selecting a trip that spends more time (or the only time) at one of the universities - noting that bus took about 2.5 hours to reach Cambridge from London and then another 2 hours between the two universities - and 2.5 hours back. Hence, you literally spend about 7 hours on the bus by the time you return to London.
Amy_C, Sep 2024
Tour guide and driver were great! But there wasn’t enough time in the tour to be able to get everything in at each destination. Oxford should be one tour and Cambridge should be another. I did enjoy the things I got to see at each place!
carmel_l, Aug 2024
Kings College
Scenic walk thru Cambridge town
Corpus Christie
Rushed walk thru Oxford due to it being extremely busy
Robin_K, Jul 2024
Peter was a great guide who pointed out and explained all the most important parts of Cambridge and Oxford. It was great fun and very educational.
Response from Host, Aug 2024
Thank you for your kind review! We're thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the tour and found it both fun and educational. We're glad Peter could provide such a memorable experience for you by highlighting the key points of Cambridge and Oxford.
We appreciate your feedback and hope to see you on another tour soon!
Larry_Z, Jul 2024
Regina is great - not only super knowledgeable, friendly, helpful & attentive, but also humorous- brought lots of fun’s to the trip. The driver Mario is super!
Response from Host, Jul 2024
Thank you for your wonderful review! We're thrilled to hear that Regina and Mario made your trip enjoyable with their knowledge, friendliness, and humor. Your kind words are greatly appreciated!
We look forward to welcoming you back on another tour soon.
Lariss_O, Jul 2024
Excellent tour! Our Guide was exceptional. She was a walking encyclopaedia and had a great sense of humour and the driver was also great.
Started with Cambridge in the morning and then went to Oxford.
This was the third time I had been to Oxford (with different tour companies), yet, I had learnt so many new things and were able to explore other parts of Oxford I had not previously seen.
This is the only tour I have done that included visiting some buildings inside, which I absolutely loved. I particularly enjoyed visiting
Christ Church College. .
At Cambridge, we visited:
- Corpus Christi College
- Kings’ College
- Kings’ College Cathedral
We were so lucky that we were in Cambridge on graduation day.
Unlike other tours, this one did not feel rushed
I absolutely loved this tour and I hope to be able to go back with my husband. I highly recommend it.
From $136.10
per personup to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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