Walking Tour Combined with River Punting Rowing (3 hours duration)

Oxford, England

2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
Group discounts
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

This fantastic combination tour allows you to see the highlights of Oxford from the land and the water on the same day. The guided walking tour takes you past top city sites including Oxford University, Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre, and more. A highlight of the tour is a boat trip, where you can choose to row yourself or have a chauffeur to punt for you.

Explore Oxford on a walking tour and go river punting
Ideal for first time visitors and those with limited time
Flexible tour—choose to row yourself or have a chauffeur to punt
Enjoy a fully personalized experience with a private tour

What's Included

Life jackets are available free of charge for the boats, by request. Water level averages 2-6 feet
Max 4-5 persons + guide per boat. Any larger groups, ask viator to call us up for a quote!
Please note dates below under section of graduation, university open days, Xmas holidays!

If you opt to request the 1 hour boat hire to handle the boat yourself, please note that if you don't return the boat within the one hour period, the boathouse may use its discretion to charge you a late return penalty fee. This is your responsibility therefore to ensure that you proactively keep an eye on how much time you have left and ensure that you can return the boat along the river in time before your hire period ends.
No food or drink is included on this tour but the boathouse do offer you opportunity to pay for a picnic hamper & likewise, you may opt to bring your own food & drink onto the boat. If you opt to choose 1 hour boat hire, you are responsible for safe & sensible drinking of any alcohol and responsible handling of the boat, to ensure that you do not damage the boat or other boats & do not lose the oars etc. We cannot be responsible for any penalties which the boathouse (a third party) might see fit to charge you, if you should cause them damages.
In case of bad weather: unfortunately, we don't permit cancellations but if you give us at least 24 hours notice, then we will accept requests to reschedule the date. If weather forecast suggests heavy rain & if you cannot reschedule to another date, we will alternatively let you book onto any alternative tour activity which is also running, such as to join a tour inside Christchurch.
We can only fit max 4-5 clients + guide per boat, so larger groups, please ask viator to call us up!
On graduation dates, we may not always be able to enter a college so see graduation dates below:
2025 Graduation dates includes...
May 16 + 17 + 31, July 19 + 29, Aug 1 + 2 + 9, Sep 26 + 27, Nov 7+ 8+9+14 +15 of 2025

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

15-16 Broad St, Oxford OX1 3AS, UK
Meet your guide wearing red lanyard. Meeting next to our black sign, OUTSIDE Oxford Tourist info centre, 15 Broad street, OX1 3AS. This is also next to the Oxfam shop which has a green sign above its shop.

End point

Magdalen College
Oxford OX1 4AU, UK
The guide will give you a free Oxford map plus offer you help directions to wherever you need to go to next.

Itinerary

River Cherwell

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Bridge of Sighs (Pass By)

Sheldonian Theatre (Pass By)

Bodleian Library (Pass By)

Radcliffe Camera (Pass By)

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Magdalen College (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 1 day of travel. In this case confirmation will be received as soon as possible, subject to availability
Not wheelchair accessible
In case of bad weather: unfortunately, we don't permit cancellations but if you give us at least 24 hours notice, then we will accept requests to reschedule the date. If weather forecast suggests heavy rain & if you cannot reschedule to another date, we will alternatively let you book onto any alternative tour activity which is also running, such as to join a tour inside Christchurch.
Stroller accessible
Please note the river is on average about 6 feet (2m) deep, so any children will automatically be offered a lifebelt but you must notify us if any adults or children in your group cannot swim. Please advise us of this fact, when you book & when you meet the guide & when the boathouse prepare your boat!
Service animals allowed
The default schedule for this tour is to first join either the 12.30 walking tour or the 2.30pm walking tour and then the guide will walk you to the boathouse. If your schedule requires you to instead take the boat trip in the morning before you join the walking tour, then you must make this request known and advise what time you can meet us (any time from 10am onwards)
Near public transportation
PLEASE ARRIVE ON TIME:
Please arrive 5 minutes early for your tour at our meeting point. If you arrive more than 5 minutes later than the scheduled tour, then you will likely forfeit and lose your booking as it interrupts the guide and other customers, if we are trying to find you after a guide has started and left the meeting point.

Infants must sit on laps
INFO FOR DRIVERS AND PARKING:
If you are driving, then please allow extra 30-60 minutes over whatever time you think it will take you to get here. Oxford is NOT car friendly and it is congested roads and hard to find parking spaces....unless you park at the sign posted 'park and rides' on edge of town on any major road into the city and hop on their buses into city centre. The park and ride buses leave every 15 or every 30 minutes and take anything from 10 min to 30 min (depending on traffic) to reach city centre. So if you are going to drive, then please assume you should be aiming to park your car about one hour before your tour starts.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
Not recommended for travelers with back problems
We actually recommend instead using the much faster and reliable train services but again please aim to arrive about an hour or earlier before your tour starts as trains can be delayed and the train and coach station are about 15 minutes walk from our meeting point. There is also the coach service from London called the Oxford Tube which leaves every half hour or more but it can take much longer than its advertised 105 minute journey time. It drops you off either at High street Oxford or Gloucester Green coach station. It's quicker to ask to get off on High street near Carfax tower, then it's a 10 minutes walk to Broad street.
Most travelers can participate
Max 3-4 persons + guide per boat. Any larger groups, ask viator to call us up for a quote!
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

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Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Reviews

3.3

based on 3 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

We perform checks on reviews

Guide never showed up. AWFUL.

Thomas_J, Jun 2023

Our tour guide never showed up. He texted 40 minutes after the start time to offer a “mini” tour. When we requested a refund Viator only offered 50%! Why on earth should we have to pay anything at all. I will NEVER book with them again and will warn others to avoid them at all costs. What a way to ruin our day in Oxford.

Response from Host, Jun 2023

Hi Thomas, You were sent clear simple instructions of the names and number of your guides for your boat tour and then for your walking tour. I also texted you before the tour too. You never replied to any texts nor any messages. It's true that on the day of the tour, unfortunately the morning guide made an error and mixed up the start time. He informed me that when he had realised he had mixed up 11am start with 11.30, he called and texted you starting about 11.20am to apologise and to ask if you could wait until 11.30. He then realised that this would not provide adequate time to take you out for the usual full one hour on the river before you would have to return to meet the scheduled walking tour with the next guide. This is why he therefore offered to either give you a reduced shorter duration boat trip or to instead meet him later in the day after your walking tour had ended. I am really sorry and your boat guide already also apologised to you for the error which he made. I have no idea why he mixed up the start times but I did immediately take responsibility to refund you, the first activity completely. This is why I notified you that I was refunding you, 100% of your payment for the boat trip. However, I informed you why I was not going to refund you 100%- namely because you didn't show up yourselves for the 12.30 walking tour. Your morning guide, Ales, felt responsible enough to still turn up for the other guide's tour, in order to meet you in person to apologise that way too and to introduce you to your afternoon guide called Jean. However, you never showed up at 12.30. We sent you lots of communications and you only responded with a single text and no other messages and no call backs. Both myself and both the scheduled guides tried to call and or text you before or on the day and you didn't answer a single phone call attempt by us. You could have told us that morning, when the boat tour was unfortunately late, that you also wished to cancel the afternoon tour. However, you made no such communication and you simply ignored questions and info sent to you too..except to irately complain (understandably) when your morning guide apologised for being late and then to irately complain to me, when I offered you full refund of the first activity. Your morning guide spontaneously agreed to waive his guide fee but your afternoon guide turned up on time and waited for you and tried to call you and text you and got no response. He was therefore paid in full. Once again, I am sorry that your morning activity didn't go to plan but the customer is not god. You could and you should have made more reasonable steps to communicate with us. You said that you are going to contest the payment with you credit card provider. That's your right to do so but as far as I am concerned, I already offered you a refund of the activity which was not delivered and we also did attempt to offer you opportunity to reschedule it too. Moreover, I also offered you the opportunity to rebook at a future date at no cost but you simply declined to even reply to all these offers to placate. My first responsibility is to my staff and they all work freelance gig work paid as and when they make a commitment. If you don't show up for a scheduled activity such as the afternoon walking tour, I will always pay my staff in full. Thus, I cannot offer you a full refund.