manchester

holidays

reviews

UK: Tranquil time in dreamland

TRANQUIL: Hotel gardens

For me, the same could be said to about choosing a hotel. We had decided to visit the historic city of Oxford, to check out these dreaming spires, sample some good food and wine (not to mention a few jars of real ale) and maybe play a little golf.

So, where to stay? We'd heard that Oxford is a nightmare to drive through and park in with double yellow lines in abundance and cyclists everywhere.

We wanted to be somewhere tranquil, away from the hubbub of the centre, but from where we could ideally walk into the city.

The hotel we settled on - and which fitted the bill perfectly for us - was the Oxford Spires Hotel. This is an unusual place in that it is a large hotel which is owned by a small chain - the Four Pillars group.

This gives you the combination of superb facilities delivered by a company that has not grown so big it has forgotten about customer service.

And this was particularly evident in the quality of the staff, who I simply couldn't fault - and this made a real difference to our stay.

Everyone was warm and friendly, and I put this down to the fact there were plenty of them, and they all seemed happy in their work. Nobody seemed harassed, even during the busy breakfast period, and this added to the tranquillity of the place.

Four Pillars Hotels own just five hotels, but are planning to open a sixth in the Cotswolds this summer.

The Oxford Spires is a four-star hotel built from Cotswold stone with 159 en-suite bedrooms. Set in a parkland and riverside setting, the hotel is extremely peaceful yet the city centre can be reached in just 15 minutes by walking along the river.

RELAXATION: Spires' pool room

Facilities at the Oxford Spires are excellent with a decent-sized swimming pool (so many hotels these days seem to have a pool in which you struggle to do more than four strokes), an excellent spa pool, steam room, sauna and well-equipped gym.

The standard rooms are called the Classic, but we had an upgrade to a Connoisseur room, which means you get a bigger room, possibly with a balcony or a four-poster.

The connoisseur supplement costs you an extra £20 per night, but also gets you a selection of drinks, including two small bottles of wine, which are replenished each day, and upgraded toiletries.

If you just want a light meal, this is available in the ground-floor lounge and library bar, but we ate both nights at the hotel's Deacon's Restaurant, where the food was first class.

All three courses each night were beautifully presented, which in some hotels is another way of saying you don't get much actual food - but not here. There was a good helping of whichever meat or fish you chose (with an imaginative vegetarian option, too) and a good-sized bowl of assorted vegetables, all cooked to perfection.

Again the staff were attentive, but did not hurry you - which allowed the meal to proceed at a relaxed pace. The only disappointment was on the second night when neither of the first two desserts we ordered was available. Breakfast each morning offered a good range of fruit and cereal along with an excellent self-serve full English. They were quite happy to cook to order with poached eggs, smoke haddock etc all on offer.

Magnificent

So what about Oxford itself? It was everything we had hoped for - steeped in history with a palpable atmosphere of learning. Magnificent golden buildings with dreaming spires merge with beautiful scenery, and all combine with a trendy cosmopolitan feel that makes it just a great place to be.

We took the hop-on-hop-off guided bus tour that departs every 15 minutes and takes in 20 stops, including Queens College, Trinity College and Martyr's Memorial.

With the colleges charging for admission, we decided to explore just one - Christ Church College, with its magnificent dining hall, cathedral and Tom Tower, which continues the daily tradition of tolling the bell 101 times at the curfew time of 9.05pm.

Other notable sights worth exploring are the Carfax Tower, Magdalen Bridge (offering plenty of opportunity to mess about in boats) and Blackwell's bookshop, housing the biggest single room of books in England.

A wide range of real ales and fine food can be found in the many historic inns nestled among the colleges. Turf Tavern, requiring some searching for in Bath Place and famously featured in Inspector Morse, can be recommended, and a pub, appropriately named The Head of the River, provides a picturesque resting place.

Shoppers, too, are well catered for in the centrally located High Street, and the famous covered market sells a fabulous array of goods.

But if you're more interested in playing golf than touring historic buildings, there's a very nice course about five minutes drive away at Hinksley Heights, which offers spectacular views of the city as you play.

Please select the links below for more information.

Related stories

© Copyright 2008 Manchester Evening News. If you wish to use this article for commercial purposes please contact our syndication department.