WillowFae's Qype profile

A lot of tourists arrive in Oxford and ask where the university is. Well, in answer to that, it is all over the city. Colleges and departments can be found everywhere and many colleges are open to the public at certain times during the day.

If you want to see the 'gown' part of the city at its best then try and visit during exam time or matriculation (a Saturday in mid October) when the students and academics can be seen walking around in sub fusc (academic dress/gowns).

We saw 'W’ here and whilst the screen was huge compared to the ones we are used to and yes, it is in Leicester Square, it is ridiculously overpriced. And I didn’t find the seats as comfy as our local Cineworld, despite paying for Premier Seats.

We have now eaten here twice and each time have had a lovely meal. It is part of the Strand Palace Hotel but is open to non-guests. Not too large, and not too small this is a lovely place to enjoy a meal. Main dishes range from pork wrapped in parma ham, to fish and chips, to canelloni filled with goats cheese and tomatoes.

They also do a pre-theatre menu which is very reasonably priced.

We stayed here on a Saturday night and were very pleased with the hotel. We booked it the night before on their website at a bargin deal of £89, including breakfast (normal price £210 with breakfast at £14pp). We had a corner room which was slightly bigger than other rooms.

The best aspect of the room was that the toilet was separate from the ensuite. Very handy if there is more than one of you staying! However, there was no sink in the toilet which was a downside (and one of the reasons why I’ve given it 4 and not 5 stars). All rooms have flat screen TVs and from 12th Dec all will have broadband access.

Breakfast was served till 12pm (great as we wanted to have a lie in) and was a standard hotel breakfast with a mix of continental and full-English. The only bad thing to say about it was that the staff were very slow at clearing tables and when we got down at around 10am we had to queue for a spare table.

But having said that we would definitely stay there again. But be warned: despite calling itself 'London Waterloo’ it is a good 15 min walk from Waterloo station

We had lunch here as we looking for something quiet and there was no one in when we went in. It was a lovely place to eat. For a pub it is quite small and intimate. Obviously I can’t comment on what it may be like in the evenings but it was just after 12pm when we went in and it did start to fill up while we were eating. The staff were very friendly and welcoming.

We both had a burger and chips and we very pleased with the meal. Highly recommended.

This is the sort of place to go if you want to buy two tops for £100 rather than 1! This is not your average retail outlet centre. And on more than one occassion I’ve had to turn around and leave because there aren’t any parking spaces.

In our child-free days we were members here and should we be able to afford it in the future we will rejoin. It is one of the more expensive gyms in the area but you do get what you pay for. There are two gyms (general and women only) along with a separate free weight area, and one studio. There are two pools, one of which is outdoors. This is lovely in the summer and a big hit with families. The main thing that distinguishes this from other gyms are the tennis courts.

There are two types of membership. The cheaper option is the Health and Fitness which is everything except the tennis, and then there is the full membership which does include the tennis.

There is a lovely club area with a costa coffee and a nice air conditioned lounge.

We really enjoyed our meal here. The service was great and the whole meal felt unrushed and relaxed. The portions were great and were just enough that you were satisfied rather than stuffed (something that is becoming less common these days which is a sad sign of the times). I would definitely recommend it for a nice meal out.

I love this shop, both for myself and for my kids. I always used to think of Next as being expensive but once I discovered that for kids clothes they are cheaper than Mothercare I was converted. My daughter especially wears a lot of Next clothes as they fit her proportions well, and on the whole I’ve found things to be hard wearing.

This store is smaller than the one in centre:MK but has a good selection of womens wear (including petite), mens wear, and childrens wear. My only complaint is that the layout makes getting around with a buggy difficult!

An excellent day out for families with young children. Even my son, who doesn’t normally like things that he perceives to be remotely dangerous, had a wonderful time. There is something for everyone.

My only problem is that most of the rides require children under 1.2 metres to be accompanied by an adult. This was fine as we took two children and there were two of us with them. However if you are a single parent and take more than one child who are under that height then you will hit some problems.