Not To Be Missed

This can put tourists and other visitors in a spin of indecision. After seeing a few key colleges and taking a stroll through the nearest meadow, should you go to the museum or the pub?

If you mingle with the crowds and do some shopping, will you be missing your only chance to enjoy the highbrow seclusion of Oxford's libraries?

We can't make every decision for you, but The Oxford Leisure Guide is here to make your life easier.

Here are just some of the not-to-be-missed things to see and do during your time in Oxford.

The Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library is the main library for Oxford University.

It is famous for its millions of volumes and for the myths and conspiracy theories surrounding the underground stacks' where books which cannot be housed above ground are kept.

The buildings within the central site are Duke Humfrey's Library (above the Divinity School) the Old Schools Quadrangle (housing the main exhibition room), the Radcliffe Camera and the Clarendon Building.

There are also nine other Bodleian libraries in locations around Oxford.

Tours of the Divinity School and Duke Humfrey's Library run at 10.30am, 11.30am, 2pm and 3pm from Monday to Saturday, from June 1.

The tour costs £6 per person and lasts around one hour. No children under 11. Call 01865 277224 for more information. Other tours are available.

Tour buses

The open-top tourist buses are a good way of seeing Oxford quickly.

City Sightseeing runs tours every 15 to 30 minutes in winter and every ten minutes during summer.

There is no need to book and your ticket will be valid all day so you are free to alight at designated stops.

Visit www.citysightseeingoxford.com

Modern Art Oxford

Modern Art Oxford has a reputation for unusual and often challenging art. It showcases the work of up-and-coming artists and is worth a visit to see if you can spot the Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst of the future.

There is also a shop selling limited-edition prints as well as gifts and mementos. There is also a cafe.

Modern Art Oxford is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. On Sundays the opening hours are noon to 5pm. It is closed on Mondays. Entry is free. The gallery sometimes holds evening functions.

Tel: 01865 722733 (for timetable), 01865 813830 (information line), website: www.modernartoxford.org.uk

Covered Market

You can't possibly visit Oxford without indulging in a little retail therapy. The Covered Market is a shopping treasure trove, with plenty of one-off shops that can't be found anywhere else.

Jewellery, clothes, artfully decorated cakes, exotic food and designer handbags can all be found here, along with a dazzling array of fruit and vegetables and specialities like the Oxford Blue farmhouse cheese.

You can also get snacks and drinks from places packed with personality.

The only caveat is that vegetarians and the easily disgusted should dodge the numerous shops selling meat - whole carcases are not an uncommon sight.

Oxford Castle

Take a tour around Oxford Castle, New Street, with a hand-held tour guide, which shows you video clips and has a commentary and subtiles for visitors with hearing difficulties.

Find out about past prisoners, look around the underground crypt, climb the Saxon St George's Tower, walk around the mound of the 11th-century motte and learn about the Oxford Castle curse.

Tel: 01865 260666, website: www.oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk

Punting

One of the most enduring images of Oxford is that of people lazily punting along the river on a sunny day. It is an experience that you should try at least once.

For the uninitiated, punting involves using a pole rather than oars to propel a shallow-bottomed boat along, although many people find that an oar is handy for manoeuvring the punt out of tight spots!

The Cherwell Boathouse on Bardwell Road hires punts from mid-March to mid-October. From the boathouse you can punt upstream to the Victoria Arms pub, or downstream to the University Parks.

Hours are 10am until dusk. Punt hire is £12 per hour on weekdays and £14 per hour at weekends.

'Chauffeur' punters are available on request, with a minimum two weeks notice.

Tel: 01865 515978, website: www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk

Oxfam

On the subject of shopping, surely Oxford is the place to visit an Oxfam shop. Oxfam began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, and still has strong links to the town though it is now one of the world's most successful charities.

The Oxfam shop on Broad Street was the first Oxfam shop and the first charity shop in Britain, while the bookshop on St Giles was the first ever Oxfam bookshop.

But people don't visit them for the history - they go for the incredibly high quality of the merchandise.

They may be charity shops, but neither fits the stereotype of dusty outlets selling tatty items.

The book shop on St Giles is known for receiving valuable and rare donations: a first edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy sold for £7,900 in 2000, and the Tales of Narnia sold for £6,400 the same year.

The shop recently had a first edition Philip Pullman for sale, priced £8,000.

At the more affordable end of the price range, the St Giles shop sells high-quality novels, dictionaries, reference books, maps and more, grouped according to subjects as diverse as literature, cookery, physics, gender studies, fiction, medicine, anthropology and languages.

Fair prices make the Oxfam bookshop great value, and you can feel less guilty about spending your cash when you know that all profits go towards overcoming poverty and suffering.