Around Oxford

Modern Art Oxford has a reputation for unusual and often challenging art. Its programme includes exhibitions by artists from all over the world, live events, educational and family activities. Modern Art Oxford's new cafe and bar offers great coffee and a changing seasonal menu. The affordable menu uses ingredients sourced locally, wherever possible. The cafe and bar has recently extended its opening hours, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday it stays open until 10pm. Children and families welcome. Highchairs and baby changing facilities available. Entry is free. 24-hour information 01865 813830. Website: www.modernartoxford.org.uk

The 03 Gallery, in the Oxford Castle complex, presents a dynamic programme of selling exhibitions by regional artists, offering the very best contemporary visual and applied arts. The gallery is open to the public throughout the year and has no admission fee. Call 01865 246131. Website: www.03gallery.co.uk

CINEMAS

There are two Odeons in Oxford, one on George Street and one on Magdalen Street. On Wednesday mornings (at 10.45am) the George Street Odeon runs Senior Screen, where seniors can watch and enjoy a film with a cup of tea and a biscuit. 24-hour booking and information line 0871 224 4007.

The Phoenix Picture House is on Walton Street, and shows a mixture of new releases and cult films. Call 0871 9025736.

The Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP) is on Jeune Street, off Cowley Road. It has cult status in Oxford, partly because it shows a wide range of art films, cult classics and mainstream cinema, but also because it is endearingly non-commercial. The cinemas this year celebrates its centenary. The UPP usually shows new releases a few weeks after they appear in other cinemas. Call 01865 245288.

Vue Multiplex Cinema is on Grenoble Road, opposite the football stadium. It shows mainly new films. Call 08712 240 240.

LIVE MUSIC

With so many students to cater for, you would expect Oxford to offer a vast array of live music, and whether you are looking for funk, soul, dance, jazz or rock you are guaranteed to find it at one of the following venues.

Radiohead and Supergrass cut their teeth at the Jericho Tavern in Walton Street, and it remains a popular venue for touring and local bands. Call 01865 311775. Website: www.thejerichooxford.co.uk

The 02 Academy Oxford, Cowley Road, is Oxford's largest live music venue and attracts big names. It has a capacity of 900, and also includes The Zodiac and Bar Academy (capacity 280). Website: www.02academyoxford.co.uk

The Bullingdon Arms, Cowley Road, Oxford (01865 244516) has music on most nights. There is usually blues on a Monday night and jazz on a Tuesday night, both from around 9pm to midnight. On the other nights the style varies but features music from new and established artists and DJs.

The Regal, Cowley, boasts a lavishly restored 1930's art-deco interior with state-of-the-art technology. A flexible space for all types of entertainment, it has four bars and great acoustics. The venue features live bands, professional dance, DJs and theatre and community projects. Call 01865 241261. Website: www.regal.com

MUSEUMS

Oxford's world-famous Ashmolean Museum in Beaumont Street, reopened in November 2009 after a £49m redevelopment which created a world-class building to match its world-class collections – including the Alfred Jewel and the works of Michelangelo, Raphael and da Vinci. The museum also has a rooftop restaurant. Admission is free. For more information call 01865 278000, or visit the website: www.ashmolean.org

Admission is also free to the spectacular neo-Gothic Oxford University Museum of Natural History, on Parks Road near Keble College. The exhibits include two real dinosaur skeletons and a display of all the species of birds recorded in Britain. Other famous residents are the swifts in the tower, and the mummified head and foot of a dodo - the most complete remains of a single dodo in the world. Call 01865 272950, website: www.oum.ox.ac.uk

In the same building is The Pitt Rivers Museum, which recently underwent a major makeover. The 1960s exhibition gallery at the entrance to the museum has been dismantled, restoring the original view through to the spectacular totem pole on the far wall. Original display cases, displaced to the lower gallery in the 1960s, have been returned to their place at the front of the museum. The area on the lower gallery vacated by these cases provide a new space where family activities, such as the popular school holiday programmes, can take place. The museum was founded in 1884 when General Pitt Rivers, an anthropologist and ethnographer, as well as a military man, donated his collection of objects from all around the world. Initially there were 18,000 objects, but today the figure is 500,000. Call 01865 270927. Website: www.prm.ox.ac.uk

The Museum of the History of Science, houses an unrivalled collection of historic scientific instruments in the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum building, the Old Ashmolean. Located on Broad Street, it is in the very centre of Oxford, next to the Sheldonian Theatre and directly opposite Blackwell's bookshop. Call 01865 277280, website: www.mhs.ox.ac.uk

PARKS

Green spaces are the lungs of any city, and can change a place from choked and congested to vibrant and peaceful. New York may have Central Park, but Oxford has a great number of different green spaces where visitors can relax, soak up the sun, enjoy nature or watch the river go by.

But Oxford's parks are not reserved solely for quiet relaxation - they are also venues for major music events and festivals. The list below is not exhaustive, but gives an idea of the variety of green spaces that Oxford has to offer.

Christ Church Meadow is held in trust by the college after which it is named. In the spring and summer terms, this is a popular place to watch the boat races. The main entrance is via the War Memorial Gardens in St Aldate's, but there are also entrances at Rose Lane and Merton Street. Wheelchair access is from St Aldate's via St Aldate's Lane at the side of Christ Church College.

With more than 50 acres, South Park is one of Oxford's largest parks, along with Headington Hill Park, from which it is separated by the main London Road. Port Meadow and Wolvercote Common together are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. They are also part of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the European Habitats Directive.

Port Meadow is famous both for its wealth of bird life and for its well-preserved Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements. Access to Port Meadow is via Walton Well Road or Aristotle Lane (both in Jericho) in the south, or from Wolvercote, in the north. There is unrestricted access.

University Parks, near Keble College, includes a large duck pond and cricket ground. Access is through the gates in Parks Road or South Parks Road, and this is suitable for wheelchairs. It is closed for the annual St Giles' Fair in September.

SHOPPING

The Covered Market is a shopping treasure trove, with plenty of one-off shops. Jewellery, clothes, celebration cakes, exotic foods, shoes and designer handbags can all be found here, along with a dazzling array of fish, fowl, fruit and vegetables and specialities like the Oxford Blue farmhouse cheese. And it is now open on Sundays, too.

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 city, though it is now one of the world's most famous charities. The Oxfam shop on Broad Street was the first charity shop in Britain, while the bookshop on St Giles was the first Oxfam bookshop. But people don't visit them for the history - they go for the incredibly high quality of the merchandise.

Most of the high street chain stores can be found in Cornmarket Street and Queen Street and there are two malls, the Clarendon Centre and Westgate.

THEATRES

Formerly the Apollo, The New Theatre, George Street, has become even better since it reverted to its original name. There is now a bigger choice of shows, and facilities for disabled patrons have improved greatly. Call 01865 320760, website: www.livenation.co.uk Booking is through Ticketmaster on 0870 606 3500 or online at www.ticketmaster.co.uk

The Oxford Playhouse, which celebrated its 70th anniversary last year, has a varied programme of plays, dance, opera, children's shows and some concerts. Call 01865 305305, website: www.oxfordplayhouse.com

The Burton Taylor is owned by Oxford University and during term-time it is the venue for many student productions. Outside term-time, it is open to both local and touring companies. Productions tend to be on a small scale to reflect the intimacy of the 50-seater venue. Advance booking through Oxford Playhouse on 01865 305305, or visit the website: www.burtontaylor.co.uk

Oxford's newest theatre and arts centre, The North Wall Arts Centre, South Parade, Summertown, is housed in a converted Victorian school swimming pool. It offers some of the best contemporary theatre, comedy, music and dance from around the UK, and has a gallery with changing exhibitions. For more details, call 01865 319452, or visit the website: www.thenorthwall.com

The Pegasus Theatre is the home of Oxford's youth theatre and is famous for its provocative productions. It is one of the few arts organisations in the country to offer a wide range of cutting edge contemporary performances for young people to engage with. For more information call 01865 812 150 or visit the website: www.pegasustheatre.org.uk

TOURS

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 any designated stops. See the website: www.citysightseeingoxford.com

If you would prefer to explore on foot, try a walking tour. Themed walks include the Inspector Morse tour, university and city, pubs and inns, family tour, evening ghost walks and Oxford past and present. The Guild of Guides in Oxford offers walking tours of the colleges and the city centre for pre-booked groups throughout the year. These tours are available in English and a variety of other languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Arabic and Swiss. To book places on a walking tour contact the Oxford Tourist Information Centre in Broad Street, call 01865 252200, or visit the website www.visitoxford.org

Oxford Castle Unlocked, New Street, offers a hand-held tour guide, which shows you video clips, commentary and subtitles for visitors with hearing difficulties. Look around the creepy crypt, climb the Saxon St George's Tower, find about the debtors and prisoners once confined within its ancient walls, walk around the mound of the 11th century motte and learn about the Oxford Castle curse. Call 01865 260666, or visit the website: www.oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk