Four of Oxford's best museums are free all year, and Christ Church and the Story Museum are on reduced summer prices until 1 September. Checked 10 August 2026.

Most lists of things to do in Oxford skip the useful part, which is what each one actually costs on the day you turn up. Oxford is unusual among tourist cities in how much of it is free: three of the University’s great museums charge no admission at all, on any day, without booking. What people end up paying for is the colleges, the libraries and the river.

Every price and opening time below was checked against the venue’s own website on 10 August 2026. Two of the biggest ticketed attractions are currently charging temporary reduced prices under the government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme, and those end at the start of September, so this is a good fortnight to go.

Adult admission prices in Oxford Bar chart of adult admission prices in Oxford checked on 10 August 2026. Free: the Ashmolean Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the ground floor of Modern Art Oxford. Paid: Hinksey Outdoor Pool 6 pounds 40 for an hour, Museum of Oxford 10 pounds, Bodleian 30-minute tour 12 pounds 50, Story Museum galleries 16 pounds, Bodleian 60-minute tour 17 pounds 50, Christ Church 21 pounds 83. Four of Oxford’s best museums cost nothing to walk into Adult admission, checked against each venue’s own site on 10 August 2026. FREE Ashmolean Museum free, no booking FREE Museum of Natural History free, no booking FREE Pitt Rivers Museum free, no booking FREE Modern Art Oxford, ground floor free, upper galleries ticketed £6.40 Hinksey Outdoor Pool, 1 hour £4.10 junior or concession £10.00 Museum of Oxford general admission £12.50 Bodleian, 30-minute tour Divinity School and Duke Humfrey's £16.00 Story Museum galleries summer price to 31 August £17.50 Bodleian, 60-minute tour ages 11 and over £21.83 Christ Church weekday summer price to 1 September Christ Church and the Story Museum are showing temporary Great British Summer Savings prices. Christ Church rises to £24.95 on 2 September. Oxford residents in OX1 to OX4 can buy a Christ Church Residents’ Card for a one-off £10 and get in free for a year. Chart by The Oxford Post.
The expensive part of an Oxford day out is the colleges and the tours, not the museums.

The free ones

The Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, OX1 2PH. Free, no booking needed, open 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4.45pm. Britain’s first public museum and still the one to do if you only do one. Two things to know before you go: four Western Art galleries on the Level 3 Mezzanine, including the Sickert and Pissarro rooms, are closed for essential work from 1 June to 12 September; and the ticketed In Bloom exhibition closes on 16 August, with Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess opening on 8 October. Family explorer packs and gallery trails are free at the Welcome Desk.

Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, OX1 3PW. Free and not ticketed, open every day 10am to 5pm, last admission 4.45pm. The dinosaurs, the dodo and a glass-roofed Victorian court that is worth the trip on its own. Groups of more than ten need to book.

The Pitt Rivers Museum, behind and connected to the above. Free, and this is the practical bit: visitor entry is through the Museum of Natural History on Parks Road. The Robinson Close entrance is closed to visitors because of works until roughly the end of August, and the disabled parking bay there is unavailable, so ring reception on 01865 613000 if you need to park. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm, and Mondays from noon, except bank holiday and half-term Mondays when it opens at 10am.

Modern Art Oxford, Pembroke Street. The ground floor gallery is free; the upper-gallery exhibitions are ticketed. Closed Mondays, open Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 6pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm.

The Weston Library on Broad Street runs free exhibitions, which is the way into the Bodleian without paying for a tour.

The colleges and the libraries

Christ Church is the one most visitors mean when they say they want to see a college, and it is the priciest thing on this page. A multimedia guide is included in the price and is required to visit.

Under the Great British Summer Savings scheme, tickets for visits between 25 June and 1 September 2026 are reduced to reflect a temporary 5% VAT rate:

Christ Church multimedia tour prices, on the day, 2026
TicketTo 1 September, weekdayTo 1 September, weekendFrom 2 September, weekday
Adult (18-64)£21.83£23.58£24.95
Senior (65+) or student£19.69£21.44£22.50
Child (5-17)£17.06£18.82£19.50

Booking online or at the Visitor Centre in advance saves £2 a ticket outside the summer savings window.

If you live in Oxford, do not pay that. Permanent residents of OX1 to OX4 can apply for a Christ Church Oxford Residents’ Card, a one-off £10 for adults and £5 for children aged 5 to 17, valid for twelve months, which gets you in free during visitor opening hours. You need photo ID and proof of an OX1 to OX4 address, and it takes up to 14 days. One adult visit pays for it twice over.

The Bodleian Library sells guided tours of the Divinity School and Duke Humfrey’s Library, which are the only way inside those rooms:

  • 30-minute tour: £12.50 per person, daily.
  • 60-minute tour: £17.50 per person, daily.
  • 14 people per tour, and children must be 11 or over.

Most tickets are sold in person on the day at the Weston Library information desk, and they go quickly in July and August, so arrive early. From Saturday 15 August the limited online release changes: tickets go on sale on the 1st and 15th of each month at 9am rather than exactly a month ahead.

For children

The Story Museum, 42 Pembroke Street, OX1 1BP. Open daily 10am to 5.30pm until 4 September. Summer savings prices to 31 August, with the donation-inclusive price first:

  • The Galleries (ages 5 and up, all-day entry, typical visit 90 minutes): adult £16.00, child 5+ £14.20, child 1-4 £7.35. Without the donation, £14.50, £12.70 and £6.60. Under 1s free.
  • Small Worlds (ages 0-5, 60-minute session): adult £8.25, child £7.35.

If you are local, the maths is straightforward: an annual Story Pass costs £50 per person, or £25 for ages 1 to 4, and pays for itself on the fourth gallery visit.

Hinksey Outdoor Pool, Hinksey Park, OX1 4PZ. A 35-metre outdoor lido with a beach area for infants and a shallow section for children, open seasonally from April to September and open now. 2026 prices:

  • Casual adult swim, one hour: £6.40. Junior or concession: £4.10.
  • Family fun sessions, two hours: £8.50 adult, £6.40 child.
  • Half-day tickets: £12.75 adult, £9.55 child.
  • £3.40 peak or £3 off-peak for Oxford residents on qualifying benefits with a council Bonus Card.
  • Sun bed or chair hire £3.

It is card payment only on site. The Hinksey Park car park has 42 spaces and is free for Blue Badge holders.

The Museum of Oxford, inside Oxford Town Hall on St Aldate’s, OX1 1BX. General admission £10, open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. The only museum about the city rather than the University, and it runs walking tours through the summer.

On the river

Punting is the thing people come for, and there are two boathouses with quite different prices.

Magdalen Bridge Boathouse, under Magdalen Tower at the bottom of the High. Punts take up to five people at £35 an hour. A chauffeured punt, where somebody else does the work, is £50 per 30 minutes for up to four passengers. Open seven days from 1 February to 30 November, 9.30am to 9pm or an hour before sunset. No need to book, though a busy Saturday makes it wise.

Cherwell Boathouse, off Bardwell Road in north Oxford. £25 an hour on weekdays and £27 at weekends, or £125 and £135 for a full day. Punts fit six, five seated and one punting. With around 80 boats, midweek availability is usually fine; weekends fill up, so go early.

The Cherwell Boathouse end of the river takes you upstream through the University Parks, which is the gentler water. From Magdalen Bridge you are on the busier lower Cherwell past the colleges.

And the free things that are not museums

Port Meadow, north-west of the centre, is common land that has never been ploughed, with the Thames along one side and Wolvercote and Binsey at either end. University Parks is free and open to the public. The Covered Market off the High costs nothing to wander round. Oxford Botanic Garden on Rose Lane, OX1 4AZ, is ticketed, but worth the entry: established in 1621, it is the oldest botanic garden in the UK, holds over 5,000 plant species and opens daily 10am to 6pm with last entry at 5pm. There is no parking on site. Friends of the Garden and University of Oxford staff and students get in free with valid ID, and the Harcourt Arboretum six miles away needs a separate ticket.

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