It is February half-term and this is the earliest we have ever gone camping. Now we have the heated caravan, this sort of camping is well quite frankly lovely.
I'm not going to lie, my Husband and I had tickets to see Greg Davies in Oxford, so we organised a family camp around that taking my mum along for child-minding duties. Also latter end of last year my mum had a nasty fall and broke her fibula, so after a long recovery this was her first holiday where we wanted to get her walking a little bit more as well.
The campsite I booked was Greenhill Leisure Park, primarily due to its close proximity to Oxford and the fact it was open all year. Very near to the village of Bletchingdon, this campsite had three fishing lakes, woodland walks and a huge dog field for Digby to romp about in. Onsite there was a lovely cafe serving decent breakfasts and a handful of evening meals, which was a bonus.
On our first day we went to see the wonderful snowdrop display that is in Stowe Gardens, dogs also were allowed on lead so we all enjoyed walking around the gardens looking at all the great temples and the landscaped gardens. Afterwards on recommendation we went to The White Hart in Preston Bissett for dinner, we were blown away. This is a new establishment, recently refurbished, so new in fact that the website is not live yet, but trust me this place is worth a visit. The food was fine dining and the pub was so cosy, we didn't want to leave.
The next day was a bit rainy and windy, so after a lakeside dog walk with Digby, we left Digby and my mum to chill in the van and the rest of us had some shopping time at the rather quaint Bicester Village, if you take the time to look you can really pick out some amazing bargains, all of us managed to walk away with something.
Then it was our date night. We set out into Oxford early as I had a dinner reservation before watching Greg Davies at the New Theatre (which was a lovely venue and felt quite intimate).
We started off with pre-dinner cocktails in my favourite Oxford bar: Kazbar, which always has a vibrant atmosphere that gets you going for a night out. This bar was not too far away either from the restaurant I had booked.
I booked a reservation at Arbequina, on its new entry into the Michelin Guide 2025. The reviews sounded amazing and I thought some small tapas plates would be perfect before watching a show. The food was amazing each plate was beyond tasty and the presentation matched, easily the best tapas I have ever eaten in the UK. The decor was seductively moody with low lighting, again another establishment I did not want to leave, but we must to see the big fella himself. (Which incidentally was very funny indeed - bravo!).
Our last day took us back into Oxford to take the boys to the Story Museum, it is very quaint, my eldest at 12 just about hung on in there, I think really for the sake of his brother that was quite taken with the exhibitions and the brilliant story-telling from the staff. I actually came away learning that the literary roots of oxford are strong, but it really does stand to reason doesn't it to be one of the top scholarly places in the UK. It was good to see all the different rooms that were themed to all my favourite childhood books, my mum and I had a lot of nostalgia going around here. Suffice to say both boys left with a new book to read.
We decided not to pack in much more as I really do want an excuse to come back here as its not too far away and perfect for a bit of town and country action, I can see us booking again later in the year for a sneaky couple of days away.
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