Private Tour
Available languages
Mobile ticket
This tour is suitable for all ages and it focuses on Oxford's literary heritage such as the lives of Lewis Carroll and 'Alice' Liddell who lived at Christ church college. You will also learn lots about the making of Harry Potter in Oxford plus about other Oxford writers such as CS Lewis of Narnia fame & Tolkien of the Lord of The Rings.
Duration: 2 hours. Your ticket includes up to £25 per person entry fees to Christ church plus the Divinity school Harry Potter film sites.
Notice: The final third hour of your tour is self guided audio guide entry to Christ church as private guiding is no longer permitted inside.
We guarantee entry tickets to visit Christ church- buying entry tickets on your own is complicated & they usually sell out.
See 'Additional Info' or 'Voucher Info' for known dates when Divinity school may be closed. On such occasions, we will replace with New college, assuming New college is open. See closures notices below.
Wheelchair accessible
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
NB Please plan much more time that you expect to arrive in Oxford, especially if you are driving and need to park.
Your ticket includes up to £25 in entry fees per person
These tours MUST START ON TIME as we may pre purchase entry tickets for fixed entry times. If you arrive after the tour has started, you will unfortunately therefore lose your booking. Please arrive 5 minutes early for your tour at our meeting point. If you arrive more than 5 minutes later than the scheduled tour, then you will likely forfeit and lose your booking as it interrupts the guide and other customers, if we are trying to find you after a guide has started and left the meeting point.
INFO FOR DRIVERS AND PARKING:
If you are driving, then please allow extra 30-60 minutes over whatever time you think it will take you to get here. Oxford is NOT car friendly and it is congested roads and hard to find parking spaces....unless you park at the sign posted 'park and rides' on edge of town on any major road into the city and hop on their buses into city centre. The park and ride buses leave every 15 or every 30 minutes and take anything from 10 min to 30 min (depending on traffic) to reach city centre. So if you are going to drive, then please assume you should be aiming to park your car about one hour before your tour starts.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
We actually recommend instead using the much faster and reliable train services but again please aim to arrive about an hour or earlier before your tour starts as trains can be delayed and the train and coach station are about 15 minutes walk from our meeting point. There is also the coach service from London called the Oxford Tube which leaves every half hour or more but it can take much longer than its advertised 105 minute journey time. It drops you off either at High street Oxford or Gloucester Green coach station. It's quicker to ask to get off on High street near Carfax tower, then it's a 10 minutes walk to Broad street.
Our higher ticket price reflects the special quality of typically having smaller groups than our competitors & our excellence at having almost daily 5 star reviews for this tour! While this tour closes for online bookings with up to 1 hours notice but if you ask Viator to call us up for last minute requests by phone, that may still be possible.
INCLUDED IN TICKET PRICE:
This guided tour with guide includes entry fee to Christchurch film site (worth £18 per person) plus we enter Divinity school film site (at Bodleian library) as & when it is open only worth £3 per person.
Skip the queue entry Christchurch tickets, during summer, please note that if you book us at short notice, then Christchurch online tickets may have already sold out. In this case, the guide and you need to queue for entry to Christchurch to buy tickets on the door. This can take half hour+ on busiest days, so please book us ahead!
IMPORTANT NOTICE IN CASE OF UNFORESEEN PARTIAL OF FULL CLOSURES:
All these film site venues are private institutions, so we can't always guarantee entry to all parts of the college. Thus, please see details below of any dates with possible closures, before you book us.
Please note that occasionally, Christchurch dining hall may be closed or can viewing from the hall entry only. This doesn't prevent us from running the tour, as contrary to public belief, Christchurch dining hall is NOT a Harry Potter film site. What they filmed was the staircase & cloisters. We endeavour to publish below, details of any dates when Christchurch has published that the dining hall is closed or can only be viewed from hall entrance lobby. However, these can be last-minute.
REFUNDS POLICY:
Please note that we do not offer refunds, unless there are exceptional circumstances to prevent the tour from running. Please therefore check the published dates of known Christchurch full or partial closures, as published on this website page!
If you opt to book a foreign language tour, this may be possible if you give us adequate advance notice of at least 24 hours. If we cannot offer a tour in a foreign language, then you will be refunded or invited to join the tour in English with any cost difference refunded.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Entry includes Christ church PLUS as & when open, the Divinity school
Your ticket includes up to £27 in entry fees per person as part of your ticket from 2020 onwards
Skip the queue entry Christchurch tickets, please note that if you book us at short notice, then Christchurch pre-purchase tickets may have already sold out. In this case, the guide and you need to queue for entry to Christchurch to buy tickets on the door. This can take even 30 minutes on busiest days, so please try to book us ahead! Tours are only cancelled, if Christchurch itself is closed to entry.
Divinity school usually closes for Xmas on Dec 24 and January 1st- actual dates not yet known
Christ church HALL is viewing from hall door only on March 27 + 29 2025
Christ church HALL ONLY closed on October 10 of 2025
Duke Humfreys library at the Bodleian library is never open to guided tours & is not included!
Divinity school may be closed on graduation dates- see dates below...
May 16 + 17 + 31, July 19 + 29, Aug 1 + 2 + 9, Sep 26 + 27, Nov 7+ 8+9+14 +15 of 2025
Christ Church
Christchurch entry fee worth £17 or 18 per person is included in your ticket. Please note that entry to Christ church is self guided with audio guide as guiding is no longer permitted inside. The first two hours+ are a guided tour with the guide, followed by one hour self guided audio guide guaranteed pre booked entry ticket. Notice: even if Christ church website shows entry tickets are sold out, we still have VIP access to continue buying entry tickets up to 3 hours before the tour starts.
Bodleian Library
Your guide will take you inside the Divinity School film site at the Bodleian library, as & when it is open. This £3 entry fee is included in ticket price. NOTICE: We do NOT visit inside the Bodleian medieval library though as it is NOT accessible to any tour operator or guide, nor to any children aged under 11 years old. On any dates that Divinity school may be closed- see such dates published on this page for closures notice- the tour will instead visit New college film site. If New college is also listed as closed on such dates, then this tour will only include entry to Christ church.
Private Christ church tour at : Minimum 4 persons to book may apply.
Private group in Spanish: Minimum 4 persons to book
Minimum 4 persons to book and minimum 48 hours notice
Minimum 4 persons minimum 48 hours notice to book
31 reviews
Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor
Rebecca T,
Nov 26, 2023
- Viator
Fantastic guide. Alisdair was very knowledgeable, entertaining and funny. Beautiful autumnal day added to the wonderful atmosphere of the whole tour.
Caroline G,
Aug 12, 2023
- Viator
Wonderful tour with our very funny guide Peter. Lots of fun and chocolate, and Oxford is the best town. I highly recommend this tour.
Kimberly L,
Sep 2, 2022
- Viator
Perfect for kids who are Harry Potter buffs! Lots of snacks, Harry Potter outfits to dress up in, and access to Christchurch. Extremely experienced tour guide.
mandyblacker,
Feb 10, 2020
- Viator
We were a family of four with two older teenagers. When we booked this tour, I wasn't sure how interested they would be in this kind of thing . Peter made the tour fun and very informative. There were lots of "bonus facts" and quizes. We were fascinated how the authors linked in with each other. The Harry Potter gown, hat and wand were a big hit ( with one daughter!) who kept it on all the tour. This really made the photos special. Both the girls and adults thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon . When we booked, we thought it was quite expensive, but actually, the tour was well worth it. We were not rushed, and the whole tour ended up taking 3 hours. Peter was happy to answer questions and was very knowledgeable about both Oxford , Harry Potter and famous Oxford authors. We are now planning a return visit and intend to do another tour.
Robin K,
Oct 5, 2018
- Viator
Michel was informative and helpful. Everything we could ask. He was knowledgeable about the subject and explained clearly. Very much enjoyed.
Operated by Visit Oxford Tours