Today we'll visit our first - and oldest - garden, the Oxford Botanic Garden, just across from Magdalen College. Originally a medicinal garden dating back to 1621 and the dawn of the plant-hunting age, over 5,000 species are crammed into its compact 4.5 acres. Famous visitors from the past include J.R.R. Tolkien and Lewis Carroll - and Philip Pullman fans will want to find the bench where his characters Lyra and Will agree to 'meet' at noon every midsummer's day.

Later we'll visit a couple of university colleges on a stroll around one of the prettiest cities in England, making time - for those who wish - to climb up the tower of St Mary the Virgin, aka the University Church, for views of Oxford and its lovely water meadows, and see the exterior of the Bodleian Library and visit its frighteningly tempting shop.

Enjoy free time for shopping and lunch on your own. Meet back up in the afternoon for a thrilling outdoor adventure: Punting! Think Venetian gondola meets Jane Austen.  No work on your part needed, just enjoy the glide past college boathouses, quirky pubs, playing fields and water meadows.

This evening, we have privatized the surreal Pitt Rivers Museum, with exclusive after-hours access for our group. This museum, reached via an archway from the Oxford Museum of Natural History, is as extraordinary as the story of its founder, General Pitt-Rivers, who unexpectedly inherited a vast fortune that enabled him to build and display his ethnographic and archaeological collections. Sometimes described as a specialised version of your granny's attic, its original 26,000 objects have expanded to over half a million, laid out in themes - from clothing to weapons and from amulets to photography - and arranged in stunning Victorian cabinets that carry their original labels.

Not only will we enjoy an intimate dining experience amongst the unique collection, we will also be treated to a lecture on Colonialism and the Collector—a true feast for the senses.

THE OLD BANK HOTEL (Breakfast (B), Dinner (D))