The Old Parsonage
Oxford

Situated between St Anne's and Somerville Colleges, The Old Parsonage is a beautiful 17th century stone property shrouded in wisteria. While being walking distance from the centre of Oxford and many of its main sites, this privately owned boutique hotel is calm and quiet. The Old Parsonage has 30 rooms which are beautifully decorated in a true best-of-British boutique style. Luxurious throws cover every bed, rich drapes frame floor-to-ceiling windows and walls are adorned with one-of-a-kind paintings and portraits making this hotel feel like home away from home. More than just a place to lay your head, The Old Parsonage is a boutique hotel that really cares about its guests they will pack you a picnic for lunch by the river or, alternatively, borrow some of the hotel's bicycles to explore the city. If it's pampering you are after, relax and enjoy an in-house beauty treatment. Meals are served in the dining room which has striking red walls but for more a formal option, the hotel's sister restaurant, Gee's, set in an atmospheric Victorian conservatory is just five minute's walk away.

I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.
Bill Bryson