The quintessential Oxford hotel, this is the spot where you’ll find doting parents taking student children for tea, tourists taking Insta snaps, and, following a sweepingly glamorous refurb, weekenders and date nighters sipping negronis in the hotel’s gorgeous bar.

Housed in a magnificent Victorian gothic building slap-bang in the centre of Oxford, opposite The Ashmolean and close to the Oxford Playhouse, The Randolph ticks the location box with gusto. Another USP is its history. This grand old dame has been a hotel since 1866 and has had many a luminary through its doors, from Evelyn Waugh (the hotel features in Brideshead Revisited) to Kingsley Amis, Bill Clinton, Oscar Wilde and Philip Larkin. It’s featured several times in Inspector Morse – there’s now a Morse bar – as well as The Golden Compass and Shadowlands on the big screen.

So, what to expect? You’ll still get all the trapping of luxe old school hospitality – valet parking, concierge, and a choice of bars and restaurants – but not the stuffiness. Out went the tartan carpets and college crests and in came The Randolph is joyously eccentric decor featuring pink banquettes in The Alice restaurant, stripy blue wallpaper in The Drawing Room and The Snug, an intimate cocktail bar with a Parisian vaudeville feel, boasts a decadent after-dark decor with plush red velvet and lashings of gold gilt.

Every meal is catered to whether its all-day dining in The Alice, afternoon tea (the hotel’s just launched a whimsical Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea) or nibbles with a cocktail in The Snug.

If you’re visiting Oxford, don’t miss the opportunity to luxuriate in the hotel’s  impressive subterranean spa and wellness centre. It has five treatment rooms and wet area with steam, sauna, and ice rooms, and a jacuzzi. You don’t need to be an overnight guest at the hotel to use it, pop in after a morning mooching around Oxford and the Westgate, before assuming the position and recharging.

Events wise, The Randolph has seven meeting rooms for anything from a breakfast briefing to a full-blown city wedding – the Ballroom can take up to 400, so no need to hold back on that guest list. Dogs are welcome for a £40 fee and can go into the Morse bar (accompanied, that is).