City Sightseeing Oxford combine open-top bus with bicycle tours

City Sightseeing Oxford has partnered with Oxford based company Bainton Bikes to offer tourists the opportunity to combine its open-top bus journey with a self-guided tour on a bicycle. It means passengers can hop on and hop off the bus tour and explore the city in more detail by bike.

The bikes are available to hire in time slots and are unlocked via a code on an app.

To encourage people to visit Oxford and get the most of out of their trip, Bainton Bikes have created some self-guided tour routes for people to enjoy by bike. They vary in time and distance to ensure there is something for everyone. One of the routes is the Westgate Centre to the River

Thames, Boathouse Island, Christ Church and Oxford Castle Quarter. There is also an ‘off the beaten track’ route and ‘Oxford highlights’ journey, allowing visitors access to beautiful parts of the city otherwise missed.

A Bainton Bike is available to hire near several City Sightseeing Oxford bus stops. Visitors can can enjoy special offers on the bike tours thanks to the partnership between City Sightseeing Oxford and Bainton Bikes. A Bainton Bike add-on ticket has been created by City Sightseeing Oxford. 

Jane Marshall, head of tourism at City Sightseeing Oxford, said: “The visitor economy is so important to the overall economic health of the city and forming strong partnerships to attract people to visit and provide a great experience are key to its success. We pleased to have formed an innovative partnership with Bainton Bikes that will provide great value to our visitors and help them enjoy Oxford.” 

Kevin Moreland, owner of Bainton Bikes, said: “We are extremely pleased to be partnering with City Sightseeing Oxford, our partnership is the first step within a larger project to integrate multi modal transport within the city.

“Both Bainton Bikes and City Sightseeing Oxford have operated our respective tours separately for several years offering visitors a different experience but now with our respective services and tour routes combined we provide visitors the opportunity to reach parts of the city otherwise missed providing a much fuller and unique Oxford experience.

Part of the beauty of this joint venture is the simplicity, simply hop on a bus and explore then hop off and onto a bus to explore areas buses can’t reach, such as Port Meadow or some of Oxfords picturesque water ways and then hop back on the bus.”

The City Sightseeing Oxford tour takes in the city’s famous sites, covering the Oxford Castle, Christ Church College, Magdalen Bridge, Sheldonian Theatre, and Ashmolean Museum. Carfax Tower is the highest building in Oxford City Centre and provides stunning views of the city and the surrounding countryside. The open-top tour service is owned by Oxford Bus Company.

Bainton Bikes is an independently owned cycle hire and tours company that has a base within Walton Street Cycles, Oxford as well as hire locations throughout the city, the Cotswolds Cheltenham, and various location across Southern England. In 2011 it became the first cycle operator in the UK to become an accredited Quality Assured Visitor Attraction by Enjoy England.