Ascot

The racecourse and the Royal Meeting — the reason to visit — plus a small town of pubs and expensive houses.

Ascot exists in most visitors' minds as a racecourse first and a town second, which is fair. The course, founded by Queen Anne in 1711, holds 26 racedays a year and 5 of them are Royal Ascot in June — top hats, morning dress, and the Queen's (now King's) procession down the Straight Mile. Outside race days the town of Ascot itself is a small Berkshire village on the A329 with a couple of pubs (the Stag, the Thatched Tavern in Cheapside), a Waitrose, and the usual estate agents pricing 4-bedroom houses at £1.2 million. At 9pm on a non-race night, silent. On a race night, transformed.

Stay in Ascot for racing — Royal Ascot week especially. It's an easy day-trip from Reading (25 minutes by train) but staying gives you evening flexibility and dawn walks in the Great Park. Don't stay here for anything other than racing or Windsor Great Park adjacency. What's overrated: the town shopping (there is none of note). What's underrated: Ascot's proximity to Windsor Great Park and the Savill Garden — you can walk from the town to Virginia Water's shore in 40 minutes.

Ascot suits racegoers, golfers (there are three courses within a 10-minute drive), and anyone using Windsor Great Park as a base for a quiet weekend rather than a city break. It does not suit anyone wanting nightlife, museums, or a walkable historic centre — there isn't one, and the High Street closes down by 6pm most evenings outside racedays. Families come for Legoland Windsor, 15 minutes away by car, then use Ascot as a cheaper, quieter place to sleep than Windsor itself. If you want restaurants and bars within staggering distance of your hotel, book Windsor or Bracknell instead and treat Ascot as a daytime destination.

The town's identity is entirely seasonal. In non-race weeks it reads as a well-heeled dormitory village for London commuters — big cars on the High Street, joggers heading into the Great Park at dawn, almost no passing trade. During Royal Ascot in June the entire place fills with racegoers from breakfast onward, taxis queue three-deep outside the station, and every pub within a mile doubles its prices for the week. Locals mostly leave town or rent their driveways out for parking at £20-£40 a day. Time a visit around this calendar deliberately, not by accident.

Where to stay in Ascot

Macdonald Berystede Hotel & Spa on Bagshot Road is the one hotel in this guide's Ascot listing and the sensible default booking — a large country-house-style property with a pool and spa, £142-£237 a night outside Royal Ascot week. Beyond that single listed property, the town also has a well-known destination country-house hotel with a spa and polo lawns off Blacknest Road at the very top of the market, an old-school country hotel on London Road, and serviced apartments on Winkfield Road for longer, budget-conscious stays. During Royal Ascot week (mid-June) every one of these roughly doubles or triples in price and rooms sell out by December, so book the Berystede early if that week is the plan.