Day trip to Windsor from Reading

The route

From Reading, take the Great Western branch line to Windsor & Eton Central, changing at Slough — total journey 30-40 minutes, around £9 return off-peak. Trains run twice an hour. The station drops you 3 minutes from Windsor Castle's front gate. Alternative: the direct Reading-to-Waterloo line stops at Windsor & Eton Riverside, slightly longer but sometimes easier on a Sunday.

Driving takes about 25 minutes via the M4 to Junction 6, then the Windsor Relief Road straight into town, but parking is the sticking point — the King Edward Court car park charges around £6 for two hours and fills fast on weekends, and Windsor's one-way system around the castle catches out first-time visitors. For a single day out, the train is cheaper once you factor in fuel and parking, and it avoids the queue of coaches that back up along Datchet Road on Changing of the Guard mornings. Buy off-peak return tickets after 9:30am for the best fare, and keep the ticket — Windsor & Eton Central has barriers at both ends.

Windsor Castle and beyond

Windsor Castle entry is around £30 adult with pre-booking essential in summer — allow 3 hours for the State Apartments, St George's Chapel, and Queen Mary's Dolls' House. Time your visit for the Changing of the Guard (11am, alternate days). Walk down Peascod Street for lunch — Bel and the Dragon does a £22 set menu. The Long Walk in Windsor Great Park is a free 2.6-mile straight path to a statue of George III on horseback.

St George's Chapel closes to visitors on Sundays for services, so check the calendar before you build a Sunday itinerary around it — the State Apartments stay open, but the chapel is the highlight for most. Winter visits mean a smaller crowd and shorter queue at the security check by the Henry VIII Gate, though the Changing of the Guard schedule thins out to fewer days a week outside summer. If the castle feels like enough for one day, skip the queue for the Dolls' House — it is a single room viewed through glass and adds 20 minutes of standing for a modest payoff compared with the State Apartments.

Eton and the river

Cross the Windsor Bridge (foot only) into Eton — the high street has antiquarian bookshops and Eton College itself, tours in school holidays for around £9. French Brothers boat trips leave from Windsor Promenade, 40-minute river cruises for £13. Back to Reading via Slough by early evening. If you want to stay longer, Legoland is 2 miles out and a full day in its own right.

Eton College's chapel and cloisters are only open on the guided tour, which runs at set times in the Easter and summer holidays — turn up without booking and you will likely be turned away, so reserve a slot online a week ahead. The French Brothers longer run, a 2-hour cruise past Boveney Lock towards Maidenhead, costs closer to £20 and suits anyone who wants river scenery over castle logistics. Skip the open-top bus tour of the town centre — at roughly four times the price of simply walking, it covers ground you can cover on foot between the castle and Eton Bridge in fifteen minutes.

Windsor Great Park beyond the Long Walk

Past the George III statue, the park opens into 5,000 acres that most day-trippers never reach. Savill Garden, about 3 miles from the town centre, charges around £12.50 admission and is at its best from late April through June when the azaleas and the New Zealand and Australian borders are out; it is a poor choice in deep winter when much of it is dormant. Virginia Water, a mile further on, is a free 4.5-mile lake circuit with the Cascade waterfall and the ruins of the Temple of Augustus — allow 90 minutes on foot or hire a bike near the Wick Road car park.

None of this is reachable on foot from the station within a day-trip's time budget — a taxi from Windsor & Eton Central to Savill Garden runs about £10-12 each way, or the seasonal shuttle bus links the two in summer months. If your day is built around the castle and Eton, treat the deep park as the reason for a second visit rather than trying to add it on; rushing the Long Walk, Savill Garden and Virginia Water into one afternoon after a morning at the castle leaves no real time at any of them.

Where to stay if you linger

Most Reading-based visitors do this as a single day, but if the castle, Eton and the park genuinely need two days, Windsor has options at every price point. The Windsor Trooper sits close to the castle walls and suits anyone who wants to walk everywhere without a car. Windsorian Experience is a serviced-apartment style stay aimed at longer visits or families needing a kitchen. The Oakley Court, a Gothic riverside house a short drive out towards Water Oakley, is the pick for a special-occasion night with grounds and a restaurant rather than a town-centre base.

Anyone combining Windsor with Legoland should book the Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel directly — it sits inside the resort gate, which matters if you are managing small children through opening time, and it is priced as a package rather than a straightforward room rate. None of these need to be booked from Reading; the town is close enough that staying over is only worth the extra cost if the itinerary above genuinely will not fit into a single day, which for most visitors it will.