Eldon Lodge
Eldon Lodge is a solid 4-star pick in Reading Town Centre, Reading — comfortable rooms and a base that keeps Highclere Castle close.
Guests typically choose Reading Town Centre for its balance of location and price; Eldon Lodge is a good fit if you want to be near the action in Reading.
Key facts
What’s included
Around Reading Town Centre
Getting around Reading: car, train and bus
You do not need a car if you are staying in the town centre and using Reading as a base for London, Oxford (23 minutes by train), Windsor (change at Slough, 30 minutes) or Henley (change at Twyford, 25 minutes). Reading station is one of the busiest interchanges outside London, with direct GWR services to Paddington, Bristol, Cardiff, and the Elizabeth line running east through Slough and Ealing. Reading Buses covers Caversham, Tilehurst, Earley and Woodley from the station on frequent routes — the purple 17 to Tilehurst and the pink 22/23 to Lower Earley run every 10 minutes in the day.
You do need a car for Pangbourne, Sonning, Marlow, Ascot, Newbury and the villages around the Chilterns; buses exist but run hourly at best. The M4 (J10, J11, J12) rings the south of town, the A33 links the centre to Basingstoke, and the A4 runs east-west through Maidenhead to Newbury. Parking in the town centre is £3-5 an hour at the Oracle or Queen’s Road; most hotels outside the centre include parking, most inside it charge £15-25 per night.
How many nights in Reading and a sensible itinerary
Two nights is enough for Reading itself: one day for the Abbey Ruins, Reading Museum (which holds the full-size Bayeux Tapestry replica), Forbury Gardens and the Oracle, and one evening walking the Thames Path from Caversham Bridge to Sonning Lock for dinner at The Bull. If you are using Reading as a Thames Valley base, plan on four or five nights so you can day-trip to Windsor, Henley, Oxford and Marlow without repacking.
A workable shape: night one and two in the town centre for the sights and evenings out on Friar Street; move to Caversham or Sonning for nights three and four if you want river walks and pub dinners; add a fifth night in Henley or Marlow during regatta season if the budget stretches. Anyone coming for the Reading Festival should book three nights (Thursday to Sunday) and expect a 20-minute walk or shuttle from any hotel to Richfield Avenue.
What Reading hotels actually cost
Budget (£55-85) covers the Premier Inn Caversham Road, Ibis Reading Centre and Travelodge Central — clean, small rooms, breakfast extra, no parking included in the centre. Mid-range (£90-140) is the bulk of the market: Novotel, Holiday Inn, Pentahotel, Crowne Plaza Reading and Voco at Green Park all sit here, with parking included at the out-of-town ones. Top-end (£160-260) means Malmaison in the old station building, the Roseate on the Forbury, or country-house style at Sonning’s French Horn and Henley’s Hotel du Vin.
Rates spike hardest for three fixed dates: the Reading Festival weekend (late August bank holiday, expect £280-450 for a mid-range room), Henley Royal Regatta week (first week of July, £250+ within 10 miles), and Royal Ascot week in June if you are staying anywhere between Bracknell and Windsor. Corporate demand from Green Park, Thames Valley Park and Microsoft’s Thames Valley Park campus keeps Tuesday and Wednesday nights 20-30% above weekend rates the rest of the year.
