Sonning

George Clooney's village — 18th-century brick bridge, half-timbered pubs, and Thames views for people with real money.

Sonning is what people who don't live in Reading think all of Reading looks like. It's not. It's a genuine Thames-side village — the 11-arch brick Sonning Bridge, the Grade I listed church of St Andrew, the Bull Inn where George and Amal Clooney drink when they're at their pile down Pearson Road. The Great House Hotel sits by the river with a private lawn. On a summer Saturday it's rammed with visitors and Range Rovers; on a Tuesday in February it's silent apart from the swans. Everything closes by 10, and the village is at its most magical at 9pm on a warm evening with the mill pond lit up.

Stay in Sonning if you can afford it and you want the Thames Valley picture-postcard experience. Skip if you're on a budget — nothing here is cheap. What's overrated: driving past the Clooney house on Pearson Road looking for glimpses. You won't see anything and locals find it tedious. What's underrated: the walk along the towpath west towards Reading, which starts at the mill and takes you through 5 km of quiet river before you hit any suburbia. The village has one shop, one post box and zero chain anything — bring cash for the church donation box and don't expect phone signal to be brilliant by the river.

By day Sonning fills with walkers off the Thames Path, cyclists cutting through on the way to Henley, and coach parties who stop for forty minutes, photograph the bridge and leave. By evening the crowd changes entirely — locals walking dogs, diners heading to the Bull Inn or across the bridge to the French Horn, the odd resident cycling home past the church. Parking on the High Street is limited to a small pay-and-display lot by the recreation ground, £2.50 for two hours, and it fills fast on weekends between March and September. Arrive before 11am or after 4pm if you want a space without circling.

Families with young children are usually happier in Woodley or central Reading, where there's more to do after 5pm and prices don't assume everyone's on an expense account. Sonning suits couples on a weekend away, walkers doing a stretch of the Thames Path, and anyone with a specific booking at the French Horn or the Mill at Sonning theatre who wants to make a night of it rather than drive home. There's no supermarket, no petrol station and no cash machine in the village itself — Twyford, five minutes east, has all three, and it's where most residents actually do their shopping.

Where to stay in Sonning

The Great House at Sonning by the mill pond (£142-£221) is the flagship — historic, riverside, book at least two months ahead for weekends. The French Horn on Sonning Eye (£154-£253) has serious Michelin-adjacent dining and river-view rooms. Bull Inn (£111-£142) is more pub-with-rooms, cosy, in the heart of the village. Under £103 doesn't really exist here — if you see a cheap 'Sonning' listing, check the postcode; it's probably Woodley. There's no big hotel actually on the High Street — all three sit at the village edges, by the bridge or the mill pond, so don't expect cheaper alternatives further in. Prices above are for high season, roughly April to September and any weekend the Henley Regatta or a bank holiday falls; expect ten to fifteen percent off on quiet midweek nights in January and February. For value, book Bull Inn direct — their own site sometimes beats the big platforms by £10-£15 a night.