Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle has been the working home of English and British monarchs since William the Conqueror raised its first motte in 1070. It is still an official residence of the King and the largest inhabited castle on earth, covering thirteen acres above the Thames. The site holds three sets of treasures that would each justify the trip on their own: the State Apartments hung with Rubens, Van Dyck and Canaletto; St George's Chapel with the tombs of Henry VIII, Charles I and Elizabeth II; and Queen Mary's Dolls' House, a 1924 miniature masterpiece with running water and tiny bottles of real wine.

A visit follows a marked one-way route. You climb from the ticket hall past the Norman Gate into the Upper Ward, through the Grand Staircase and the Waterloo Chamber, then the extraordinary State Dining Room and St George's Hall (700 years of Garter arms on the ceiling). Down in the Lower Ward, St George's Chapel is a Perpendicular Gothic showpiece with fan vaulting and the Quire stalls of the Knights of the Garter. The Changing of the Guard happens on the parade ground at 11:00 most days — arrive at 10:45 for a spot on the wall by the statue of Charles II.

Book online at least a week ahead in summer; timed tickets are compulsory and the castle regularly sells out. Plan a full four hours minimum. Trains from Reading run twice hourly and take 25-30 minutes with a change at Slough — cheaper and faster than driving. Combine with a walk along the Long Walk in Windsor Great Park or lunch on Eton High Street across the pedestrian bridge. Note the castle closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and sometimes for state occasions announced only a few days ahead.

The interior rewards slow walking. Past security you climb the North Terrace, where the view runs across the Thames to the playing fields of Eton, then into the Grand Vestibule with its trophy cases — Tipu Sultan's tiger's head among them — and up the Grand Staircase under the suit of Gothic armour made for Henry VIII. The Waterloo Chamber, built to hang Lawrence's portraits of the men who beat Napoleon, is the room most people photograph in their heads; the King's Dressing Room, small and easy to hurry through, holds Van Dyck's triple portrait of Charles I and is the single best thing on the route. St George's Hall is the 1992 fire restoration, its green oak hammerbeam roof carrying the shields of every Garter knight since 1348, blanks included for those disgraced. Do not rush the Lantern Lobby beyond it — that is where the fire started.

There is no direct train and no useful bus from Reading, so the journey is a two-leg hop: any Great Western service towards London Paddington stops at Slough, and the shuttle down the branch line to Windsor & Eton Central leaves from the bay platform at the far end of the station roughly every 20 minutes. An off-peak day return is usually around £13, and contactless works the whole way. Coming out of Windsor & Eton Central you step straight into Windsor Royal Shopping, the converted Victorian station train shed, and the Henry VIII Gate is three or four minutes uphill. Driving is the weaker option: 19 miles via the M4 to junction 6, 35 to 45 minutes with any traffic, then the town's one-way system and a full day in Alexandra Gardens or the King Edward Court multi-storey that costs more than two rail fares. Take the train.

Adult admission is £30, £27 for over-60s and students, £19.50 for children aged 5 to 17 and free for under-5s; a family ticket covering two adults and three under-18s is the cheapest way to bring children through the gate. Booking direct with the Royal Collection Trust shaves a little off the on-the-day price. The one thing every visitor should do is ask a warden to sign and date the paper ticket on the way out — that converts it into a 1-Year Pass with free re-entry for twelve months, at no extra cost. The multimedia guide is included, which makes the printed souvenir guidebook a few pounds spent on information you already have; skip it. The only extra inside is food: the Undercroft Café does sandwiches, soup and cake for roughly £10 a head, and you eat better for the same money on Eton High Street.

Time it around the guard. A 10:00 slot gets you into the State Apartments before the Upper Ward fills, and by 10:45 you can be back outside for the Changing of the Guard, which clogs the whole precinct until about 11:30. The alternative is to take a mid-afternoon slot and have the State Apartments almost to yourself, accepting that St George's Chapel stops admitting sightseers well before the castle closes, ahead of Evensong. Note that the chapel is shut to visitors all day Sunday for services. Season matters more here than at most sites: the Semi-State Rooms, George IV's private apartments and the most lavish interiors in the castle, open only from autumn until late March, and the Christmas dressing of St George's Hall runs from late November into early January. July and August are the queue months. Come in November or February.

It suits patient older children and anyone who likes rooms rather than ruins. Under-8s tend to run out of interest halfway through the State Apartments, though Queen Mary's Dolls' House holds almost everyone; pushchairs cannot go into the apartments, so use the buggy park and borrow a back carrier at the entrance. Wheelchair users are well served by an alternative step-free route with a lift, but the Lower Ward cobbles are genuinely rough and worth warning a companion about. As a rainy afternoon it is close to ideal — nearly all of the route is indoors — except for the security queue, which is outside and unsheltered. If you have only an hour before a train, do not buy a ticket: security plus the one-way route is two hours at a jog. Walk to the Long Walk gates instead and photograph the castle from below.

Everything else worth doing sits within ten minutes on foot. Eton Bridge, pedestrianised, is an eight-minute walk from the Henry VIII Gate and puts you on Eton High School with its antiquarian bookshops and pubs; Eton College itself can only be seen on a pre-booked guided tour, so do not just turn up. From the George IV Gateway the Long Walk runs 2.6 miles dead straight to the Copper Horse on Snow Hill — about 50 minutes each way, and the finest free thing in Windsor. Down at the Promenade, French Brothers run a 40-minute round trip on the Thames for around £11. Theatre Royal Windsor on Thames Street is two minutes from the castle wall. Legoland Windsor Resort is two miles out and a full separate day — attempting both in one visit ruins each. Runnymede and the Magna Carta meadows are 15 minutes by car.

Set expectations honestly. The Round Tower is not open on a standard ticket — it houses the Royal Archives — and there is no wall walk, no battlement circuit and no dungeon; this is a palace interior inside a castle silhouette, which disappoints anyone arriving with Warwick in mind. The route is strictly one-way with no re-entry on the same day, so finish the chapel before you leave the Lower Ward. State Apartments can close at short notice for state visits and the castle shuts entirely for Garter Day in June, usually announced only days ahead. Security screening at Henry VIII Gate can run to half an hour in August and there is nowhere to leave large luggage. The Changing of the Guard is cancelled in heavy rain and does not run every day — check the Household Division schedule the morning you travel rather than trusting the guidebooks.

Hours & entry

Not free

Thu-Mon 10:00-17:15 (Mar-Oct) · Thu-Mon 10:00-16:15 (Nov-Feb) · Closed Tue-Wed

What to see

{'what': "St George's Chapel with the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II", 'where': 'Lower Ward, west end below the great west window'}

{'what': "Queen Mary's Dolls' House, 1:12 scale", 'where': 'Ground floor of the State Apartments, near the North Terrace entrance'}

{'what': "St George's Hall with 700 Garter shields on the ceiling", 'where': 'Upper Ward, top of the Grand Staircase route'}

Tips from the ground

Buy the 1-Year Pass at no extra cost by asking staff to sign your paper ticket at the exit — free re-entry for 12 months.

Enter via the Henry VIII Gate on Castle Hill; the Cambridge Gate queue is for pre-booked group tours only.

Multimedia guide is included in the ticket — collect it in the ticket hall, don’t skip past.