Tourist attractions in Windsor
Known for
The working royal residence of Windsor Castle above the River Thames
Must-see landmarks
Windsor Castle, St George's Chapel and Eton College
Free to visit
Windsor Great Park and the Long Walk, plus the Windsor Parish Church
Days needed
A single day covers the castle and Eton at an easy pace
Windsor's top 8 tourist attractions
For a first visit, the tourist attractions in Windsor come down to The Long Walk, Windsor Castle, Windsor Guildhall and 5 more sights ranked below, plus 6 hidden gems, free things to do, upcoming events and visitor FAQs. The 8 sights are numbered on the free Windsor tourist map with a walking route, with the hidden gems.
1. The Long Walk
Charles II laid out this straight, tree lined avenue between the castle gate and Snow Hill, and the climb ends at the Copper Horse, an equestrian statue of George III raised in 1831. The walk crosses the Deer Park, home to a herd of red deer and to one of the largest populations of ancient oak trees in northern Europe. The view back down the avenue, with the castle closing the horizon, is the one most people come for.
Heritage: Grade I listed park and garden
Location: Windsor Great Park, between the castle gate and Snow Hill
Access: Free. The park is open all year and free to enter, though parking is charged, and cycling is not allowed on the Long Walk or in the Deer Park, except for children under five with an adult on foot. Windsor Great Park posts visitor updates when the Deer Park has to close.
2. Windsor Castle
William the Conqueror founded the castle in the 11th century and 40 monarchs have lived here since, which is why the Royal Collection Trust describes it as the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. A visit takes in the State Apartments, Queen Mary's Dolls' House and the precincts, and the trust suggests allowing an hour and a half to two hours for it. Seen from Thames Street below, the curtain wall runs along to the Curfew Tower, which holds the bells of St George's Chapel.
Style: Gothic and Gothic Revival
Location: Castle Hill, Windsor
Access: Ticketed, with visitors admitted Thursday to Monday. Changing the Guard costs nothing to watch from the street and usually takes place at 11:00 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
3. Windsor Guildhall
The Guildhall stands on the High Street where the medieval market once spread, its ground floor left open behind Portland stone columns and its upper storey carrying statues of Queen Anne and her consort Prince George of Denmark in niches on the north and south fronts. The building was extended two bays eastwards in 1829. Windsor Guildhall Museum now fills the ground floor, with a collection running from a mammoth tusk around 100,000 years old to a model of the Hawker Hurricane, designed by Windsor born Sir Sydney Camm.
Heritage: Grade I listed
Location: The Guildhall, High Street, Windsor SL4 1LR
Access: The facade costs nothing to look at. The museum opens Mondays and Tuesdays from 10:00 to 16:00 and Sundays from 11:00 to 14:00, times kept by the Royal Borough.
Photo: "Guildhall, Windsor, England" by Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0).
4. Oakley Court
A very large Victorian Gothic mansion in landscaped grounds on the bank of the Thames, dated 1859 and listed since 1977. It is built of buff brick with Portland and Bath stone dressings under a fishscale tile roof with ridge cresting, and a castellated tower rises above the south east front between crow stepped gables whose pinnacles carry heraldic beasts. The house stands a few miles upstream from Windsor, in the parish of Bray, and works today as a hotel and conference centre in 35 acres of grounds running down to the water.
Style: Victorian Gothic
Heritage: Grade II* listed
Location: Windsor Road, Water Oakley, Bray SL4 5UR
Access: Privately run, with bedrooms, restaurants and event spaces rather than a visitor route.
5. St George's Chapel
The chapel of the Order of the Garter sits in the Lower Ward of the castle, a late medieval building whose west front is filled by an enormous traceried window. Pilgrims once crowded into it to reach the tomb of Henry VI, a king widely held to be a saint, and his shrine drew pilgrims until the Reformation. The Curfew Tower nearby has held the chapel bells since the late 15th century, hung in a medieval timber frame.
Style: Gothic
Heritage: Grade I listed
Location: Lower Ward, Windsor Castle
Access: Ticketed as part of a Windsor Castle visit, on Mondays and Thursdays to Saturdays from 10:00 to 16:00, and closed to sightseers on Sundays. Services are free and need no ticket, and evensong is normally at 17:15.
6. Eton High Street
Eton's High Street runs from the far end of Windsor Bridge past brick houses, antique shops and old inns towards the college and the water meadows. Next to the Cock Pit stands a listed pillar box of the 1850s with a vertical posting slot and fluted Doric decoration, one of very few of its type still in use.
Location: Eton High Street, Eton, across Windsor Bridge
Access: Free. A public street, open at any hour, about a minute on foot from the Windsor bank.
Photo: "High Street in Eton" by Steve Daniels (CC BY-SA 2.0).
7. Eton College
Henry VI founded the school in 1440 and its brick ranges, begun in the 1440s, are grouped around School Yard with the College Chapel along one side. The chapel keeps late 15th century wall paintings, rediscovered in the 19th century, and twenty British prime ministers were educated here. Barnes Pool Bridge, an iron bridge of 1883, crosses just before the college gates.
Heritage: Grade I listed
Location: Eton College, Eton, across the bridge from Windsor
Access: The museums and gallery are usually open free on Sunday afternoons from 13:30 to 16:00; check College Collections for closures and for guided Heritage Tours.
8. Windsor Bridge and the riverside
A cast iron bridge on granite piers, opened in 1824, makes the short crossing between Windsor and Eton, replacing timber bridges recorded here since the 12th century. The town collected tolls from people crossing it and boats passing under it until 1898, and since 1970 the bridge has been closed to motor traffic, open only to people on foot and cyclists. The promenade on the Windsor side looks back at the castle walls above the water, while the open grass of Brocas Meadows faces the towers head on from the Eton bank.
Location: Thames Street and River Street, Windsor
Access: Free, and open at any time of day.
Free landmarks and viewpoints in Windsor
Windsor Parish Church
St John the Baptist, the parish church beside the Guildhall, is usually open every day and free to step inside. The current building marked its 200th anniversary in 2022, and among its features is a 17th-century painting of the Last Supper.
Photo: "Church of St John the Baptist, Windsor" by N Chadwick (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Brocas Meadows
This stretch of open grassland on the Eton side of the river has no gate, no ticket booth and no closing time, just grazing land that happens to face the towers and battlements of the castle head on.
Photo: "Windsor Castle from The Brocas, Eton" by Jonathan Thacker (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Curiosities and quiet corners around Windsor
Ankerwycke Yew
The oldest tree in the National Trust's care, thought to have stood for 2,500 years beside the ruins of a Benedictine nunnery.
Location: Ankerwycke, across the Thames from Runnymede, Wraysbury TW19 5AD. Parking is limited, as the National Trust warns.
Photo: "Ankerwycke ancient tree" by Hypercolius (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The Queen's Swans at Windsor
Mute swans on the Thames have been royal birds since about 1189. Each July the Crown, Vintners and Dyers count and mark the cygnets.
Location: Windsor Promenade, Barry Avenue, Windsor. The Dyers' Company explains the census.
Photo: "Swans on the Thames in Windsor" by Ввласенко (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Queen Charlotte Street
One of the shortest streets in Britain at 51 feet and 10 inches, tucked off the High Street beside the leaning Market Cross House.
Location: Queen Charlotte Street, off Windsor High Street
Photo: "Queen Charlotte Street plaque in Windsor" by Mark Morgan Trinidad B (CC BY 2.0).
Queen Victoria's Jubilee Locomotive
A full size replica of the engine that carried Queen Victoria to London on Diamond Jubilee day in 1897, standing inside the station arcade.
Location: Windsor Royal, Windsor and Eton Central station, Thames Street
Photo: "Replica of the locomotive The Queen at Windsor and Eton Central station" by David Wilson (CC BY 2.0).
The JFK Memorial at Runnymede
A seven tonne block of Portland stone by Geoffrey Jellicoe, set in an acre of ground given to the United States in 1965.
Location: Runnymede, Windsor Road, near Old Windsor
Photo: "John F. Kennedy Memorial, Runnymede, UK" by Smuconlaw (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Pavement Clock
A working clock sunk into the paving of Thames Street, reinstated in 2011 above a time capsule, on the spot of a 1950 original.
Location: Thames Street, Windsor, outside the former Dyson and Sons jewellers
Photo: "Clock in the pavement of Thames Street, Windsor" by David Hillas (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Why Windsor is worth visiting
Windsor is a small Berkshire town of around 32,000 people on the River Thames, a short train ride west of London, and almost everything in it points back to the castle on the hill at its centre. Eton, its twin across a pedestrian bridge, adds one of England's best-known schools to the same afternoon.
A castle-first town
Windsor Castle has been a working royal residence for close to a thousand years, and the town grew up to serve it: the High Street runs straight to the castle gate, Victoria Barracks houses the soldiers who march the Changing of the Guard, and the royal standard flying from the Round Tower still tells residents when the King is in.
Windsor and Eton across the water
Windsor Bridge, pedestrian only, is the short link to Eton, a quieter town built around Eton College. Its High Street of shops and old inns runs past the school's brick buildings and water meadows, and the college's small museums open to anyone on Sunday afternoons even when its Heritage Tours are not running.
When to go and how long to stay
A single day covers the castle, the chapel and a walk across to Eton, and works as a half-day trip from London for anyone short on time. A second day leaves room for Windsor Great Park and the Long Walk, and it is worth checking which day of the week the castle is open before travelling. The Great Park drew more visitors in 2025 than any other attraction outside London, which puts it near the top of the most visited tourist attractions in the United Kingdom.
Getting around, and combining with London
Windsor's centre is compact and walkable, with both railway stations close to the castle and Eton reachable on foot across the pedestrian bridge. It also works as a short add-on to a London stay, and travellers splitting time between the two often pair it with the Tower of London, founded by the same 11th century king, or with Kensington Palace, another royal residence open to visitors.