The round stone Round Tower with a flag on top, standing on a mound of trees and flowers, with the castle's walls and square towers on either side under a blue sky

The Round Tower on its mound, with the castle’s walls and towers around it.

Before you go

Prices
Adults £32, young people 18 to 24 £21, children 5 to 17 £16 if booked ahead (£36, £24 and £18 on the day), under 5s free; up to £1 more in 2027, and less on days when parts of the Castle are closed
Open
Thursday to Monday, 10am to 4.15pm (last entry 3pm) from November to February, and 10am to 5.15pm (last entry 4pm) from March to October. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and sometimes at short notice, so check the closure dates
Nearest station
Windsor & Eton Central, under 10 minutes’ walk, step-free
Plan your journey
TfL Journey Planner, Google Maps or Uber

For families

For autistic visitors

  • Neurodivergent visitors at Windsor Castle: to talk through your visit before you go, contact the Castle’s Access & Inclusion Manager on 01753 493293 or at access@rct.uk.
  • Windsor Castle Guide for Neurodivergent Visitors (PDF): takes you through the visit step by step, from the queue and security at the Admission Centre to the State Apartments, St George’s Chapel and the way out, and says which places are dark, echoing, noisy or crowded.
  • Photo journey (PDF): photos of each stage of the visit, from the Admission Centre and the walk up Castle Hill to the State Apartments, Engine Court and St George’s Chapel, to look through together before you go.
  • Quieter times: in the summer the Castle can get very busy, with long queues, especially in the morning, so go after 1pm.
  • Queues: if anyone in your group finds queuing hard, ask at the Admission Centre for the Admissions Supervisor, who may be able to get you in sooner, and at the North Terrace ask the Warden on duty (Wardens wear dark blue uniforms, high-vis jackets and hats), who may arrange a quicker way in or send you to the less busy ramp entrance in Engine Court.
  • Security: everyone goes through an airport-style check in a bright, noisy hall, where the walk-through arch makes a loud noise if it finds metal and staff then wave a hand-held detector round you, usually without touching.
  • Noise and darkness: the Inner Hall echoes and can be very noisy; Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is in a small, dark, often crowded space, and it goes very dark very suddenly as you reach it; in the State Apartments the heating vents always make some background noise, the floorboards creak loudly in places, the King’s Bedchamber and the rooms just after it can be crowded and quite dark, and the King’s Dining Room and the Queen’s Presence Chamber are dark too.
  • St George’s Chapel: expect organ music, incense, echoes, noisy heaters, flickering lights and small, sometimes crowded spaces.
  • Soldiers on the move: in the Middle Ward you may meet guards marching between their posts, who shout “Make way for The King’s Guard” VERY VERY LOUDLY if anyone is in their way.
  • Taking a break: there are benches in some rooms of the State Apartments (ask a Warden where), and in the school holidays the Pug Yard Learning Centre near the entrance has a Chill Out Zone with beanbags, books, Duplo and a train set, meant for toddlers.

Accessibility

This is a trip a short way out of London, suitable for older kids and teenagers. It’s not right for toddlers or little kids because it’s a train journey out of London, and because they won’t really understand much of what they see at the castle and would be happier in a playground or a park, such as the Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens.

Windsor Castle is one of the King’s three official homes, in the town of Windsor, 30 to 40 minutes by train west of London. William the Conqueror built it in around 1070, 40 kings and queens have lived there since, and it’s the oldest and largest castle in the world that’s still inhabited.

Things that might impress kids: a real castle with tower on a hill, battlements, an armoured gateway and live soldiers in huge bearskin hats. Inside, there are grand rooms decorated with gold, and Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House.

Allow 1½ to 2 hours for the Castle, or longer if you watch Changing the Guard or stop for lunch. Wear comfortable shoes, because the Castle is at the top of a steep hill and the route through it is long. It’s still a working royal palace, so sometimes the whole Castle, or just the State Apartments, closes at short notice. Check the closure dates before you set off.

What to see

Pick up the free multimedia guide when you arrive. There’s a family version in English for 7- to 11-year-olds, in which Scorch the dragon guides you round the Castle, with games to play as you go.

Three guards in red tunics, black trousers and tall black bearskin hats marching along a path, with rifles on their shoulders, past a grass bank and a high stone wall

Three guards in red tunics march along a path beside the castle wall.

Rows of carved wooden stalls lit by small lamps under colourful hanging banners, with a black-and-white chequered floor leading to a tall stained-glass window

Knights’ banners hang above the carved stalls in St George’s Chapel.

  • The Changing of the Guard: on Thursdays and Saturdays the new guard marches through Windsor town behind a band and arrives at the Castle just before 11am. The handover inside the Castle takes about 45 minutes. You need a Castle ticket to watch it there, but anyone can watch the march from the pavement (sidewalk) in town. On Mondays and Fridays there’s a smaller inspection inside the Castle instead, also just before 11am. It’s called off in bad weather, and the days sometimes change, so check the schedule before you go.
  • St George’s Chapel: eleven kings and queens are buried here, including Henry VIII, Charles I and Queen Elizabeth II. Look up at the carved stone ceiling, and at the knights’ banners hanging over the wooden stalls. Last entry is at 4pm, and the Chapel is closed to the castle’s visitors on Sundays, when there are services all day.
    • You can go into St George’s Chapel free of charge if you want to attend a service. Attending a scheduled service is free and does not need a ticket. Go to the King Henry VIII Gate (the visitors’ exit) 15 minutes before the service starts.
  • The Round Tower and the walls: the Round Tower, on its mound in the middle of the Castle, is really D-shaped, because its south side was rebuilt after it was bombarded in the early 13th century. George IV added 10 metres to the top to make it look more impressive, and you can still see the ring of stone that marks the old top. Walk round it to the Norman Gate, which has a portcullis and murder holes. Guards could pour boiling water or hot sand through the murder holes onto attackers below. Look out for battlements on the walls, and for arrow loops (the narrow slits that archers shot arrows through).

A large model house in a glass case, its upper floors a stone front with rows of arched windows, its lower floors open to show furnished, lit rooms

Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House in its glass case, with its lower floors open to show the rooms.

A gloved hand reaching into a miniature kitchen with a black range, a copper kettle, a wooden table laid with pans and jars, and a toy cat on a chair

The Dolls’ House kitchen, with a copper kettle on the range, a cat on a chair and a gloved human hand.

  • Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House: the largest dolls’ house in the world, built for Queen Mary between 1921 and 1924, and everything in it is one-twelfth of real size. It has electricity, running water and working lifts, a kitchen, a garage full of tiny cars, a fully stocked wine cellar and a library of books written for it by famous authors of the day.
  • State Apartments: these are the grand rooms where the King entertains heads of state from other countries. Kids can look for the armour in the Grand Vestibule, the fish, lobsters and birds painted on the ceiling of the King’s Dining Room, and the Grand Reception Room, which is decorated with real gold. State Banquets for 160 guests are held in St George’s Hall. From autumn to spring you also see the Semi-State Rooms, George IV’s richly decorated private rooms.

You can take photos outside, but not inside the State Apartments or St George’s Chapel.

Bags, buggies and security

Everyone goes through airport-style security on the way in. If you’re on your way to or from a flight, leave your luggage at the airport or in central London.

You can push a buggy (stroller) around the grounds, but buggies and large backpacks have to go in the cloakroom at the entrance to the State Apartments. The cloakroom is about 10 minutes’ walk, mostly uphill, from the Admission Centre, where you enter, and then there’s a flight of stairs into the State Apartments. Baby slings and carriers are free to borrow, and you collect your buggy when you come out.

Food, toilets and baby changing

You can’t eat or drink in the State Apartments or St George’s Chapel, apart from bottled water. The Undercroft Café, in one of the oldest surviving parts of the Castle, sells sandwiches, wraps, salads and cakes, and a children’s meal of a sandwich, a drink and fresh fruit.

There are toilets and baby changing just after security, on the North Terrace before the State Apartments, and next to the café. You can breastfeed anywhere in the Castle.

In the school holidays

During UK school holidays the Pug Yard Learning Centre, just inside the Castle walls near the entrance, puts on free crafts, storytelling and other activities for families, and has trails for children. You can picnic there too, outside in the yard or in the indoor lunch hall if it rains. It has a family bathroom with a changing table, and a “Caught Short Box” of spare nappies, wipes and clothes in case you’ve run out. Inside school term-times, print one of the family trails for 7- to 11-year-olds at home before you go.

Tickets

Tickets cost less if you book online before the day (the prices are in the Before you go box above), and under-5s go free.

From 1 October 2026 to 22 March 2027, if you come by train, you can get Castle tickets at half price through National Rail’s Days Out Guide. The discount is for tickets bought in pairs, up to six tickets, from Thursday to Monday, apart from 21 December to 3 January. Get the eVoucher on the Days Out Guide website, book your Castle tickets with it, and show your train tickets when you arrive. Train tickets on your phone count, but Oyster and contactless don’t. Half-price Castle tickets can’t be turned into a 1-Year Pass.

If you live in the UK and get Universal Credit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit or one of a few other benefits, Castle tickets cost £1 for up to six people in your household. Book them online in advance. On the day, bring proof of the benefit, your booking email, and something else with your name on it, such as a bank card.

Getting there

Trains from London Paddington take 30 to 40 minutes to Windsor & Eton Central, with a change at Slough to another train that takes 6 minutes. You can also take the Elizabeth line to Slough and change there. Trains from London Waterloo go direct to Windsor & Eton Riverside and take just under an hour. On each route there’s a train about every half hour. Windsor & Eton Central is under 10 minutes’ walk from the Castle, and the station is step-free. For tickets and paying by contactless, see Travelling around London.