London and day trips on the ground April 14,2024 to April 22, 2024

. Should we book the tickets to Windsor in advance?

Are you asking if you should book the train tickets from London to Windsor in advance, or the tickets for Windsor Castle?

If you take the train from Paddington to Windsor you don't need tickets at all - just use contactless cards. And no advance booking necessary.

You have 8 full days available. 4 of those sites - RAF Museum, Hampton Court, Windsor and Stratford-on-Avon, will take up the whole or the great majority off a day each. So that shaves quite a bit off your time in London. I assume that you mean the RAF Museum in Hendon in north west London rather than the one near Wolverhampton.

You don't have the Churchill War Rooms on your list, which you might want to add given your interest in other military sites. If you do, that is one place that you should book a slot in advance.

I imagine that booking the Globe Theatre tour might be a good idea but I would not have thought it necessary to book anywhere else.

I vote with John to add the Churchill War Rooms onto your "to-do" list.

For your Changing of the Guards experience, I suggest you watch the New Guard form up and be inspected in front of the Wellington Barracks. From there they march out and across the street to Buckingham Palace to replace the Old Guard. The band will play some in front of the barracks and you'll get a better, closer view of the troops.

Here is a link to the official time schedule for the formation and inspection.

https://www.householddivision.org.uk/changing-the-guard-details

The Changing of the Guard at the Horse Guards is also interesting and usually not as busy as the crowd that forms in front of Buckingham Palace.

The trains to Stratford on Avon leave from London Marylebone station, with a change of train at Leamington Spa. They run every two hours and take just over 2 hours.
On the other hour you take a train bound for Birmingham and change at a suburban station called Dorridge. That adds about 45 minutes on to the journey.

If you book advance fares on the 6am out and the 4.30 back it should be about £32. On the 8am out and 4.30 back it is about £49 return, or a walk up fare on any train (even though it is called an Off peak return) is £58 currently.

Whatever you do don't buy an Anytime Return walk up fare at a huge £135.

So it is for you to weigh up whether buying Advance Tickets or waiting for the weather is worth the extra cost The same principle applies to Stonehenge. On advance fares that can be as little as £18 return. On a walk up fare it's anywhere between £43 and £76 return depending on which time train you take.
Windsor and Hampton Court are fixed price fares, whether booked ahead or as walk up.

On days like today which has been a torrid day of delays and cancellations on the line out of Paddington, after a tragic incident this morning, it is as well to be aware that there is an alternative no change service to Windsor from Waterloo- which is not contactless, and you can't mix and match the routes. Another reason not to buy to Windsor ahead of time.
There is also an hourly double deck bus #702 from London Victoria which takes 1 hour 20 minutes to reach Windsor and is £2 each way under the government fare cap. Another alternative to the train if needed.

My question should have been more detailed. I need to know if I need to purchase tickets for the sites in advance? For example do I need to buy tickets to Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace or The Globe in advance? I was hoping at that time of the year to have fewer crowds and more flexibility to make a last minute decision. If I need to buy the site tickets in advance then I will buy the train tickets in advance. I have seen the Churchill War Rooms twice and the Churchill museum once. The branch of the RAF museum is the one on the outskirts of London. Thanks

Scot - I thought I had answered your questions about advance ticket sales. My view is that you should for the Globe but probably not for anywhere else.
On train tickets isn31c correctly points out that there are two routes from Central London to Windsor. The quickest is from Paddington with a simple change at Slough. On that route there is no need to buy any sort of ticket - just use contactless cards to pay on the day.

The second route is from Waterloo - it takes longer but if you're staying near there it still might make sense and there are no changes to do. You do need tickets for this route, either actual paper ones or virtual ones on your phone, but in neither case do you need to buy them in advance.

I would get Windsor Castle tickets ahead of time from the official site especially if you have a certain day/time in mind. When I visited in May the line was extremely long for buying that day. There was a bit of a line for the first entry time, which I had, but as soon as the security gates opened it moved quickly.

https://www.rct.uk/visit/windsor-castle

I've not been to Hampton Court Palace since before Covid but my impression is that you don't need advance purchase tickets there. If someone adds information that they needed advance purchase tickets go with their advice over mine.