Traveling to Windsor

Are you sure you can take a tube to Windsor Castle?? We took an easy train ride then switched to a little train shuttle into Windsor proper, easy and fast, about an hour.

Sorry but thats not the best way to visit Windsor and the castle from London. Go by train. Depart from Waterloo Station. Hour train ride.

I took the train from Paddington. Get off at slough and take the short connector train into Windsor. Quick and easy trip. When I went about 3 years ago the cheapest fare was a day return ticket. This was on a Sunday and I’m not sure if that works for other days of the week.

Contactless PAYG now works to Windsor via the Paddington route, but not Oyster. You will need to buy tickets valid from the boundary of the zones you will have on the travelcard to Windsor & Eton Central.

Note that Windsor & Eton Riverside, the service from Waterloo, cannot be travelled using contactless payment. Also tickets are not interchangeable with the Windsor & Eton Central route under normal circumstances and it is marginally more expensive,

To clarify, the Tube doesn’t go to Windsor.

You take a train from either Paddington > (change at Slough) > Windsor

or London Waterloo > Windsor.

Simplest is to buy a day return ticket at the station.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

We will purchase Oyster 7-Day Travelcards

Are you sure that’s the best option for you? The simplest is to use a contactless card or App on a phone for pay-as-you-go tickets on the Underground/buses

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay-and-where-to-buy-tickets-and-oyster/pay-as-you-go/contactless-and-mobile-pay-as-you-go?intcmp=55539

Don’t get bamboozled by the different options.

The tube doesn't go to Windsor, main line trains do.

Two possible train routes, both with advantages and disadvantages.

The route from London Waterloo station via South West Trains to Windsor and Eton Riverside station has a couple of advantages - you get on at Waterloo and don't have to move until you arrive at the last stop. It is also very convenient for the South Bank and the financial centre, The City - also known as the Square Mile, because of the dedicated nonstop tube, the Waterloo & City line.

The route from London Paddington station via GWR to Windsor and Eton Central has several advantages. This route is both faster and cheaper (and you can use contactless but not Oyster), even with the easy change onto the little choo choo at Slough. It is very convenient to the West End and surrounding areas, and Paddington is well served by the tube and buses. And you walk out of the station at Windsor directly across the street from the entrance to Windsor Castle - if you use the other route you are deposited at the Riverside (see how they cunningly chose these names) and have to walk up the fairly steep hill outside the castle walls (neat pic opportunity though) up into the town and after some shops you get to the entrance.

And from a train geek's point of view, the Waterloo route is clanky and bumpy and the train stops several times, and usually has to wait at junctions. The Paddington route is modern trains which zip quickly along with few or no stops until Slough where you pop off and walk a very few steps across and down the platform to pop onto the little choo choo for the curved route with the castle visible to the left.

Betcha can't guess which I prefer?

Full disclosure - it is true that upon returning from Windsor to Paddington you have to go up and over at Slough from the shuttle to the mainline train into Paddington. A price worth paying to my mind...