Windsor with kids: Legoland, boats and the Great Park

Windsor is one of the few places in England where the theme-park crowd and the heritage crowd end up queuing for coffee at the same cafe, and it works surprisingly well as a family base. The town is small enough to walk across in twenty minutes, the river runs right through the middle of it, and there is enough here to fill three or four days without anyone getting bored, provided you plan around what your children actually enjoy rather than what looks good on a postcard.

Legoland: brilliant, but read the small print first

Legoland Windsor Resort, about two miles south of the town centre, is the reason most families end up in Windsor at all, and it deserves the reputation. Unlike a lot of theme parks that market themselves at everyone, this one is genuinely built around the under-twelves: the rides are scaled to smaller riders, the Miniland recreations of famous landmarks in Lego brick hold toddlers' attention in a way that few museum exhibits manage, and the seasonal water attractions are a lifesaver on a hot day. My honest steer is that adults without young children, or parents of older teenagers, will get more out of a boat trip or an afternoon at Eton than a day here.

The detail people miss is that Legoland is not open year-round. It runs a seasonal calendar, roughly late May to early September as the core stretch, with a Halloween Brick or Treat event in October and a Christmas opening on selected dates. Outside those windows the gates are simply shut, so check the operating calendar before you build a trip around it, and book online in advance rather than turning up. There is a dedicated shuttle and park-and-ride from the town, which is worth using since on-site parking gets congested on peak days. Two themed hotels, the Resort Hotel and the Castle Hotel, sit on site and are usually sold as package deals with park tickets; they buy you early ride access, which matters if you are travelling with children who wilt by mid-afternoon, but they come at a premium and are not the only sensible way to do Legoland. Online day tickets start from around £32 with advance booking discounts, though it is worth checking current pricing before you go, as these things move.

The river and the boats

Windsor without a boat trip feels like an oversight. French Brothers run Thames cruises from the promenade near Windsor Bridge, and the operation suits families well because you are not locked into a single option: the 40-minute round trip is ideal if you have arrived with an hour to spare between the Castle and lunch, while the two-hour cruise gives a proper look at the river, the Castle from the water, and Eton's playing fields sliding past on the opposite bank. There are themed cruises too, which younger children tend to enjoy more than a straight sightseeing commentary. The boats run mainly from spring through autumn, so this is very much a warm-weather plan rather than a winter one, and booking online ahead of time saves standing in a queue that snakes along the promenade on a sunny Saturday.

The free wins: Great Park, deer and the Long Walk

Some of the best family time in Windsor costs nothing at all. Windsor Great Park and the Long Walk, the two-and-a-half-mile avenue running south from the Castle towards the Copper Horse statue, is broad, level and pushchair-friendly for at least the first stretch, which makes it far more usable with small children than the Castle's stairs and cobbles. Push on far enough and you reach the Deer Park, where a resident herd of red deer roams in a way that reliably produces the kind of wide-eyed reaction that Legoland's Lego dragons never quite match. Back in town, Alexandra Gardens is a proper riverside patch of lawn, good for a picnic, with swans working the water's edge and, in winter, an ice rink that sometimes appears there. None of this requires tickets, timings or advance booking, which after a day of Legoland logistics is its own kind of relief.

Windsor Castle with children

The Castle rewards children who are a little older and have some patience for history rather than rides. The State Apartments are grand but require a fair amount of walking and standing, and Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a genuine highlight for children who like tiny, obsessive detail, a perfect miniature house down to running water and a wine cellar. You might catch the guard marching through the town, but to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony itself you need a Castle ticket, since it takes place inside the grounds, and it runs on its own seasonal schedule rather than daily, so check before you build your morning around it. Bear in mind the Castle sits on a hill and involves a fair bit of stair climbing, which can be tiring for toddlers and buggies; it suits primary-school-age children and up rather better than the under-fives.

Where to stay and practical tips

Windsor's proximity to Heathrow makes it a sensible base even if you are combining the trip with onward travel, and the town centre itself is compact enough to manage entirely on foot once you are settled in. The on-site Legoland hotels are convenient if early ride access matters to your family, but they carry a real premium; a budget Premier Inn in nearby Slough, or a Windsor bed and breakfast, paired with a short drive or the park-and-ride shuttle, will usually beat them on value without costing you much time. Whatever base you choose, treat Legoland as the anchor day, keep the river cruise and the Great Park as your flexible, weather-friendly options, and save the Castle for a day when everyone has the legs for it.