Tower of London vs Windsor Castle: Which Day Out Is Better?

Quick verdict: first visit to London, pick the Tower. Royal palace experience with a castle town attached, pick Windsor. Both in one trip only if you have four days or more.

Book the Tower with the Crown Jewels exhibition from £37: check availability here.

The Tower is nearly 1,000 years of English history compressed into one riverside fortress. William the Conqueror's White Tower, the Crown Jewels including the Imperial State Crown, the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) tours with their stories of executions and escapes, Traitors' Gate, and the famous ravens are all inside one set of walls. It is in central London at Tower Hill station, so there is zero travel overhead: you can do the Tower in the morning and be at Borough Market for lunch, with Tower Bridge photographs in between. The Beefeater tours run through the day and are included with entry; they are genuinely funny and the single best way to experience the site. Allow 2 to 3 hours, and go straight to the Crown Jewels when you arrive, as the queue builds from mid-morning.

Tickets from £37, rated 4.6 from more than 31,000 reviews: book Tower of London entry here.

Windsor is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and a working royal residence: the King is genuinely in residence part of the year, signalled by the Royal Standard flying from the Round Tower. The State Apartments are on a scale the Tower cannot match, St George's Chapel is one of the finest Gothic buildings in England and the burial place of Queen Elizabeth II and ten kings, and the view down the Long Walk is one of the great vistas in the country. Windsor town itself, with its riverside pubs and Eton across the bridge, makes the trip feel like a day in a different England rather than another London attraction. The trade-off is time and admin: about an hour each way by train, and the castle is closed on selected weekdays for much of the year, so check dates before you commit.

The easiest way to do it without planning is a guided day trip. The Stonehenge and Windsor Castle tour with tickets included is rated 4.7 and pairs the castle with Stonehenge in one day, and the popular Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath triple from £79 adds Bath as well.