A local's guide to getting around Windsor without a car
Windsor is one of the most walkable towns we cover and also one of the hardest to park in, which is exactly why so many visitors, and plenty of locals, end up doing the whole day without a car at all. Here's how the town actually breaks down on foot, and where a short taxi hop genuinely earns its keep.
The castle and town centre
Windsor Castle, the shops along Peascod Street, and the riverside by the Thames are all within a ten-minute walk of each other. If your day is castle, lunch, a walk by the river, this is entirely a one-parking-spot-or-zero problem — most people who drive in end up walking the same loop on foot regardless, so a taxi drop-off right at the start saves the parking search entirely. The town's one-way system around the castle catches out anyone unfamiliar with it, and on a Changing of the Guard morning the roads nearest the castle can be closed to traffic altogether, which is another reason to arrive on foot from a drop-off rather than trying to find a space nearby.
Getting into Windsor in the first place
Windsor & Eton Central and Windsor & Eton Riverside stations are both easy taxi pickups if you've come in by train — Central sits right by the castle, Riverside a short walk from the river and the shops. Either way, a taxi from Slough or Maidenhead is a reliable fallback if your train is delayed or cancelled and you'd rather not wait on a cold platform for the next one.
Eton, across the bridge
Eton and its High Street sit a genuine but short walk across the pedestrian bridge from Windsor — fifteen minutes at a comfortable pace, less if you cut through. It's an easy add-on to a Windsor day without needing a second vehicle move. A taxi back is a common ask if you're laden with shopping or it's raining, and it's an easy one for us to cover, being barely a five-minute run from Eton back into central Windsor.
Legoland
This is the one attraction where a car genuinely helps if you're driving yourself, since it's a couple of miles out and not a stroll with kids in tow. A taxi from Windsor town centre to Legoland is a short, fixed-price hop, useful if you've come into Windsor by train and don't want to also manage a rental car or work out a bus timetable for a single return trip. Booking the return leg in advance, or simply calling once you're ready to leave, avoids the queue for taxis that can build up at the park's own rank at closing time.
Other nearby spots worth knowing about
If your trip stretches beyond Windsor itself, Datchet, Old Windsor and Dorney are all a short taxi ride away and each has its own quieter riverside stretch, without the crowds you'll find nearer the castle in summer.
Heathrow, at the end of the day
A Windsor to Heathrow transfer runs a fixed price, saloon or executive, and given the town centre's one-way system and limited parking, most visitors flying out the same day are better off booking a taxi than trying to retrieve a car from wherever they managed to leave it that morning. If you're flying from a different airport, we also run fixed routes to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted from Windsor.
Visiting for the day versus staying over
If you're only in Windsor for a few hours — a castle visit before an afternoon flight, say — the calculation is simple: don't bring a car into the town centre at all. Taxi in, walk the loop, taxi out. If you're staying a night or two, it's often still easier to park once at the hotel and use taxis for anything beyond walking distance, rather than moving the car for every short trip and hunting for a second space each time.
Rainy-day and evening options
Windsor's charm holds up less well in the rain, and this is when a taxi earns its keep most. A wet walk back from Eton with shopping, or an evening meal that runs later than planned, are both the kind of short trips that are barely worth queuing for a rank over, but perfectly easy to book ahead or call for on the spot. Evening availability is generally good, though a Saturday night in summer is the one time it's worth booking your return trip before you sit down to eat rather than after.
The practical version
Walk the castle-to-river loop, taxi across for Legoland or the station run, and don't fight for a parking space you'll only need for twenty minutes at either end of the day. Get in touch for any of these hops — most of them are short enough that the fare is confirmed in a sentence, and a driver who knows Windsor's one-way system will usually beat satnav guesswork by several minutes.