Full day tour of Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace

Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Eton College
Hampton Court Palace - Tudor Entrance
Hampton Court Palace - Georgian Facade

Windsor Castle has been a principal royal residence ever since William the Conqueror built a wooden castle there in 1070. The present stone round tower was built a century later and today Britain's royal family stays there regularly. Many monarchs have embellished the castle and a tour of its sumptuously furnished state apartments provides a sampling of royal tastes through the centuries.

St. George's Chapel, an architecturally outstanding building sating from the 15th century, contains the tombs of ten monarchs. The town itself, located to the west of the castle walls, retains a Georgian character.

A footbridge across the Thames connects Windsor with Eton and its famous school, where Princes William and Harry were educated, and downstream is the meadow at Runnymede where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215.

Hampton Court Palace was begun by Cardinal Wolsey in 1514 and then appropriated by Henry VIII in 1529 when Wolsey fell from favour. It was extended by Henry and then once more in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by William and Mary, at which time Christopher Wren, architect of St Paul's Cathedral in London, redecorated the chapel. Formal, Dutch-style gardens and attractive parklands surround the Palace.