Worth getting out of bed for
Highlights the best Berkshire has to offer, from art and culture to fun-packed activities; we've even found the most inspiring place to enjoy the views from.
- Viewpoint
- There’s dozens of spots to choose, from but it’s hard to beat the Long Walk, which runs south from Windsor Castle for three miles up to the statue of George III atop Snow Hill. If you’re lucky, you might see one of the famous herds of deer wandering casually across this dead-straight royal thoroughfare.
- Arts and culture
- Windsor Castle (www.royal.gov.uk), the oldest continuously occupied castle in the world, is the area’s biggest tourist attraction, and rightly so, given its impressive size and condition. Queeny likes nothing more than the hoi polloi strutting about her 1,000-year-old heritage of a weekend so do pay her a visit.
- Something for nothing
- The view of the Goring Gap from the top of Streatley Hill is inspiring. Brace yourself for the climb, or take the car, and stop off on the way back for a beer at the Bull (+44 (0)1491 872392).
- Shopping
- The enormous Oracle shopping centre in Reading town centre (www.theoracle.com) caters for every high-street hankering, but there are sweeter retail rewards to be found elsewhere. Windsor’s shops are pointedly refined and classic, nowhere more so than in the Windsor Royal Shopping centre, with its purse-melting gamut of Brompton-esque boutiques (www.windsorroyalshopping.co.uk). For antiques and artsy-crafty stuff, head to smaller villages such as Aldermaston or Tadley (technically in Hampshire); for antiquarian books and Roadshow-worthy antiques, Eton’s half-mile High Street can’t be beaten.
- Daytripper
- A large part of the south of England is within easy reach of Berkshire, including London, Bristol, the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire. A visit to Henley-on-Thames will pique most people’s interest, with plentiful diversions including historic homes such as Stonor (www.stonor.com), butterfly-magnet Warburg Nature Reserve (www.bbowt.org.uk), plus top-drawer alco-palace, the Chiltern Valley Vineyard and Brewery (www.chilternvalley.co.uk). Stop off at the Hotel du Vin Henley for fine dining and drinking.
- Perfect Picnic
- There are many idyllic picnic spots on the banks of the Thames. The area around Cookham village, between Maidenhead and Marlow, is particularly pretty. The Juniper Deli in Chapman’s Courtyard on the High Street in Sunninghill, Ascot (+44 (0)1344 873344), is a good place to pick up supplies.
- Walks
- The Test Way is a well-marked trail that, in its entirety, runs for 49 miles from Walbury Hill in Berkshire to Eling in Hampshire. See www.ramblers.org.uk for route maps. The Ridgeway – Britain’s oldest road – is an 87-mile National Trail through two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It crosses the Thames at Goring, hugging the riverbanks for five miles before branching off into the Chiltern Hills (www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Ridgeway).
- Children
- In the wildlife-filled gardens of Beale Park, near Pangbourne (www.bealepark.co.uk), little ones will enjoy peeking at meerkats, exotic marsupials and bizarre-looking marmosets, as well as taking the steam train and playing in the Little Tikes Village or clambering the rope-trails.
- Activities
- It's possible to go water skiing and wakeboarding at Theale near Reading (www.twsc.org.uk). Alternatively, you can pamper yourself at Nirvana, one of the UK's leading day spas (www.nirvanaspa.co.uk). For those interested in oenology, Stanlake Park Wine Estate (www.stanlakepark.com) is one of the UK’s most productive and provides an edifying, not to mention flavoursome, day out.
- And...
- On the way to your destination, take a detour off the M4 to see the White Horse at Uffington on the Berkshire Downs. This elegant, if somewhat anorexic, prehistoric hillside carving is best viewed from a distance; somewhere along the road from Shrivenham to Faringdon is your ideal spot.
Diary
April The ancient Hocktide Festival in Hungerford features Wicker Man-style street dancing, ale tasting and all sorts of mediaeval goings-on (www.visitwestberkshire.org.uk). June Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of the social calendar where people wearing silly hats get as much attention as the racehorses – well, on Ladies' Day at any rate (www.ascot.co.uk). See our European events guide Smith 52 for more details, or buy the book for the full insider lowdown. August International rock bands and hordes of people who haven’t washed for three days congregate at Reading Festival (www.readingfestival.com).
