Camping in Windsor

Windsor itself has no campsite. The town is tightly built, the castle and its precincts take up the high ground, and Windsor Great Park is Crown Estate land with no camping permitted anywhere within it. What Windsor does have is the Thames, and the campsites that serve it are strung along the river within a short drive - at Hurley to the west, and at Chertsey and Laleham to the south-east, all within about fifteen miles. Each sits beside the water: flat, sheltered, grassy pitching under mature trees.

The terrain could hardly be easier. This is the lower Thames valley, so everything is level, well drained on the gravel terraces and reachable on good roads - useful if you are towing. Pitches are almost all grass, with hardstanding available at the larger sites, and none of them involve the sort of approach lanes that make Devon or the Dales stressful with a caravan. The flip side is that these are river-flat sites: after prolonged winter rain the Thames rises, and low-lying fields can go under. That is one reason several riverside parks in the area close or restrict pitching outside the main season.

Berkshire and Surrey are among the driest, warmest parts of Britain, so the season runs longer than most. May to September is the reliable window, June and July the best for the river. Late April and early October work with decent kit, and the Club sites here stay open year-round, though winter camping this close to the water is damp and foggy.

Wild camping is not legal here. In England and Wales you need the landowner's permission everywhere except parts of Dartmoor, and the land around Windsor is a mixture of Crown Estate, National Trust, private farmland and council parkland - all of it patrolled and none of it available for pitching. Sleeping in a van in a riverside car park will get you moved on. Use a booked site, and book ahead for summer weekends: demand from Legoland, Ascot and London day-trippers keeps these parks close to full from June onwards.