Harte and Garter Hotel and Spa

About Harte and Garter Hotel and Spa

The Harte and Garter is the closest hotel in Windsor to the castle, occupying the High Street frontage almost directly opposite the walls. It was created by merging two medieval coaching inns - the Harte and the Garter, the latter recorded in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor - and rebuilt in Victorian style after a nineteenth-century fire. The result is a large, rambling building on several levels, with a courtyard behind and a spa in the lower floors.

Rooms run from compact Cosy doubles up to Executive and Deluxe categories and family rooms sleeping four, with an accessible room available. Interiors were refreshed relatively recently in richer colours, and the rooms carry air conditioning, smart televisions and free wi-fi. The categories worth paying up for are the castle-view rooms at the front; the courtyard-facing rooms are quieter but look at brick.

Downstairs there is a bar and restaurant, and the hotel's spa offers treatments alongside the usual thermal facilities. Being where it is, the hotel is loud on the castle side during the day and around guard change, and this is a busy, high-turnover operation rather than a boutique one - guests trading a little polish for the location tend to be happy, those expecting a country-house pace less so.

It works best as a base for a short castle-focused break, particularly for families who want everything within two minutes of the door. There is no on-site parking, so use the town car parks or arrive by train; Windsor and Eton Central is a three-minute walk, Riverside about six.