Richmond, Kew and Hampton Court: free royal London vs paid

Three royal sites, three different rules

Richmond, Kew and Hampton Court sit along the same stretch of the Thames southwest of central London, and it’s tempting to lump them together as “the royal day out.” They’re not one experience. Richmond Park is public green space with no ticket at all. Kew Gardens is a paid botanical garden that happens to include royal history. Hampton Court is a paid palace, no longer lived in by a monarch, run as a heritage attraction. Confusing the three means either paying for something that’s free, or turning up at a paid site expecting to wander in without a ticket.

This guide keeps them separate: what costs nothing, what you pay for, and where the “royal” label is more about history than about anyone currently living there.

Richmond Park: free, and genuinely worth the trip

Richmond Park is the largest of London’s Royal Parks, and it costs nothing to walk, cycle or picnic in. It was enclosed in the 1630s as a royal hunting ground, which is where the “royal” in the name comes from — not from any current use. Around 600 red and fallow deer roam freely, and the park is large enough (955 hectares) that even on a busy weekend it doesn’t feel crowded once you’re a few minutes past the main gates.

The classic free things to do here: walk or cycle to King Henry’s Mound for a protected view of St Paul’s Cathedral over 10 miles away, keep a respectful distance from the deer during the autumn rut and spring birthing season, and follow the Tamsin Trail (a roughly 11.7-kilometre loop) if you want a proper walk rather than a stroll. Bike hire is available near Roehampton Gate, and it’s one of the better ways to cover the park without a full day on foot. There’s no entry fee, no ticket to book, and the park is open from around 7am (later on winter mornings) to dusk. Car access closes at night, but pedestrians and cyclists can use most gates outside those hours.

For an easy route in, take the train to Richmond station (District line, Overground and National Rail all stop here) and walk about 20 minutes to the nearest gate, or hop on a local bus.

a guided nature photography walk through Richmond Park’s deer herds and ancient oaks is a good option if you’d rather have someone point out where the deer usually gather and how to get close without disturbing them, rather than wandering and hoping.

During the autumn rut, roughly September to November, rangers rope off sections of the park closest to the deer, and it’s genuinely worth keeping to the marked paths rather than pushing closer for a photo — stags are unpredictable at this time of year and injuries do happen most years. Outside the rut, the deer are used to people and mostly ignore anyone staying on the paths, but they’re still wild animals and not tame park attractions; feeding them is discouraged and, in practice, rarely rewarded with anything more than the deer walking away.

Mobility is worth planning around rather than assuming. The car parks at Roehampton Gate and Pembroke Lodge sit close to viewpoints and a café, with reasonably flat, surfaced paths nearby, so a short, step-free visit to King Henry’s Mound is realistic without tackling the full park. The wider Tamsin Trail, by contrast, is unsurfaced in stretches and noticeably hilly near Richmond Gate, so anyone using a wheelchair or a mobility scooter is better sticking to the sections near the main gates rather than attempting the whole 11.7-kilometre loop. Our accessible London guide covers step-free routes across the city in more detail.

Kew Gardens: paid entry, and the ticket is worth understanding

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew — usually just called Kew Gardens — is a different kind of site: a working botanical research institution and UNESCO World Heritage Site that charges for entry. This is the one people most often assume is free because it’s a “park.” It isn’t. Adult tickets, discounted child tickets and free entry for the very youngest visitors are all available, and Kew runs timed-entry slots, so booking ahead — especially for weekends, half term and the wisteria and bluebell seasons in spring — is worth doing rather than turning up and queuing.

What the ticket covers: the gardens themselves (over 300 acres), the Palm House (a Victorian glasshouse full of tropical plants), the Temperate House (the world’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse), the Treetop Walkway (an elevated path through the tree canopy), and seasonal features like the Hive art installation and the Great Broad Walk Borders. Kew Palace, a smaller former royal residence within the gardens, is included with the main Kew ticket on days it’s open, but it has shorter, separate opening hours (typically only in the warmer months) — check before planning your visit around it specifically.

Realistic timing: the Palm House and Treetop Walkway alone are a solid half-day. Add the Temperate House, a proper walk through the Arboretum and lunch, and it’s an easy full day. Trying to “do Kew” in 90 minutes on the way to somewhere else undersells it.

Getting there: Kew Gardens station (District line and London Overground) is a short walk from the Victoria Gate entrance. Boats also run along the Thames from central London to Kew Pier in the warmer months, which is a scenic if slower way in.

a ticketed visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew covering the main glasshouses and gardens is the simplest way to book ahead and skip the on-the-day ticket queue.

Kew changes a lot by season, more than either of the other two sites. Spring brings the bluebell woods and the blossom around the Broad Walk, and this is genuinely the busiest and most photographed period, so book earlier than you think you need to. Winter is the quiet season outdoors, but it’s when the Palm House and Temperate House earn their keep: both are heated year-round, so a cold, grey day outside is still a warm, humid walk among tropical plants inside — arguably the best value for a Kew ticket in the year’s worst weather. Summer has the longest opening hours but also the biggest crowds on the lawns and at the café, so an early arrival matters more than at Richmond Park.

Hampton Court Palace: paid, and no longer a royal home

Hampton Court is the one most likely to cause confusion about who actually lives there. Nobody does. Hampton Court was Henry VIII’s principal palace and later a residence of William III and Mary II, but it stopped being used as a royal home in the 18th century. Today it’s run by the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces, and it operates like a museum: a ticketed attraction with published opening hours, not a residence that can close on short notice for state reasons.

That’s the key difference from Windsor, which is still a working royal residence — see the note on Windsor below.

A Hampton Court ticket covers the Tudor kitchens and Henry VIII’s state apartments, the King’s and Queen’s apartments from the later Baroque rebuilding, and the gardens, including the famous yew hedge maze (planted around 1700, one of the oldest surviving hedge mazes in the world), which usually requires its own small supplement or timed slot. The palace gardens and riverside grounds are extensive enough to spend an hour just walking, separate from the interior tour. Historic Royal Palaces run costume-in-character interpreters in the state apartments on many days, which is worth building into your visit if you’re there with children.

Getting there: the most direct route is by train from Waterloo to Hampton Court station, a short walk from the palace gates across the river via Hampton Court Bridge. It’s also reachable by riverboat from Westminster or Kingston in season, which takes considerably longer than the train but is a pleasant way to arrive.

a themed walking tour through Richmond’s royal and cultural history is a good way to fill the gap between Richmond and Hampton Court if you’re combining the two in one day, since the towpath walk between them takes a while and this kind of guided route makes better use of it.

One honest disappointment worth flagging: the hedge maze is smaller than photographs suggest, and most visitors find their way to the centre in under 20 minutes, sometimes much less if it’s quiet enough to see over a gap in the hedge. It’s fun, especially with children, but it isn’t the half-day puzzle some visitors expect from its reputation. The state apartments, by contrast, tend to under-deliver on expectation in a different way — they’re genuinely large and take longer to see properly than most people budget, so it’s worth allowing more time for the interior than for the maze.

A quick comparison table

Site	Cost to enter	What you’re actually paying for	Typical time needed
Richmond Park	Free	Nothing — open parkland	1.5–3 hours
Kew Gardens	Paid, timed entry	Gardens, glasshouses, Treetop Walkway	Half day to full day
Hampton Court Palace	Paid	State apartments, Tudor kitchens, maze	3–4 hours
Richmond town centre	Free	Nothing — shops, riverside, pubs	1–2 hours

Prices change and none are quoted here as fixed figures — check the official Kew and Historic Royal Palaces sites, or your GetYourGuide or Viator booking page, for the exact price on your date.

If you only have half a day

Pick one site rather than trying to sample all three, because the travel time between them eats into whatever half-day you have. If the budget is zero and you want to be outdoors, Richmond Park wins easily — arrive at Roehampton Gate mid-morning, walk to King Henry’s Mound, and you’ve seen the best of it inside two hours without spending anything. If you’d rather pay for something indoors-and-out that fills the time properly, Kew’s Palm House and Temperate House alone are a satisfying half-day, especially on a day when the forecast is uncertain. Hampton Court is the weakest half-day option of the three: the state apartments alone are worth more than two hours, and rushing them to fit a half-day slot means either skipping the Tudor kitchens or skipping the gardens, and neither is a good trade.

Where this fits with the rest of Greater London

Richmond, Kew and Hampton Court are grouped with East London, Camden, Greenwich and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour as sites beyond central London that are still reachable without a car — by Overground, District line train or riverboat. Unlike a proper day trip such as Windsor or Oxford, Richmond and Kew sit within London’s transport zones and can be treated as a half-day or full-day addition to a London-based stay rather than a separate excursion requiring an early start.

Windsor: a different kind of “royal,” and worth the distinction

Windsor doesn’t belong to this cluster geographically — it’s west of London, not southwest along this stretch of the Thames — but it belongs in the conversation about free versus paid royal sites because it works differently from both Kew and Hampton Court. Windsor Castle is still an official residence used by the monarch, and unlike Hampton Court it can close, or have parts of the state apartments closed, at short notice for state occasions. If Windsor is on your list alongside Richmond or Kew, build in flexibility rather than a fixed time slot, and check the official schedule close to your visit date. See our dedicated Windsor and Eton guide for the detail on what’s free (the town, the changing of the guard viewing from the street) versus what requires a ticket (the castle interior).

Combining Richmond, Kew and Hampton Court in one day

It’s possible but tight. Richmond Park to Kew Gardens is a manageable riverside or park walk of around 30–40 minutes, or a short bus ride. Kew to Hampton Court is longer — about 8 kilometres along the Thames Path, roughly 2 hours on foot, or a quicker but indirect trip by train back into London and out again toward Hampton Court. Realistically, most visitors pick two of the three for one day: Richmond Park plus Kew works well as a free-plus-paid pairing, and Kew plus Hampton Court works well if royal and garden history is the focus. Doing all three properly, rather than rushing, is closer to a two-day itinerary — see our three days in London itinerary for how this fits alongside central sights.

a guided hiking tour through historic Richmond is worth considering if you want the Richmond leg of the day handled by someone who knows the shortcuts between the park, the river and the town without you working it out from a map.

For planning the wider trip, see things to do in Richmond and Kew, our royal London tours guide, and, if budget is a factor, free things to do in London, which covers Richmond Park alongside other no-cost options across the city. Timing your trip against the wider calendar also matters here more than it does for a single museum in central London, since all three sites are outdoors or semi-outdoors — our best time to visit London guide covers the seasonal trade-offs in more depth.

Practical notes before you go

Bring cash or a card for park bike hire and cafés — Richmond Park itself charges nothing, but the concessions inside do. Kew and Hampton Court both accept contactless and cards; neither requires cash. Comfortable shoes matter more here than almost anywhere else on this list — Kew’s paths and Richmond Park’s trails cover real distances, and Hampton Court’s gardens add up quickly on top of the interior tour. None of these three sites has significant indoor shelter beyond the glasshouses at Kew and the state rooms at Hampton Court, so check the forecast; London’s weather doesn’t follow a dry season, and a wet day changes what’s comfortable to do outdoors.

On a wet day specifically, Kew is the better bet of the three: the Palm House and Temperate House are fully enclosed, heated and large enough to spend a genuine hour or two inside without repeating the same room. Hampton Court’s indoor offer — the Tudor kitchens and state apartments — is smaller in total floor space and better suited to a couple of hours than a full wet-weather day. Richmond Park has no real indoor option beyond the small café at Pembroke Lodge, so a heavy rain forecast is the clearest single reason to swap it for Kew or Hampton Court that day and save the park for better weather.

Is Richmond Park accessible if you can’t walk long distances?

Partly. The car parks at Roehampton Gate and Pembroke Lodge sit close to viewpoints and cafés with step-free paths, so you can reach King Henry’s Mound and a stretch of parkland without a long walk. The wider Tamsin Trail is unpaved in places and hilly near Richmond Gate, so a mobility scooter or wheelchair user should stick to the surfaced sections near the main gates rather than attempting the full loop.

Is Hampton Court Palace good for a rainy day?

Only partly. The Tudor kitchens and state apartments are indoors and make a reasonable wet-weather visit, but the maze and much of the appeal of the gardens depend on decent weather. Kew’s glasshouses are the better rainy-day pick of the three, since the Palm House and Temperate House are fully covered and warm even when the gardens outside are soaked.