Things to Do in Guildford in 2026: Castle, Wisley & the Wey

Guildford packs a lot into a small patch of Surrey: a Norman castle above a proper high street, the world’s best-known gardening society’s flagship garden on the edge of the borough, a navigable river with boat trips from a Victorian wharf, and a 50-metre outdoor pool that has been a summer institution since the 1930s. This guide covers the places most worth your time, with the opening times and prices that actually apply in 2026, each one checked against the venue’s own website this August so you are not caught out at the gate.

The main attractions at a glance

Guildford Castle: the £5 landmark

Start where the town did. The castle’s 12th-century keep looks over the rooftops from its Norman motte, and the castle grounds below are free, open by 9am all year and until 7.30pm in the summer months (Guildford Borough Council). The grounds hold the town’s war memorial, a bandstand with summer concerts, open-air theatre, and a life-size statue of Alice Through the Looking Glass, the town’s nod to Lewis Carroll, who is buried up the hill at the Mount Cemetery (council cemetery page).

The keep itself is open 4 April to 3 October, Wednesday to Saturday, 12 noon to 4.30pm (last admission 4pm). Tickets are adults £5, children £2.50, family £12, under 5s free. For the view over the town it is the best fiver in Guildford.

RHS Garden Wisley: the big day out

Wisley sits inside the borough at its northern tip, and it is the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship: glasshouse, rock garden, orchards and trials fields on a scale that comfortably fills a day. It opens daily except Christmas Day, 10am to 6pm on weekdays and from 9am at weekends, with last entry at 5pm (RHS). Book online in advance and adult tickets run £15.20 to £19; on the day at the gate it is £20.50, children 5 to 16 are £6, under 5s and RHS members free. The booking step is worth it purely as a price cut.

The River Wey and Dapdune Wharf

The National Trust’s River Wey and Godalming Navigations run for nearly 20 miles through the borough, and the towpath is free walking at any time. The Trust’s base at Dapdune Wharf on Wharf Road, a former barge-building yard ten minutes’ walk from the station, is free to enter, open Thursday to Monday, 11am to 5pm (National Trust). Forty-minute boat trips run six times a day on open days from March to November: adults £9, children £5.50, and the charge applies to members too. Parking at the wharf is £5.50 for up to four hours for non-members. On a fine afternoon, the wharf, a boat trip and the towpath into town is Guildford’s most pleasant free-to-cheap circuit.

Watts Gallery Artists’ Village, Compton

Ten minutes south-west in Compton is something genuinely unusual: the purpose-built gallery, house and studio of the Victorian painter G F Watts and his wife, the designer Mary Watts, plus her extraordinary Arts and Crafts cemetery chapel. It opens Tuesday to Sunday and bank holidays, galleries 10.30am to 5pm (Watts Gallery). Under the venue’s summer 2026 pricing, all-day admission is £15.75 booked online (£17.33 on the door), under-16s free, £1.75 for visitors on Universal or Pension Credit, and the grounds, chapel, café and shop are free to everyone (ticket pricing). The chapel alone justifies the detour.

Loseley Park

The Elizabethan manor south of the town opens for the 2026 season with gardens from late April and the house from early May, Sunday to Thursday, 10.30am to 4.30pm, house tours from 11am with the last at 3pm (Loseley Park). Gardens £12.50 (children £6), a house tour £9.50, or £22 combined (children £10), under 5s free. The walled rose garden in June and July is the reason to time a visit.

Free and almost free: museum, cathedral, parks

• Guildford Museum, in the castle gateway on Quarry Street, is free, open Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 4.30pm (council museum page).
• Guildford Cathedral, the striking red-brick landmark on Stag Hill, is free to enter with donations welcomed, open from 8.30am six days a week with Sunday services from 7am. Tower tours run at 2pm on selected dates from March to October, limited to 15 people, at £10.65 including the booking fee (cathedral visiting pages).
• Stoke Park, the town’s biggest green space at 52 hectares, has a playground, outdoor minigolf, a rose garden and free parking at Burchatt’s Farm (council parks page).
• Newlands Corner, up on the Downs east of town, is the free viewpoint: glorious views over the Tillingbourne valley, three waymarked trails from one to six miles, a Discovery Centre and a café from 9am, with free car parks (Surrey County Council).
• The High Street itself, with its elegant frontages and the Guildhall’s famous gilded clock of 1683 hanging over the pavement, is the town’s own free exhibit (about the Guildhall).

Guildford Lido: the 1930s pool

Freedom Leisure’s Guildford Lido is one of the south’s great outdoor pools: 50 metres, heated, in landscaped grounds, with a season running 1 April to 30 September. In summer 2026 general swimming runs 10.30am to 6.30pm daily, with early lane swimming from 6.30am on weekdays (Freedom Leisure). Sessions are bookable online and summer weekends sell out, so book before you turn up; the venue does not publish a simple walk-up price list.

Rainy evening: the Yvonne Arnaud and G Live

Guildford’s two big venues cover most tastes between them. The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, on its island site by the river, is a producing theatre whose 2026 programme runs from opera and drama to children’s shows (Yvonne Arnaud). G Live, the modern hall on London Road, takes the concerts, comedy and touring names (G Live). Between them and the cathedral’s concert calendar, a wet evening in Guildford is rarely short of options.

Getting here and getting around

Guildford is an easy day trip from London: fast trains reach the town from Waterloo in around 32 minutes, and our Guildford to London trains guide has times, routes and fares. Driving, note that the A3 through the town has overnight closures for much of 2026, covered in Guildford roadworks and travel, and that the park and ride from Artington or Merrow is the painless way into the centre. Town car parks and charges are in parking in Guildford.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best free things to do in Guildford?

The castle grounds, Guildford Museum, the cathedral, Stoke Park, Dapdune Wharf and the Wey towpath, and Newlands Corner’s Downs viewpoint with its free car parks. That is a full weekend without spending anything beyond a coffee.

Is Guildford Castle free?

The grounds are free, open by 9am daily. The keep charges £5 for adults, £2.50 for children and opens Wednesday to Saturday from 4 April to 3 October (Guildford Borough Council).

How much is RHS Wisley in 2026?

£15.20 to £19 for adults booked online, £20.50 on the day, children 5 to 16 £6, under 5s and RHS members free. Open daily except Christmas Day (RHS).

What can you do in Guildford when it rains?

Guildford Museum is free, the cathedral is open six days a week, Watts Gallery is a half-day indoors, and the Yvonne Arnaud and G Live cover the evening. The Lido, being outdoors and heated, honestly still works in drizzle.

What is the Lewis Carroll connection in Guildford?

Carroll’s family home, The Chestnuts, was in Guildford; he died here and is buried at the Mount Cemetery, and an Alice Through the Looking Glass statue stands in the castle grounds (council pages).

Sources

• Guildford Castle and museum: visiting the castle, about the castle, Guildford Museum
• RHS Garden Wisley (hours and 2026 prices)
• Watts Gallery opening times and ticket pricing
• National Trust: River Wey and Dapdune Wharf (opening, boat trips, parking)
• Loseley Park visiting (2026 season and prices)
• Guildford Cathedral visit and tower tours
• Guildford Lido, Freedom Leisure (season and hours)
• Newlands Corner, Surrey County Council
• Stoke Park, the Guildhall, Mount Cemetery
• Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and G Live

Opening times and prices were checked against each venue’s own website on 7 August 2026. Seasonal hours change; confirm with the venue before you travel.