You can still travel from Westminster Pier to Hampton Court Palace by river boat, as Victorian day-trippers did. The operator puts the journey at three hours and fifteen minutes to three and a half hours each way, and an adult single costs £27 (September 2026). The train from Waterloo takes 37 minutes. Our advice is to do one leg by boat and the other by train, and we explain below which leg to choose.
The full round trip by water is seven hours of sailing. Add a palace visit and you are looking at a twelve-hour day, most of it sitting down. That is a genuine pleasure for some people and an endurance test for others, and the difference is worth thinking about before you buy a return ticket.
Our guide to Hampton Court Palace covers what is inside the building, the maze, the gardens and the ticket prices. This page is about the journey: what it costs, how long it really takes, which days the boats run, and why the timetable changes from one day to the next.
Westminster to Hampton Court by boat
- Adult
- £27.00 single, £36.00 return
- Child, 5 to 15
- £13.50 single, £18.00 return
- Senior, 60 and over
- £21.00 single, £30.00 return
- Family, two adults and two children
- £67.50 single, £90.00 return
- Journey time
- 3 hours 15 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes, each way
- Operator
- Thames River Boats, from Westminster Pier
- Frequency
- Not daily. Sailings depend on the tide and change from day to day
- Train comparison
- Waterloo to Hampton Court, 37 minutes direct, £9.40 single
Three and a half hours, not four, and two locks rather than eleven
Older guidebooks and a good many websites quote four hours and a long tally of locks for this trip. The operator's own published journey times are shorter than that: Westminster to Hampton Court is given as three hours fifteen minutes to three hours thirty, and the same in the other direction.
The locks that matter are fewer than people expect. Thames River Boats name two on the route: Richmond half-tide lock and Teddington Lock. Richmond is the unusual one. It is a half-tide lock, meaning that two hours after high water a set of shutters, known as curtains, are lowered into the river to hold the water level upstream. While they are down, boats must use the lock, and how long that takes depends on the tide. Two hours before the next high water the curtains lift and vessels pass straight through.
Teddington is a conventional lock and usually quicker, but the operator describes it as probably the busiest on the Thames, and in summer that affects timings. The honest summary from the company itself is that unpredictable tides, bad luck at the locks and a busy river can combine to cause delays nobody planned for.
Low water is restricting lock transits in autumn 2026. The operator is warning that the Environment Agency has limited lock movements because of low river levels, and that this may delay services between Richmond, Kingston and Hampton Court. Check the sailings page the day before you travel, and do not build a timed palace entry around a boat arrival.
Photo: Carom modified TTaylor · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
The timetable changes daily, and some days there is no boat at all
This is the single most important practical point. Sailing times move with the tide, so the company publishes a day-by-day list rather than a fixed timetable, and Hampton Court is not served every day. In the week we checked in September 2026, boats ran from Westminster through to Hampton Court on the Sunday and again on the Wednesday. On the Monday and Tuesday the listing for Kingston and Hampton Court simply read "no sailings".
Departures from Westminster that week were at 10am or 11am. That is the whole service: one boat a day, sometimes none. If you miss it, there is no later one, and if the palace is your goal you will be catching the train instead.
Hampton Court Palace has its own complication. When we checked, the palace was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so on two of the days with no boat there would have been nothing to visit anyway. Check both before you plan the day.
What the trip costs, compared with the train
| Two adults and two children, aged 8 and 11, going to Hampton Court and back | Cost (September 2026) |
|---|---|
| Boat both ways, family return from Westminster | £90.00 |
| Train both ways from Waterloo, off-peak, children at reduced fare | Around £28 to £30 |
| Train out, boat back from Hampton Court to Richmond, then train or Tube into town | Roughly £60 |
| Palace entry on top, adult off-peak weekday | £29.00 each, with children charged separately |
The Waterloo train is a Zone 6 journey, so Oyster and contactless both work, and an Off-Peak Day Travelcard for Zones 1 to 6 was £16.60 if you also want unlimited travel in town. Our explainer on Oyster and contactless fares covers which is cheaper for your day, and our guide to London's terminus stations explains how to reach Waterloo.
The plan we would actually follow
Take the train out in the morning and the boat back in the afternoon, and get off at Richmond rather than staying on to Westminster.
The reasoning is simple. The train gets you to the palace by opening time with energy left for a three-hour visit, which is what the palace deserves. Hampton Court to Richmond by boat takes about an hour and a quarter and costs £15.00 for an adult single, £7.50 for a child and £37.50 for a family, which is the prettiest hour of the whole river and the cheapest way to sample it. From Richmond you are back in central London in half an hour on the District line.
If you have a whole day, no palace booking and you actively want the long version, go the other way: boat out on the morning departure, arriving early afternoon, then walk the gardens rather than the state apartments, and take the 37-minute train home. That way the slow leg happens while you are fresh.
The Richmond to Hampton Court leg is the best value on the river. An adult single is £15.00 against £27.00 from Westminster, and you skip the long tidal stretch through central and west London, which is the least interesting part of the journey. Upstream it takes about an hour; coming back down, allow an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.
What you see from the water
The first hour out of Westminster is city river: Lambeth, Vauxhall, Battersea, Chelsea, Wandsworth, Putney, Hammersmith. The bridges come thick and fast and there is plenty to look at, but it is also the noisiest, greyest section, and on a cold day it is the part where you wonder about your decision.
Above Chiswick the river changes. Kew Gardens and Syon Park face each other across the water, the towpath fills with walkers, and by Richmond the banks are trees rather than buildings. Above Teddington the Thames is no longer tidal and runs slowly between Ham, Kingston and Thames Ditton to Hampton Court, which appears on the right just before the bridge.
Intermediate piers are Chiswick, Kew, Richmond, Hammerton's Ferry at Twickenham and Parr's Pier at Kingston, so you can break the journey. Returns are sold between most pairs, and single fares between the upper piers are modest: Richmond to Kingston is £12.50 for an adult, Kew to Hampton Court £20.00.
Who this suits, and who it does not
Book the boat if
- You want the journey to be the day out, not the means of getting there
- You are travelling in June or July, in settled weather
- You have already seen the palace and want the river instead
- You are doing one leg only, ideally Hampton Court to Richmond
Take the train if
- You have a timed palace ticket
- You are travelling with children under about eight
- The forecast is poor, or it is between November and March
- You need to be back in London for a show or a table
For a broader comparison of what the river is good for, our pages on the river bus against a sightseeing cruise and on Thames river cruises set out the central London options. The fast commuter boats run by Uber Boat by Thames Clippers do not go anywhere near Hampton Court; they turn round well downstream. A route-by-route comparison of every way of reaching the palace is also set out on our sister site's London to Hampton Court page.
Practical points before you board
Book online through the operator's site or buy at the ticket offices at the piers. Tickets are tied to a sailing, and the sailing may move, so treat the printed time as a starting point and arrive early. Bring more clothing than you think you need: three hours on open water in April is colder than three hours on land, and the wind funnels between the banks.
Bring food and drink for a long crossing, or plan to eat at one of the intermediate stops. There is nothing to buy between piers if the on-board service is closed, and the gap between Richmond and Hampton Court is over an hour. Our guide to what London's weather does each month is worth a look before booking a spring or autumn sailing.
The operator publishes a disabled access policy on its website, and the boats vary, so if step-free boarding matters, telephone before booking rather than buying online.
Making a day of it at the far end
If the palace does not appeal, the far end of the trip still gives you plenty. Bushy Park starts on the other side of the road from the palace gates and has deer, the Woodland Gardens and the Diana Fountain. Kingston is twenty minutes back downstream and has a riverside worth an hour. The Hampton Court Garden Festival takes over the grounds in early July, when the boats are at their busiest.
Coming back through Richmond opens up more: the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park, Kew Gardens a stop downstream, and the towpath itself, which is covered in our guide to the Thames Path. If gardens are the theme of the trip, our page on RHS Wisley and the Surrey gardens continues in the same direction, and the wider list of days out from London has the rest.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the boat from Westminster to Hampton Court take?
Thames River Boats publish three hours fifteen minutes to three hours thirty, each way. Times vary with the tide, river traffic and how long the boat waits at Richmond half-tide lock and Teddington Lock, so treat the figure as a guide rather than a timetable.
How much does the boat to Hampton Court cost?
From Westminster Pier, an adult single was £27.00 and a return £36.00 in September 2026, with children aged 5 to 15 at £13.50 and £18.00, and a family of two adults and two children at £67.50 and £90.00. From Richmond it is much cheaper: £15.00 adult single. Check current fares with the operator.
Do boats to Hampton Court run every day?
No. Sailings depend on the tide and are published day by day, and on some days there is no service to Kingston or Hampton Court at all. In the week we checked there was one departure from Westminster on the days it ran, at 10am or 11am. Check the operator's sailings page before travelling.
Is it better to go to Hampton Court by train or by boat?
By train if you want to see the palace properly: 37 minutes from Waterloo against three and a half hours on the water. By boat if the river is the point of the day. The best compromise is the train out and the boat back to Richmond, which takes about an hour and a quarter.
Can you use Oyster or contactless on the boat to Hampton Court?
No. Thames River Boats is a separate operator with its own tickets, sold online or at the piers. Oyster and contactless do work on the South Western Railway train to Hampton Court station, which is in Zone 6, and an Off-Peak Day Travelcard for Zones 1 to 6 was £16.60 when we checked.
Sources
- Thames River Boats - Fares (checked September 2026)
- Thames River Boats - Approximate journey times (checked September 2026)
- Thames River Boats - The locks (checked September 2026)
- Thames River Boats - Upcoming sailings (checked September 2026)
- National Rail Enquiries - London Waterloo to Hampton Court, times and fares (checked September 2026)
- Historic Royal Palaces - Hampton Court Palace tickets and prices (checked September 2026)