Greenwich or Richmond for a Day Out?

Published 21 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Greenwich, for most visitors, most of the time. It is closer, cheaper to reach, it has four things worth seeing within a ten-minute walk of each other, and two of them are free and indoors. Richmond wins on three specific days: when you want a long walk rather than a museum, when you want to be outside after eight in the evening, and on a hot weekend when Greenwich is solid with people.

Both are on the Thames, both have a royal park on a hill, and both take a full day if you let them. That is where the similarity ends. Greenwich is a compact set of paid and free attractions arranged around a market. Richmond is a town with a view, a very large park, and a walk along a river towpath. One is a sightseeing day, the other is a walking day.

Our separate guides to a day in Greenwich and Richmond and its riverside describe each place in full. This page does the one thing they cannot: it compares them on the things that actually decide it, which are money, travel time, weather and daylight.

The date that changes the answer

Royal Museums Greenwich is closing the observatory from 2 November 2026 for a long rebuilding project. The Meridian Courtyard, which is where the famous line is marked in the ground, is due to open again in the summer of 2027, and tickets for it should go on sale that January. The planetarium beside it has been shut since the autumn of 2025.

This does not move the verdict, but it changes the reason for it. Until early November, Greenwich wins partly because you can stand on the Prime Meridian. After that, it wins on what is left, which is still a great deal: two free national collections, a clipper ship in dry dock and a Baroque hall painted over nineteen years. If standing on the meridian line was the whole point of your day, and you are travelling between November 2026 and the summer of 2027, go to Richmond instead and come back another year.

Everything else in Greenwich stays open. While the observatory lasts, our page on visiting it and the Cutty Sark sets out what is inside each ticket.

What the day costs for two adults and two children

This is the comparison most people actually need, and the gap is wider than it looks.

A family can spend a full day in Greenwich and pay nothing except the fares. Entry to the National Maritime Museum costs nothing, and so does the Queen's House next to it, although both ask you to book. So do the college grounds on the waterfront, the park behind them, and the Victorian tunnel that takes you under the Thames to the Isle of Dogs. That is easily six hours.

Richmond can also be free, and the free version of it is excellent: the towpath, the hill, the park, the deer. But there is no wet-weather fallback and no museum, so a family that wants a roof over its head has to pay for Ham House, which opens on selected days only and charges National Trust admission. Check the current price and the opening days on the National Trust's own page before you build a day around it.

The fare difference of £7.80 for two adults is not enormous, but it is real, and it is the direction nobody expects: the place that feels further out is further out. Our explainer on how the travel zones work covers why Zone 4 costs more, and our page on children's fares covers the Young Visitor discount for 11 to 15 year olds, which halves their share.

Getting there, and the mistake people make

Greenwich is quick from almost anywhere central: eight minutes on a train from London Bridge, or the DLR from Bank, which is a pleasant ride at the front of a driverless train. Richmond is a longer sit, roughly half an hour from Waterloo, longer on the District line, which is the slow way and the one journey planners often suggest first.

The mistake is to assume both can be reached by boat. They cannot. Uber Boat river buses run east to Greenwich and make the approach part of the day, but the service does not go west of Putney, so there is no boat to Richmond from central London. Our page on Uber Boat by Thames Clippers has the fares, none of which count towards the daily cap, and our page on sightseeing cruises covers the seasonal boats that do go upriver.

If you take the boat out to Greenwich, come back by train. It is faster, it is included in the cap you are already paying, and the light on the river is better in the morning anyway.

When it rains, the two are not close

Greenwich has roughly four hours of indoor content: the Maritime Museum alone can absorb two, the Queen's House another, the Painted Hall a third, and the Cutty Sark is largely under cover below the hull. Richmond has a National Trust house on limited days and a cinema.

So if the forecast is bad, the decision is made for you. Take Greenwich, walk the fifteen minutes between the buildings with an umbrella, and eat under the roof of the market. If you would rather not travel at all in that weather, our page on a rainy day in London has the alternatives in the centre.

In good weather the balance flips, but less than you expect, because Greenwich Park is also large, also hilly and also has a view. Richmond's advantage on a sunny day is space: you can walk for an hour and see nobody.

The deer, which are not the same in both places

Both parks have deer, and visitors often assume they are equivalent. They are not.

Richmond Park holds free-roaming herds of red and fallow deer across a National Nature Reserve of more than a thousand hectares. You will walk among them, and the Royal Parks ask you to stay at least 50 metres away, or 100 metres from an active male during the autumn rut from September to November. Greenwich Park has a smaller deer population kept in a fenced enclosure, which you look at rather than walk through.

If seeing wild deer at close range is the point of the trip, Richmond is the only one of the two that delivers it, and our full guide to Richmond Park has the walking routes and the safety rules. If you simply want to see a deer, Greenwich will do, and our Greenwich Park guide covers the enclosure and the rose garden.

The evening, and the gates

Here is the clearest single difference, and it is published by the same organisation for both parks. Greenwich Park closes its pedestrian gates at 8pm. Richmond Park does not close them at all: walkers can come and go around the clock, while the vehicle gates shut at 7pm.

On a long June evening that decides it. Sunset from the terrace below the observatory is one of the best views in London, but you will be walking out of the park while the sky is still bright. On Richmond Hill you can stay on the Terrace Walk, which is a public street rather than parkland, and then keep going into the park afterwards. Our list of free viewpoints across London ranks both.

Richmond also has more to do once the light has gone, in the sense that the riverside pubs below the bridge stay busy into the night, while Greenwich empties when the museums shut. Our guide to riverside pubs on the Thames covers both stretches, including the one Richmond pub that floods deliberately at high tide.

Lunch: a covered market against a row of pubs

Greenwich Market is indoors, open daily from 10am to 5.30pm, and its street-food section is the cheaper and more varied of the two options. The catch is seating: there is very little, and at weekends you will eat standing up. Our page on what the market sells and which days suit which stalls goes through it.

Richmond feeds you in restaurants and pubs, at prices closer to central London than to a suburb, and you will usually want to book at weekends. There is no market equivalent.

Bring a card in both places. Almost every stall and pub now takes contactless, and several take nothing else, although a small amount of cash remains handy for tips and the odd stall with a card minimum; our guide to how much cash to bring works out a sensible figure.

Can you do both in one day? No.

They are on opposite sides of London, about an hour and a quarter apart by public transport, and each is a full day on its own. Trying to combine them produces two rushed half-days and a lot of time underground.

What does combine well is Richmond with Kew Gardens, one stop away, although Kew is a paid ticket and a long day in itself, and the Historic Royal Palaces buildings there close from 28 September 2026 until spring 2027. In spring, the azaleas and rhododendrons of the Isabella Plantation inside Richmond Park are the better pairing, and they cost nothing.

On the Greenwich side, the natural extension is east and north: the foot tunnel and the Woolwich Ferry are both free ways to cross the river, and the walk north from the tunnel exit gives you the classic view back. For a shorter, scruffier east London afternoon instead, see our guide to Hackney Wick and Fish Island.

Frequently asked questions

Is Greenwich or Richmond better for a first-time visitor?

Greenwich. It has more to see in a smaller area, two free national museums, a UNESCO-listed group of buildings and a faster, cheaper journey from the centre. Richmond is the better second visit, or the better choice for anyone who would rather walk for four hours than look at exhibits.

How much does a day in Greenwich cost compared with Richmond?

Transport is the fixed difference: £8.90 a day for an adult to Greenwich against £12.80 to Richmond, both capped with contactless or Oyster. After that, Greenwich can cost nothing at all, because its two biggest museums are free. Richmond's attractions are the park and the river, which are also free, but a wet day there has no indoor fallback.

Can I get to Richmond by boat from central London?

Not on the river bus. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers runs east to Greenwich and no further west than Putney. Seasonal sightseeing boats do run upriver towards Richmond and Hampton Court, but they are slow, weather-dependent and were affected by low water and lock restrictions in 2026, so check before relying on one.

Is the Royal Observatory open in 2027?

Not for most of it. The observatory closes from 2 November 2026 for redevelopment. Royal Museums Greenwich expects the Meridian Courtyard to open again in the summer of 2027, with tickets going on sale that January. Throughout the closure the clipper ship in her dry dock, the maritime collection and the Queen's House all carry on as normal.

Which one is better with young children?

Greenwich, narrowly. The Cutty Sark is built for climbing on, the Maritime Museum has hands-on galleries and costs nothing, and the distances between them are short. Richmond suits older children and teenagers who can manage a long walk and will be interested in the deer.

Sources

• Royal Museums Greenwich - Tickets and prices (checked September 2026)
• The Royal Parks - Greenwich Park opening times (checked September 2026)
• The Royal Parks - Richmond Park opening times (checked September 2026)
• The Royal Parks - Deer safety advice (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Fare capping (checked September 2026)
• Greenwich Market - Opening times (checked September 2026)