Reading Attractions

Step out of your hotel in Reading to explore 12th-century abbey ruins and promenade through Georgian country parks and Victorian pleasure gardens.

Historic Reading

Palladian elegance oozes from every nook and cranny at rambling Basildon Park National Trust country house in Lower Basildon. Enjoy Victorian-style frivolity with kiosk ice creams and bandstand serenades in the town centre Forbury Gardens. Steps away are the cloister walls at Reading’s Abbey.

Art and museums in Reading

See vintage photos of muddy mayhem at Reading Festival at the Town Hall’s Museum of Reading. Visitors to Reading hotels can see a Victorian copy of the Bayeux Tapestry without crossing the Channel. Budding zoologists marvel at killer whale skeletons at the university’s free-entry Cole Museum of Zoology.

Quirky things to do in Reading

Mummified cats’ heads and funeral boats are amongst the curios at Reading’s Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology. Stay at a Reading hotel to hand-feed friendly deer on a tractor trail around Bucklebury Farm Park. Cottage garden aromas fill the old barn at the Herb Farm at Sonning Common.

Events in Reading

In March, runners cross the line at the Madejski Stadium for the Reading Half Marathon. Symphonic sounds fill the horseshoe Concert Hall during Classical Music Alive. Pitch up at the August Bank Holiday Reading Festival for big-top dance acts and main-stage rockers.

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