The optical morphological and photometric properties of 79 low redshift radio galaxies are discussed. It is found that most radio galaxies are luminous bulge dominated systems similar to normal non-radio giant ellipticals. The average absolute magnitude of the sample is =-23.98, with a clear trend for FR I sources to be /~0.5 mag brighter than FR II galaxies. In about 40% of the objects we find an excess of light in the nucleus attributable to the presence of a nuclear point source. This contributes on average for ~1-2% of the total flux from the host galaxy. Radio galaxies follow the same μe-Re relationship of normal (non-active) elliptical galaxies. The distribution of ellipticity, the amount of twisting and shape of isophotes do not differ significantly from other ellipticals. These results support a scenario where radio emission is little related with the overall properties of the host galaxy.