The Lake District is an area in the north-west of England very well known by English people but still a bit unknown for the rest of the world. It is an impressive national park with numerous lakes and tarns, particularly famous for the hikes, wonderful walks and water activities that you can do in the area.
Best time to go: May and June are the driest months to visit the lakes. If you are planning on hiking, the drier the day the better!
General advice: You will need a car to move around the area so I would not advise to go by train as you will be missing incredible places that should be visited. The roads are narrow and winding so you have to be a confident driver. From London to the south lakes it will take you about 5 to 6 hours depending on the traffic. My recommendation, if you are going from London, is to train to Manchester and rent a car there as this will save you a lot of time.
Where to stay: It is difficult to advise where to stay as the area is really big and it will depend on how many days are you going to spend there and which lakes you are going to visit. However a very well located town is Ambleside and this will work very well as a base point to explore. The recommended hotel is "Ambleside Townhouse”.
As the lakes are a very popular holiday destination, this means that prices can get very expensive especially during bank holidays or school holidays. If you are looking for a nice cheaper town to stay, I would recommend to stay at Ulverston. Ulverston is located at the south of the lakes and it is not very touristic so the prices here are more affordable. At Ulverston the recommended place to stay is “15 Queen Street” apartment, really nice and comfortable.
Day 1: Ullswater
We spent the first day on the furthest north point that we were going to visit that was basically Ullswater lake and the surrounding area. After picking up the car we drove directly to Lowther Castle.
Lowther Castle: the dramatic ruins of this castle and the surrounding gardens are spectacular. You will need around one and half hours to properly explore the state. There are numerous gardens showing different themes, you will find a Japanese garden, a rock garden etc. This is also a very nice place to visit with kids as there is a castle for kids with slides, bridges and everything fun that you can imagine. Parking is free on the premises of the castle.
Aira Force: from Lowther Castle we drove to Aira Force, this only takes around 25 minutes. You can park in the Aira Force parking but this is very small so you might not be lucky enough to find a spot. The waterfall is very impressive and much bigger than it looks like in pictures. You can walk a bit around the area and cross the top bridge that you can see in the pictures.
Gowbarrow Fell: we decided to do the Gowbarrow Fell walk that starts at the top of the waterfall. Start following the river and then the path that takes you into a field. From there the next part will be uphill and steep with rocks, however once that you make it to the top, the views from here of Ullswater are breathtaking and absolutely worth it. Even though this is a circular walk, we decided to do the walk for one hour and after retrace our steps as we did not have enough time to do the full circular walk. Obviously you need hiking boots to do this walk, it was really steep and rocky (or at least the part that we completed). Pro tip - there is no reception at Aira force so make sure that you download your hiking maps before getting there.
After the walked we went back to our apartment. P.S: the road that takes you from Ullswater to Windermere/ Ambleside is spectacular, you will pass amazing landscapes and hills.
For dinner stop at the “Blue Smoke on the Bay”, great food and amazing views over Windermere lake.
Day 2: Ambleside and Grasmere
We dedicated the second day to do a relatively long walk. This time we did the Loughrigg Fell circular walk that starts in Ambleside and takes around 3.5 hours. Parking at Ambleside is quite easy and there are a few options, the walk as such starts at Rothay Park so you can try to find a spot near there.
If I have to choose the best walk of our 3 days in the Lake District, it will be this one without a doubt. Again for this walk you need proper hiking shoes and take plenty of water and some snacks with you. This walk was longer than the one that we did the day before but it was not as challenging, still you will find some rocks and steep hills but these are manageable. During this walk we had reception which was quite useful to guide us. The best things that you will see during this walk are: Grasmere lake, Rydal cave and Rydal Water. The views again are spectacular.
After the walk we had lunch at the “Flying Fleece” and the food was super good, the place also has a great outside area.
We spent some time exploring Ambleside as this is a very picturesque town with very nice shops, cute houses, a river, a mill and much more!
For the last activity of the day we popped by Grasmere (that is just 10 min drive from Ambleside) to have a short walk and of course buy ginger bread! It is so good! It is worth it to go to Grasmere just for the ginger bread! There are many terraces here so it is a good spot also for a coffee or drink.
Day 3: Tarn Hows and Windermere
The last day was unfortunately very rainy. We did the Tarn Hows circular walk which takes just one hour and is very easy.
After the walk, we drove to National Trust Wray Castle which it is just a 15 minute drive from Tarn Hows.
The last and final stop of the trip was at Windermere to have lunch at “West View Restaurant".
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