Village centre
Moss Grove Organic
The best-known of the village guest houses — organic throughout, with spa baths, underfloor-heated bathrooms and an organic breakfast buffet. Boutique rather than traditional B&B.
Grasmere is small enough that every guest house in it is a few minutes from Dove Cottage, the gingerbread shop and the churchyard — which is the whole argument for staying in the village rather than visiting it. This guide covers the best-regarded independents and, more usefully, the hours in which to see the place.
Quick Facts
Grasmere takes a great deal of daytime traffic — it is among the most visited villages in the national park — and then, some time after four, it empties. Staying here means you get the version day visitors never see: the churchyard at eight in the morning with the light long across the yews Wordsworth planted, and the village at nine in the evening with the gingerbread queue gone.
If you take one thing from this guide: do the sights early or late, and spend the middle of the day somewhere else.
Listed roughly by position rather than ranking — every one of these is independently run, and the character varies a great deal more than the star ratings suggest.
Village centre
The best-known of the village guest houses — organic throughout, with spa baths, underfloor-heated bathrooms and an organic breakfast buffet. Boutique rather than traditional B&B.
Centre of the village
Five individually designed en-suite rooms in the middle of Grasmere, with a full English cooked on an AGA. About as central as the village allows.
Edge of the village, White Bridge
A traditional Lakeland guest house with outstanding views towards Helm Crag and the Easedale fells.
Village, towards the lake
A guest house with self-catering apartments alongside, positioned on the lake side of the village.
Village centre
A small, long-established village guest house, well regarded and comfortably within a few minutes of everything.
The circuit from Grasmere round to Rydal Water and back is about four miles with no serious climbing — two lakes, a cave, and Wordsworth's later home at Rydal on the way. It is the finest low-level walk in the central Lakes and it starts from the village. Do it in the early evening in summer and long stretches will be entirely yours.
For something shorter, the walk round Grasmere itself takes about ninety minutes and is level almost throughout.
The grand sweep: ten lakes, the high passes between them, and an Ullswater Steamers cruise exclusive to this tour. If a celebration stay deserves one great day out, this is it.
See dates & bookCollected at the door, your party only, the day shaped to you — literary landscapes, hidden valleys, or simply the most beautiful roads we know. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard in our vehicle crates.
Enquire about a private dayDove Cottage at Grasmere — entry included as standard — and the valleys that made the poems, with Dora's Field carpeted gold in daffodil season. The right literary day for this most Georgian of addresses.
See dates & bookAcross the lake to Hill Top and Near Sawrey, with our illustration-matching walk through the village lanes — back for a long lakeside lunch.
See dates & bookThe afternoon version crosses the lake by boat rather than by road — worth choosing if you'd like the crossing itself to be part of the day.
See dates & bookA slow hall morning, then eight lakes and their valleys at a seven-seat pace — the most civilised way to spend a Lakeland afternoon.
See dates & bookThe same eight lakes as the afternoon tour, run the opposite way round in the morning — ideal if you'd rather keep your afternoon free for the lawns.
See dates & bookA full literary day east to Haworth — the Parsonage, the cobbled village, and the moors that gave Wuthering Heights its weather, newly magnetic with the recent film. Oxenholme pickup available.
See dates & bookInto the Dales for Grassington's "Darrowby", the Wensleydale Creamery, Kilnsey Crag and Bolton Abbey — filming locations brought to life around you with live scene technology.
See dates & bookIf you would rather not work to a departure time, a private day collects directly from your guest house and runs entirely to your own plans. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard, travelling safely in the crates our vehicles carry.
Not sure which route suits your plans, or want a day built entirely from scratch — a family reunion, a wedding anniversary, scattering ashes somewhere that mattered? Tell us what you have in mind and we'll design a day around it — see our guide to celebrating a special occasion for ideas, or get in touch directly.
Ambleside library, about ten minutes down the valley. Windermere station and Bowness Pier 1 are our other two, and private tours can collect at your guest house.
In the village, easily — everything is walkable. The 555 bus runs the A591 to Ambleside, Windermere and Keswick, and tour days cover the rest.
Before nine in the morning and after five in the afternoon. The middle of the day belongs to the coaches.
The village car parks fill by mid-morning in season. If your guest house has a space, use it and walk everywhere.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by any guest house or bed and breakfast listed. Small businesses change hands — please check current details directly before booking.