On the shore at Lakeside
Things to Do Near the Lakeside Hotel
A former coaching inn on the water at the lake's quiet end, with the cruise pier and a working steam railway effectively next door.
The southern end is the Lake District's quiet half — Windermere without the queues, a cluster of family attractions round Newby Bridge, and beyond them a stretch of country most visitors never reach at all: Cartmel with its priory and racecourse, Holker Hall, and the Victorian seaside town of Grange-over-Sands on Morecambe Bay. It is cheaper, calmer, and closer to the M6 than anywhere in the central Lakes.
Quick Facts
A quick orientation before you dive in.
Schematic — not to scale. Our scheduled pickups are around half an hour north up the lake road; private touring collects at your door.
The three hotels clustered where Windermere drains into the River Leven.
On the shore at Lakeside
A former coaching inn on the water at the lake's quiet end, with the cruise pier and a working steam railway effectively next door.
Above the southern tip
Four wet-weather options within a mile — aquarium, motor museum, steam railway and boats — plus Gummer's How up the hill.
Beside the River Leven
A former coaching inn on the old road south, where Windermere's only outflow runs under a five-arched bridge.
Outside the national park boundary, and priced accordingly — among the best value in this whole guide.
Cartmel & Grange-over-Sands
Seven independents across the two villages — including one taking guests since 1882 — plus the sands warning and how to book around the racing.
Read the guideA village of a few hundred people holding three Michelin stars — and a priory that argued its way out of the Dissolution.
Rooms across the village
Three Michelin stars and a Green Star, in a thirteenth-century former blacksmith's — with rooms dotted around the village.
Just outside the village
Recently refurbished, dog-friendly and in its own grounds — close enough to walk to dinner and back.
Cartmel main street
The oldest inn in Cartmel, sixteenth century, dog-friendly — and standing directly beside a three-star restaurant.
A Victorian resort on Morecambe Bay, on its own railway line and cheaper than anywhere in the park.
Lindale Road, above the bay
A Grade II listed Victorian mansion in fifteen acres of woodland and garden, with a spa and the bay below.
Park Road, above the promenade
A small family-run country house hotel of a kind that has largely vanished — gardens towards the water, quiet, and a proper dining room.
Below Hampsfell
Below the limestone fell it is named for — forty minutes to the Hospice on top and one of the best views in the south.
Two places just outside the national park that repay a stay in their own right.
Priory, racecourse and food
A twelfth-century priory that talked its way out of the Dissolution, National Hunt racing in the village fields, and the sticky toffee pudding argument settled honestly.
Read the guideMorecambe Bay
A Victorian resort whose sea withdrew — a mile of promenade, a mild bay climate, Hampsfell behind, and a firm warning about walking on the sands.
Read the guideThe 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 & book