The Angel Inn sits on the rise above Bowness looking down over the village and the water, which gives it the view without putting you in the middle of the bustle. Bowness Pier 1 — one of our three main departure points — is a few minutes downhill, which makes tour mornings about as easy as they get.
Quick Facts
Worth clearing up on arrival, because it catches people out. Windermere is the town up the hill built around the railway station in 1847; Bowness is the older lakeside village down at the water. They are about a mile and a half apart, and the lake is called Windermere as well, which is where the confusion comes from. You are in Bowness — the one with the boats.
It also means your nearest tour pickup is Bowness Pier 1 rather than the station, which saves you the hill.
Windermere Lake Cruises run from the piers below, and the mistake most visitors make is doing one trip and considering it done. Used properly they are a bus service on water: north to Waterhead and walk into Ambleside for lunch, south to Lakeside for the steam railway, or across to the western shore for Claife and Wray Castle. You will see more of the lake in an afternoon than in two days of driving round it.
Brant Fell rises from the top of the village — a short, honest climb to a full-length view of Windermere that most visitors never bother with, and the best free hour in Bowness. On parking: the village car parks fill by mid-morning through the season, and the supermarket and retail car parks are customer-only, camera-monitored and do issue fines. Braithwaite Fold and Glebe Road are the sensible options.
Bowness Pier 1 is a few minutes downhill and is one of our three main pickups — our others are Windermere station and Ambleside library. Private days collect at the inn.
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 & bookCollected at the inn, no fixed departure, and a route shaped around your party. Well-behaved dogs are welcome aboard, travelling safely in our vehicle crates.
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.
On the rise above Bowness village, looking down over the water, a few minutes' walk above the piers.
Bowness Pier 1, a few minutes downhill — one of our three main departure points. Windermere station and Ambleside library are the others.
No — Windermere is the town up the hill with the station; Bowness is the lakeside village below. About a mile and a half apart, and the lake is called Windermere too.
Braithwaite Fold or Glebe Road. Avoid the supermarket and retail car parks — they are customer-only, camera-monitored and do issue fines.
We are an independent local tour operator. This guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Angel Inn or the Inn Collection Group.