Windermere is the easiest place in the Lake District to take children, because the lake does most of the work. Boats leave from Bowness all day, they connect to an aquarium at one end and a steam railway beyond it, and everything else — an adventure playground on the shore, a Beatrix Potter attraction, a boat museum — is within a few kilometres.
It is also the busiest corner of the Lakes, which is the trade-off. In August, Bowness is very full indeed.
The single best thing to do here with children. Boats run from Bowness north to Ambleside and south to Lakeside, with colour-coded routes and a shorter island cruise round Belle Isle. Some of the vessels are historic — one of them dates from 1891 — and children can sit outside at the front.
The trick is to use them as transport rather than as a sightseeing trip: cruise to Lakeside for the aquarium and the steam railway, or to Ambleside for the waterfall and the town. Our cruises guide has the routes.
Rowing boats and small motorboats can be hired at Bowness Bay by the hour, and taking a rowing boat out to Belle Isle and back is a cheap and thoroughly good hour. There is also kayaking and paddleboarding on the lake.
The chain ferry across to Far Sawrey is a few minutes and costs very little, and a boat that hauls itself across a lake on a chain is exactly the sort of thing children find interesting.
In Bowness, and pitched squarely at younger children: the stories brought to life in three dimensions, with Peter Rabbit’s garden, Mr McGregor’s greenhouse, a tearoom and a garden. It is unashamedly an indoor attraction rather than a literary experience, and for the under-eights it works very well.
At Lakeside, on the southern shore — nine kilometres by road, or the whole length of the lake by boat, which is the better way. Freshwater and marine tanks, otters, a rainforest section and an underwater tunnel through a recreated lake bed. Around two hours.
It sits beside the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, a preserved steam line running through the Leven valley, and boat-and-train combination tickets are available — a cruise down the lake, a steam train and an aquarium in one day, which is close to a perfect Lake District day for a seven-year-old.
Five kilometres north, the Lake District National Park’s visitor centre in an Arts and Crafts house with gardens running down to the lake. There are adventure play areas, a treetop trek, archery, boat hire, and grounds to run about in — and the entry to the grounds is free, with the activities charged individually.
It is one of the better-value family days in the Lakes. See our Brockhole page.
Between Windermere and Bowness on Rayrigg Road: a modern museum of the lake’s boats — Victorian steam launches, racing craft, sailing boats — in a striking building on the water, with boat trips on a restored steam launch. It is more interesting than a boat museum sounds, and it is entirely indoors.
National Trust, at the southern end of the lake. Lakeside parkland with a beach, boat hire, a café and, crucially, a lot of open grass. It is where local families go.
Hill Top at Near Sawrey, across the ferry, is the seventeenth-century farmhouse Beatrix Potter bought in 1905 and where she wrote and illustrated many of the tales. It is tiny, it is preserved exactly as she left it, and entry is by timed ticket with strictly limited numbers — book ahead or expect to wait.
The Beatrix Potter Gallery at Hawkshead holds her original artwork. Our Beatrix Potter guide covers the whole trail.
Orrest Head, twenty minutes from Windermere station, is a short climb to the best view in the southern Lakes.
Tarn Hows, above Hawkshead, has a level surfaced path all the way round — about three kilometres and pushchair-friendly.
Stock Ghyll Force at Ambleside is a fifteen-minute walk to a twenty-metre waterfall.
Rydal Cave, near Ambleside, is an enormous quarried cavern you walk into across stepping stones. Children love it.
Grizedale Forest has waymarked trails and sculptures hidden in the woods.
The Lake District is the wettest part of England and you will need this list. The Lakes Aquarium, the World of Beatrix Potter, the Jetty Museum and Blackwell — the Arts and Crafts house at Bowness — are all indoors. The lake cruises run in rain and the boats have covered seating. And the Lakeside and Haverthwaite steam train is a warm carriage. Our wet weather guide has the rest.
Getting here. Windermere is the end of a branch line from Oxenholme on the West Coast main line, with trains roughly hourly. The station is a few minutes above the town, with buses to Bowness and Ambleside from the forecourt.
Windermere town and Bowness are a mile apart — twenty minutes on foot downhill, and there are frequent buses.
Parking in Bowness is difficult in summer. Use the train, or park at Windermere and take the bus down.
Midges appear near the water in still weather from June to September.
A lake day. Walk down from Windermere to Bowness, hire a rowing boat for an hour on the bay, then take the cruise south to Lakeside for the aquarium and the steam railway, coming back on a later boat. Three forms of transport, an aquarium and a lake, and nobody drives.
A ferry day. Chain ferry across to Far Sawrey, bus or walk to Near Sawrey for Hill Top with a booked ticket, on to Hawkshead for the village and the Beatrix Potter Gallery, and back over the ferry. Add Tarn Hows if there is a car.
Under five: the World of Beatrix Potter, rowing boats at Bowness, Brockhole’s play areas, the Fell Foot beach.
Five to eleven: the sweet spot. The cruises, the aquarium and steam railway, Orrest Head, Rydal Cave, Brockhole’s treetop trek, Grizedale’s sculpture trails.
Teenagers: kayaking and paddleboarding on the lake, the fells — Wansfell or the Fairfield Horseshoe — mountain biking at Grizedale, and Go Ape at Whinlatter further north.
A lake cruise, and preferably one that connects to something — Lakeside for the aquarium and the steam train, or Ambleside for the waterfall.
For under-eights, yes. It is an indoor attraction rather than a literary house — Hill Top is the real thing, and it is a different sort of visit.
Yes, at Bowness Bay by the hour, along with motorboats, kayaks and paddleboards.
Fell Foot at the southern end has a lakeside beach, and Millerground and Cockshott Point on the eastern shore are used for swimming.
Nine kilometres south at Lakeside, or the full length of the lake by boat, which is the better way to arrive.