SUMMARY ITINERARY

A 5 day tour of the scenic English Lake District, a UNESCO world heritage site, using three iconic hotels each situated on famous lakes.

Our 5 day itinerary incorporates visits to a dozen of the region's major lakes as well as driving over 5 of the major mountain passes: Wrynose Pass, Hard Knott Pass, Kirkstone Pass, Honister Pass and Whinlatter Pass.

Our route incorporates visits to pretty towns and villages including: Hawkshead, Bowness-on-Windermere, Grasmere, Keswick and Ambleside as well as visits to the Lakeland Motor Museum and The Jetty Boat Museum. There is also an option to take a trip on a passenger ferry on Lake Windermere

 

DATES: 2021 JUNE 27th-JULY 2nd  ( 5 days/ 5 nights )

COSTS PER PERSON

A. 2 PEOPLE IN A CAR SHARING A HOTEL ROOM £1,150, per person

B. 2 PEOPLE IN A CAR WITH 2 SINGLE ROOMS ROOM £1,950, per person

C. 1 PERSON IN A CAR WITH A SINGLE HOTEL ROOM £1,985, per person

The costs include the following:

• Accommodation in 4 star or 3-star stylish hotels ( 5 nights )
• 3-course dinners, ( 5 nights )
• Breakfast daily
• Comprehensive road book with daily itineraries and detailed route instructions
• Michelin map of the Lake District with the route highlighted
• Services of a Tour Director throughout the tour

NOT INCLUDED ARE THE FOLLOWING :

• Lunches, snacks, coffees, etc.
• Drinks with dinner including water coffee and tea
• Entry to places of interest eg. museums, gardens, etc.

DRAFT ITINERARY

Day 1 Sunday, 27th June

Clients arrive in the afternoon at Lakeside hotel on Lake Windermere.

Hotel: Lakeside Hotel, Lakeside, Lake Windermere.

Lakeside is located 2 miles north of Newby bridge on the bottom west shore of Lake Windermere, the largest of the lakes. and the largest natural lake in Britain.

The Lakeside Hotel is our base for the next 2 nights and dinner tonight is in the hotel's restaurant.

Our hotel is located on the southwest shore of Lake Windermere with
wonderful views overlooking the lake.
Next to the hotel is the Lake Windermere ferry terminal and the Lakeland
Aquarium.
For those arriving early Sunday afternoon there will be an opportunity to enjoy a ride on a steam train to Haverthwaite or a visit to the nearby Lakeland Aquarium.
Alternatively, you can simply relax in the hotel's conservatory overlooking the lake.
Dinner in the hotel for our group has been arranged for 8.00 pm.

 

Day 2 Monday,  28th June Lakeside, local excursion   ( 90 miles)

MORNING ITINERARY

Lakeside Hotel/ Hawkshead/Skelwith Bridge/Great Langdale/Dungeon Ghyll/Wrynose Pass/Hardknott Pass/Eskdale/Wastwater/Muncaster Castle

Our morning route takes us north via Hawkshead to Skelwith Bridge and into the Langdale Valley to Dungeon Ghyll, our morning coffee stop.

We then drive over our first mountain pass which takes us up to Blea Tarn, our 2nd lake today, and then over the first of today's legendary passes, Wrynose Pass.

 

 

 

At the top of Wrynose Pass, we stop to take photos before descending into the valley

 

Our next legendary pass is Hardknott Pass

 

 

 

At the top of Hardknott Pass, there are the remains of a Roman fort.

From the summit of Hardknott Pass, we descend steep hairpin bends into the Eskdale valley

 

 

We then drive through Boot towards Eskdale Green where the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway station has a terminal.

 

 

We then continue through the valley to Santon Bridge where we turn northwest to nearby Wastwater, the deepest and most remote of the lakes and our 3rd lake today. We then drive the entire length of Wastwater's western shore to Wasdale Head

 

 

We turn around here as the road here is a cul de sac so we drive back down the lake through Nether Wasdale to Gosforth. From here it is only a few miles to Muncaster Castle, our lunch stop,

 

 

 

Here we visit the castle as well as visiting the impressive owl and birds of prey centre.

AFTERNOON ITINERARY

(Muncaster Castle-Corney Fell-Newby Bridge-Lakeside )

After Muncaster Castle, we head south to Wabberthwaite and then drive over the desolate Corney Fell.

 

We then drive via Duddon Bridge and Broughton in Furness to Newby Bridge then back to our hotel at Lakeside.

Dinner tonight is at 8.00 pm in the hotel's restaurant overlooking the lake.

Day 3 Tuesday, 29th June  Lakeside to Bowness  ( 40 miles)

Hotel: Langdale Chase

MORNING ITINERARY

Lakeside /Sawrey/Esthwaite Water/Hawkshead/Tarn Hows/Coniston Water/Brantwood House

After 2 nights we say goodbye to the Lakeside Hotel and drive up the west shore of Lake Windermere, on a scenic minor road, to Sawrey passing Beatrix Potter's cottage and Esthwaite Water, our 2nd lake, to our morning coffee stop, Hawkshead.

 

After coffee, we drive up to nearby Tarn Hows, our third lake, where there is an option to walk around this scenic man-made tarn amidst majestic mountain scenery.

 

 

Leaving Tarn Hows we take a single track road which descends to Lake Coniston, our 4th lake, where we drive a couple of miles down the east lake shoreline to our lunch stop, Brantwood, the former home of the writer and philosopher, John Ruskin.

 

At Brantwood, you can visit the house and gardens

AFTERNOON ITINERARY

Brantwood/Coniston Water/The Lakeland Motor Museum/Newby Bridge/Lake Windermere

 

In the afternoon we continue down the east shore of Lake Coniston

We then drive via Haverthwaite to our afternoon coffee stop, the Lakeland Motor Museum, at Backbarrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then continue to Newby Bridge and drive up the east shore of Lake Windermere, via Bowness-on-Windermere, to the Langdale Chase Hotel on Lake Windermere just south of Ambleside.

This is our hotel for the next 2 nights

 

 

We are also using another hotel, the Merewood Country House hotel, which is 0.5 miles from the Langdale Chase

Day 4 Wednesday, 30th June  ( 20 miles )

We then descend the Kirkstone Pass down "The Struggle" a narrow winding road to Ambleside

Here in the 90's, I raced a Lotus down to Ambleside at the bottom, ( I was on a cycle at the time !)

At the bottom of the pass, we visit Ambleside, our afternoon coffee stop.

We then return back to our hotel.

MORNING ITINERARY

Grasmere/Thirlmere/Keswick/ Derentwater/Honister Pass/ Buttermere 

We leave our hotel and drive through Ambleside via Rydal Water, our 2nd lake of the day, to Grasmere, our 3rd lake. 

The village of Grasmere is our morning coffee stop.

Here you can stroll through the village 

and visit Wordsworth’s grave in the local churchyard

and also visit the famous “Gingerbread shop.”

Our morning coffee stop is on the river opposite the graveyard

We then leave Grasmere and head north to Keswick via Thirlmere, our 4th lake.

Then we drive down the Borrowdale valley along the east shore of Derwentwater, our 5th lake passing the Bowder stone, then, via Seatoller, up Honister Pass where we visit the slate mine at the summit.

We then descend into the valley

 We then drive along Buttermere lake, our 6th lake

to our lunch stop, a country pub and a farm shop cafe. 

AFTERNOON ITINERARY

Lorton/ Whinlatter Pass/ Bassenthwaite/ Dubwath/ Ullswater

After lunch, we drive along Crummock Water, our 7th lake.

and drive to Low Orton where we turn right and drive over Whinlatter Pass to Braithwaite.

Here we turn left and drive up Bassenthwaite Lake, our 8th lake, to our afternoon coffee stop, the Lakeland Distillery.

After coffee, we drive back down Bassenthwaite to Keswick

We then drive along the A66 then turn down to the west lakeshore of Ullswater, our 9th lake of the day, where we visit Aira Force waterfall.

We then continue north along the lake to our hotel for the last night of the tour.

 

Friday, 2nd July

After breakfast, the tour ends and we bid our farewells