Lake District

Lake District, 10 Lakes Tour

England's Lake District is one of the prettiest parts of the United Kingdom as we'll show you in our driving tour that's going to be visiting most of the lakes of this wonderful area in the northwest of Great Britain, sharing with you some astonishingly pretty views.

We'll also visit some of the small towns that dot this landscape and we will take you on a boat ride from one end of Ullswater to the other, it's the second largest Lake in the Lake District, although it's only 9 miles long, so you'll find that the Lake District is relatively compact in size.

It's about 30 miles wide and about 40 miles from north to south, all included in the National Park that was created in 1951.

Especially when guided by a tour company like Mountain Goat with our excellent driver, Kevin, in their minibus that will take us to all of the main sights without any effort on your part. We're going to show you a one-day trip summarized in this movie in which we see the major lakes.

While it's called the Lake District for a good reason – that's the main attraction – there are many other sites to see, like the old stone bridge, the beautiful countryside we're driving past, the mountain streams and lakes of course.

Four of the top activities are exploring the towns, taking boat rides, do a little nature walking, and take a driving tour of the region to see the other nearby lakes and quaint villages. Most of our program takes place during a van tour of the lakes that visits 10 different lakes, including Brotherswater, Derwent Water, Grasmere, Ullswater and Windermere. On the van ride we also take a walk in the village of Grasmere, famous for William Wordsworth. You will be amazed by Castlerigg Stone Circle, 4500 years old, one of the area's historic gems. Then we take a lunch stop in Keswick, whilst exploring the traditional Lakeland market town. We also do a Lake Cruise, enjoying uninterrupted views of the Lakeland fells from Derwent Water.

You can pick from a variety of kinds of excursion boats on Lake Windermere: you can have a one-hour cruise or go for an all-day expedition. You could enjoy a cruise with dinner, there are hydrofoils, rowboats or sailboats for rent -- all kinds of nautical activities exist here on the shores of Lake Windermere.

Bowness and Windermere

The town of Bowness in the Lake District is a great base of operations for heading out to see the other lakes in the district and enjoying some detours as will be showing you here. There are actually two towns joined together here as one got Windermere, about a mile to the north and Bowness-on-Windermere along the shores of the Lake. Each center has its cluster of shops and restaurants but the main focus is down at Bowness, which has most of the hotels and has that special setting along the water.

Properly called Bowness-on-Windermere, the town really is a quaint and charming place even though it's got a lot of competition with the lakes and the mountains and the other villages nearby, which is where you want to spend most of your time, but it's always nice to come home to Bowness. It really is an ideal kind of an English country town even though it is touristic. But when you're here in the off-season as we are, visiting in May, it's really not crowded at all, and it's got that hilly atmosphere and winding streets. There are some little back lanes and a lot of restaurants to take care of you.

There are some bars and walkways along the waterfront. Bowness on Windermere really does embrace the Lake. The little beach in town always has a lot of geese and ducks and swans looking for food.

You'll need to spend at least several nights in the area this to really get a chance to see the charming countryside, explore some towns, do a little shopping, and perhaps enjoy some fine dining on offer here in Bowness and Windermere. We'll also take you on some hikes along the lake shore and up in the hills hear Sawney, and then on a ride on a miniature train.

On our drive through England's Lake District with Mountain Goat Tours we admire the Hardnott Roman Fort, stop for a pub lunch, ride a miniature train at the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, watch kayaking at Wasswater and walk through the gardens of Muncaster Castle.