A Weekend – Enjoying Walking and Beer
You could spend one day trekking the sublime scenic route of “Cumbria’s Ale Trail”; which guides visitors to the best pubs and breweries in the area.
Why not take in the evening air and walk to The Watermill or Bowness using one of our short walks. Or for the energetic, pop into the various traditional pubs that sell local beer, such as Jennings, Moorhouse, Hawkshead and Tirrels.
The following day you can catch a train from Windermere and visit some wonderful real ale pubs that are within easy walking distance of the stations along the Lakes Line to Oxenholme. Maybe stop off at Staveley for a tour of the Hawkshead Brewery; and then for lunch at the Eagle and Child.
A Weekend – On The Railways
There are two wonderful train journeys to discover. Why not book the picnic hamper from 1 Park Road and then have a days travelling along the West Coast of Cumbria? You could stop off at Ulverston, the birth place of Stan Laurel, or Barrow-in Furness, where you can visit the dock museum. Then continue to travel along the coast, visiting historic places such as the Georgian towns of Maryport or Whitehaven. The Sellafield Visitors Centre, with many interactive exhibits, the haunted castle at Muncaster or Tullie House at Carlisle.
The following day why not combine train travel with some walking. Starting at Windermere, the Transpennine Express have prepared five delightful walks that start from each of 5 local stations along the route to Oxenholme.
A Weekend – For The Family
On the first day, travel on the open top bus that goes from Bowness to Keswick to visit the Puzzling Place at Keswick. The Cumberland Pencil Museum have competitions and numerous interactive events for children. On the way back, stop off at Ambleside and see the powerful photographs by Stuart Clarke, at The Home of Football, and then enjoy a nice coffee and cake at Lucys.
Another popular attraction is the “Cars of the Stars”, with cars from TV, and films, including the famous James Bond cars.
For something different and those interested in animals, South Lakeland Animal Park is a conservation park where they have animals from around the world and are very active in the protection of the Sumatra Tiger and the release programme of bears in Peru.
A useful web site to look at for other attractions for the family is Explorelakedistrict.co.uk, look at the section for family attractions.
A Weekend – Around Gardens and Tea Rooms
The National Gardens Scheme provides the opportunity to visit private gardens of quality and interest in the area. There are about 50-60 participating gardens in Cumbria and the famous yellow book provides details regarding the periods of year that they are available to the public for viewing. So depending which time of the year you are visiting 1 Park Road there will be a private garden to visit in the area.
Spend a day at Holker Hall. Their famous gardens and grounds includes woodland walkways, deer park and sculptures. Holker Hall is also the home to The Lakeland Motor Museum with vintage cars, The Bluebird cars, motorbikes tractors and scooters.
The following day go to The Lakeland Horticultural Society’s 10 acre hillside garden at Holehird near to Troutbeck, which was voted nations favourite garden in 2002 by BBC Gardeners World.
If you are interested in combining garden with culture, you may wish to visit two places: Blackwell House and its wonderful house with arts, hand made crafts, many exhibitions, wonderful gardens and terraces, or Brantwood – home of John Ruskin, situated on the shores of Lake Coniston.
A Weekend – In The Great Outdoors
For one day you could hire a bike or go mountain biking, hiring bikes from Country Lanes who are situated next to the railway station at Windermere. They provide maps of well researched routes that are suitable for all the family, plus safety equipment and all you need for a day in the saddle!
The following day you could either go mountain biking in Grizedale Forest or you could take to the lake and go sailing with Outrun Sailing.
Or take to the air and have champagne in a hot air ballon flying over Cumbria
If you are really daring you could try high wiring on rope bridges, tarzan swings and zip slides high up in the trees at Go Ape in Grizedale Forest.
A Weekend – For Food lovers
On arrival at 1 Park Road, after that long car journey, why not book dinner, enjoy the music and a glass of wine before collapsing in your comfortable bed. The following day pottering in Ambleside or Kendal is a must, where there are numerous coffee bars and nice places to eat. In Kendal there is The Artisan Restaurant and Speciality Food Shop below Booths and the world famous Chocolate House, where you are welcome to taste one of 18 different chocolate drinks and different gateaux, as well as buying a special gift for the chocolate lover in your life!
There are numerous food festivals in Cumbria throughout the year. The Damson Day Festival in April encourages you to taste wonderful locally produced damson gin, eat damson pie and chocolate! The Cumbria Life Food and Drink Festival in May has many of the leading hotels and farm shops taking part, whilst the North West Food Lovers Festival in June boasts between 70 and 80 of the north west finest food producers selling all kinds of food. In October, Taste District Food and Drink Festival gives you an opportunity to sample and buy some of the best local produce.
A Weekend – Of Music, Arts, Cultural Activities and Festivals
You may want to stay at 1 Park Road and spend a day on one of the many courses at the Annabel Williams Studio in Stavely. If you book on a course avoiding the high season we would offer some discount.
There are so many festivals in our area ranging from food and drink to maritime, river and walking festivals.
In March, both the Keswick Literary and Film Festival and The Food and Drink Festival start, later in April there is the Rheged festival.
Every summer there is the Lake District Summer Music Festival followed by the Kendal Mountain Film Festival in November. Further North The Maritime Festival at Whitehaven is always popular.
Of course Wordsworth plays a key part in the life of the Lake District As well as visiting Dove Cottage go to one of their poetry readings, lectures or exhibitions.
A Weekend – Of History
A visit to discover some of the social and industrial past of Cumbria unearths The Quarry and Mining Museum at Keswick. The Railway Museum at Ravenglass , The Museum of Lakeland Life at Kendal and The Dock Museum at Barrow.
Evidence of the Romans in Cumbria abound: discover the Roman fort at Ambleside, Birdoswald – the Roman bath at Ravenglass and the museum at Maryport
In 1652, at Fox’s Pulpit on Firbank Fell near Sedbergh, George Fox preached to about 1,000 people which was an important event in the gathering and development of the Quaker movement.
A Weekend – Of Beautiful Weather
If you want to check the local weather forecast that is updated daily, phone 0870 055 0575 or visit their web site Weatherline
A Weekend – Of Travel
There are various local tour companies such as Mountain Goat and Travel Abacus that provide individual tailored tours or set tours for half or full days. There is a regular train service between Windermere and Oxenholme as well as an open top bus that regularly runs between Kendal, Windermere, Grasmere and Keswick. You can book a Lake District Rover that allows you to unlimited travel on all main line Cumbrian railways for a week – (see GoLakes) or a 1 Day Explorer on a stagecoach bus.