Lake District with baby (and without car)

[Cinai]

Any recommendations where to stay? I’ve never been, want to visit with my 10-month old. He hates driving so my plan is to go up by train. Im looking for somewhere easily reachable by train and where I can get around without car (walkable from the place where we will be staying). Also suitable for prams.

Ambleside, Bowness, Windermere all doable. The bus service is really good so you can get around fairly easily (although it can be slow going).

We did Keswick last year with our then 12 week old baby, we drove so not sure what the trains are like but once we were there we never used the car & walked everywhere- plenty to do, some beautiful walks/hikes and had an amazing time.

This year with our then 14 month old we did Windermere, again we drove but I know it is pretty easy to get there by train and once there it’s all walkable.

I would say though it depends on your definition of “walkable”. We have big dogs & a normal day for us at home includes easily 5-8 miles of walking/running, so for us if somewhere was say a 3 mile walk away then we’d be totally happy to walk that no problem at all whereas I know my sister on the other hand would only class something as walkable if it was less than a mile.

Grassmere.

How long are you staying? If it’s a couple of nights then pick any LD town that has a train station.
If it’s much longer to be honest I think you’ll find yourself limited with no car and places that need to be suitable for a buggy as there’s only so much to see in each town unless you’re happy spending a long time on buses and a lot of the appeal of the lake distract is the walks which aren’t necessarily suitable for a buggy. If you had a carrier instead though it’d give you more freedom.

I’d go Windermere, the lake is beautiful. Lots of shops , eateries etc there’s activites, boat tours. Local walks. Anywhere smaller e and you would need a car

Get a proper hiking carrier and you'll have more options than just with a bulky pram