Best place to live in Lake District?

[reallybigcreamcake]

For family with young child, £300k ish budget, good schools, plenty to do...

Depends how rural you want, what do you mean by plenty to do if you mean a lot of organized things you may be struggling much of the beauty of living in the Lake District is the quieter pace of life, making your own fun enjoying outdoors in natural setting. How old are your children because you also need to consider good schools and catchment areas, will the adults work from home or will they need somewhere with good road transport links and within commutable distance to x.
Cockermouth has a good Secondary, as has Keswick and Penrith has QEGS grammar school for starters etc.

Thanks for your reply. I think I mean access to shops, town centre nearby and a community feel as we don't want to be isolated. DC are 3 and 6.

I live in Penrith and although not technically in the lakes still a great place to live.
Keswick is also lovely though much busier with tourists. Kendal also very nice as is cockermouth though that's further from the M6 so a bit more isolated. £300 k might not get you much if you're looking in the national park.

The places I have mentioned above have small ish town Centres and some shops bars, restaurants as does Kendal and Ambleside.
But unsure whether you would get much of a community feel as they maybe too big but it would depend where you live. A friend of mine moved to Penrith as a single parent on a small housing estate. She had quiet a nice life going with home nursery work then primary and more recently secondary school within easy walking distance. But I suppose a lot depends on you and neighbours etc. I would try Penrith.

Penrith you may find something cheaper. Carlisle is much bigger and only 20 odd miles from the Lake District but again it really all depends on you, where you decide rob live and whether you gel or have like minded neighbours, work colleagues (if your going to work) gel with nursery mums, school mums etc. it can take a bit of effort and time to build up and may not come right away. Sometimes it's hard to get involved but often you only get out what you put in.

I live just south of Kendal in a nice village. We are just outside the Lake District national park, so you get more for your money house-wise and it's not so full of tourists . Kendal is our nearest decent town and it's nice. Lancaster is also only 25 mins away. We moved here from down south 3 years ago and love it.

If looking at Penrith look at houses on the new streets. Lowther. Arthur. Graham or Wordsworth streets. Lovely houses. Though Penrith has lots of new houses being built too if you don't want older properties.
We also have a Booths and marks foodhall.

Thank you for all the responses and information I will have a look. Lots of research to do now :)

We're currently moving into Bolton in Appleby. 15 minutes ish from Penrith, close to a small town, good school, pub, park etc but still rural.

I really like Grange Over Sands and Cartmel.

Ulverston?

Good schools, strong community, cheap compared to in lakes but not far to Coniston etc.

Cumbria is a nightmare to travel around as there are a load of mountains in the middle. If you are moving for work etc then you really need to be roughly where you are going to be working.

Have you got a rough idea in mind or a reason why you are moving?

Yes basically a square of roads round the edge. Dont believe google maps timings

Keswick is lovely and has a Booths.

Your either looking at Keswick, Penrith area. Or the south like cartmel, ulveston. Anything in-between is very tourist driven.

Look at this Amazing house in Penrith if you fancy doing the whole thing up:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48795792.html

And this one if you want to move straight in:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49173261.html

I love both houses you've linked to Yvette. I bloody love the Lakes.

Wish I had £300000 and could live in Penrith now

Definately buy the one in Brunswick square. I used to live in that square and loved it. Huge communal gardens in the centre. Excellent primary school 50 metres away.

I live on the south coast just out of the national park. Between ulverston & kendal. I'd say kendal is better for shopping and commuting but I prefer ulverston. It has much more of a community feel and lots of events throughout the year.

There is a really good train link which runs right around the coast which alot of people use for commuting. It takes me 30 mins to get to lancaster whereas if I drive it's an hour as the kent estuary is in the way!

The school in ambleside isn't that great tbh and there's very little community there. Plus so so busy and the the one way system is a pain. Getting in is a pain too.

Bowness is quite rough, it attracts a lot of holiday drunks.
Windermere is nice, has 2 nice primary schools. One of which is a community one which is unusual in a village/small town. Most are CofE.

Just outside Kendal is nice, Stavely has a great community & school but you don't get much for your money compared to say Burneside, the next village along which is just outside the Lakes border.

Backbarrow has a lovely school, as does Witherslack. Great commuting location too with the np on your doorstep.

Cartmel has no community but the surrounding villages do. Some a bit more insular than others though. Grange has a good primary school, the biggest on the cartmel penninsula. There are a lot of families in Grange.

Barrow is cheap, it's a big town and pretty run down in places but has a great swimming pool! Villages around it are nice, and cheaper than other places. Millom, Dalton, Broughton all nice but can be pretty insular again.

Comiston has a good community, plus a secondary school. Not too far from ulverston which is nearest town. It rains alot there though.

Kirkby Lonsdale is gorgeous too. But Rightmove shows no 4 bed houses under 375 000 - it's a bit upmarket, is Kirkby!

There are some lovely villages a bit further south of Kendal - Beetham, Levens, Arnside, Silverdale, Storth etc. All of them a stone's throw from Milnthorpe (which isn't terrifically exciting but does have a Booths!).

Please think carefully about the impact of the traffic in the summer season, it makes a huge difference!!!

Only in certain places though. Most of the traffic seems to be concentrated around Windermere/Ambleside. I've never lived anywhere with less traffic - it's the first time in my adult life that I haven't hated driving!