Best lake in the District!!

[Bugsy73]

We have a weekend booked in the Lakes coming up for my birthday. We are staying near Lake Windermere. We have been before and did a boat trip on the Lake. Loved it so happy to repeat the experience, but is there somewhere else we should try? A different lake? Where is everyone's favourite place to visit and favourite things to do?
Thanks

The walk around Grasmere and Rydal water and the coffin trail is very popular and fairly easy.

My favourite is Buttermere. Only 4 miles round which is perfect for prams, you can get an ice cream half way round and go to the cafe at the end!

This is assuming you're not hunting Wainwrights

Buttermere

My favourite place is the lookout at Friar’s Crag on Derwentwater. We usually park at or near Booth’s in Keswick and walk from there. Keswick and Booth’s are both nice to browse round. The pleasure gardens in Keswick on the way back to the car are great for a picnic or ice cream. There’s also a ferry keswick-launch.co.uk

Derwentwater is unbeatable
It's so beautiful.

The views of borrowdale are just stunning

Or Buttermere!!! Both my favourites!

Which are the best ones for swimming?

A lot of people swim in butternere.

Or Rydal Water from the beach there

Or the Borrowdale side of Derwentwater

Ive swam in Wastewater, I find Wastewater quite intimidating, because of the bit side bit, very dark and foreboding

• big side bit

Derwentwater is stunning. Lots of lovely walks and as PP said you can walk round to Keswick, and have a glass of wine at the hotel. I think some of the ferry/launch stops haven't restarted since Covid, so make sure you check.

Ullswater is nice too

We stayed in this hotel a couple of years ago and it was fabulous. Excellent food and a red squirrel that lives outside the dining room windows.

hazelbankhotel.co.uk

Could anyone recommend parking for Buttermere please?

For the dramatic views mine has to be Wastwater.

For a boat trip Ullswater is fantastic. You can get a steamer the length of the lake and back, or do Glenridding to Pooley Bridge and then on the way back get off at Howtown and take the 7 mile walk back.

You can hire a little motor boat from a jetty between Glenridding and Patterdale and chug round the islands in the southern third of the lake.

The view of Buttermere and Crummock Water coming over Honister Pass has to be one of the top views.

it’s a good lake, great scenery around it with Helvellyn at the Southern end, and the three long reaches.

Buttermere is my favourite too.

My Cumbrian granny would have been horrified by people swimming in Wastwater, she thought there was something malevolent about the place.

Derwentwater but I'm biased as I grew up in Keswick.

National trust carpark in the village.

There is a good bus service from Keswick to Buttermere in the summer months. I much prefer taking the bus - you can enjoy the views from the Honister pass without the stress of the hilly and narrow roads.

There's a really great restaurant at the Haweswater hotel that was delicious when I went. Also Bassenthwaite is perfect for swimming and less busy than Derwent I found.

Wastwater because it's so remote. Agreed that it's forbidding, I wouldn't want to swim across it personally, but an afternoon floating in the shallows and gazing at the views towards Scafell Pike is among my best memories.

If you want a couple of hours of piece and quiet then Loweswater is the place.

Or the pub.