Windermere for the day

[ForsterMcLennan]

Hi, any experts on Windermere around? We are spending a day there on Saturday - hoping to visit Blackwell and the Peter Rabbit Museum but wondering where might be nice for lunch. Somewhere informal with children but where the food is excellent - any suggestions? Also we would like to incorporate a walk but don’t want anything too long as we haven’t much time. Any suggestions very gratefully received, thanks!

We really liked the walk from Bowness to the little shuttle ferry at Bowness Nab across to the National Trust Claife Viewing Station - I think it was a 90 mins round trip including a coffee stop.

Foodwise we enjoyed the Boardwalk in Bowness - not sure it counts as ‘excellent’ as we ate at more luxy places particularly in Ambleside, but we enjoyed both our meal and the views.

Are you visiting the town of Windermere or bowness (which is on the lake?) if the former you could do orrest head which is a really small hill with lovely views from the top.

I agree with this walk! Loved it. Think the cafe is a Joey's and their cake is excellent 👌.

We ate at The Albert one night - nothing fancy, but excellent pub grub and it was a very enjoyable atmosphere too.

The Drunken Duck Inn in Ambleside is known for its food.

This walk sounds great, thanks so much for the tip - I’m sure we will do this.

Thanks - we will be visiting Bowness. That sounds like a good option though for another time. Short walks always good to have in the arsenal.

Thanks for this, it looks great.

Definitely Orrest Head for your walk, it starts at the top of Windermere opposite the Natwest bank. Theres a path so easy to follow and there's Gruffalo characters to keep an eye out for. Views from the top are beautiful for little effort. We usually incorporate it with brunch or lunch at Homeground. Amazing food but very casual, they do an incredible orange hot choc. We usually just walk up from Bowness but you can park by the train station.

A word of warning. Although Ambleside isn’t too far geographically from Bowness on Windermere, the road gets snarled pretty quickly and it can take quite a while to get between the two.
if you’re just there for a day I would eat at Bowness or Windermere. Boardwalk is great if you like steak and staff are so friendly.