The Lake District's landscapes have, for generations, been painted, photographed, immortalised in verse, farmed and explored. Their preservation inspired the National Trust's creation in 1895, and UNESCO World Heritage status followed in 2017.
The Lake District draws some 18 million visitors a year, but off-season it's calmer. Beauty spots can be enjoyed without a jostle, mists rise, the air crisps up and, come November, snow might dust the higher peaks. Even the Herdwick sheep seem more at ease.
Yes, it might rain, but changeable weather comes with the Lakes. There's always a cosy pub or café to wait out a downpour, and with fewer people around you're more likely to bag the fireside spot. Come dinnertime, tables at some of the UK's best restaurants are easier to book, and chefs are in their element with autumn ingredients: local game, foraged berries and kitchen-garden squash. The cooler months really are the time to visit.
Where to eat
Skip the summer scrum. Out of peak season, these top restaurants are far easier to book.
1863
This attractive whitewashed building close to the northern tip of Ullswater is where you’ll find head chef Phil Corrie giving straightforward ingredients a sophisticated glow-up in a bright, relaxed space. His never-off-the-menu signature, ‘Carrot’, sees the root cooked slowly in chicken fat, topped with crisp chicken skin and surrounded by a rich chicken-butter sauce.
The Yan
Fun, relaxed, generous and exactly what you need after a day exploring. No-nonsense dishes at this family-run place just outside Grasmere might include cheesy mash-topped shepherd’s pie made with Herdwick lamb, venison-sausage meatballs to share (or not), and chocolate mousse cake with mascarpone.
Rogan & Co
The vibe is more ‘neighbourhood’ than its sister, L’Enclume, but this charming restaurant by the river Eea is a destination in its own right, and run out front and in the kitchen by a supremely talented team. The three-course set lunch has all the ingredient-led Rogan credentials and is a £49 steal.
Pubs and tap rooms
Cosy, fire-lit, dog-friendly retreats, and uncomplicated food that comes into its own as the seasons shift.
The Drunken Duck Inn
A longstanding favourite just outside Ambleside. Come for hop-strung beams, fireside spots and a hearty menu that comes into its own in the autumn – think venison with red wine sauce, or pigeon with turnips and roasted apple, and poached quince with ginger sponge for pudding.
The Three Shires Inn
The name sounds a little Hobbit-esque, and the setting of this pub in bucolic Little Langdale just confirms the feeling. Come for a lunchtime Cumbrian rarebit on sourdough or a ‘proper fish finger butty’, or settle in for an evening meal of Cartmel Valley duck with braised red cabbage followed by sticky toffee pudding.
Lakes Brew Co
A cool spot for award-winning Cumbria-brewed craft beer. Pull up a seat by the beck when the autumn sun is shining and linger over a hazy IPA, False Summit and a thick-cut milk bread sandwich or generous burger from Korean-inspired street-food pros, Toast Lakes.
Cafés and tearooms
The Lake District is not short of tea rooms and cafés, but these are three favourites.
Braithwaite Village Shop and Tea Room
Just west of Keswick, this is a spot to know for excellent packed lunch provisions (don’t miss baker Dawn’s Biscoff millionaire’s shortbread), or to settle in for a Skiddaw Stack (Cumberland sausage, black pudding, bacon, haggis, egg and pikelet) or a bowl of owner Daphne’s chickpea curry.
Mathilde’s Café
The Scandinavian accent in this favourite Grasmere spot, in the Heaton Cooper Studio gallery, is delicious. Drop in for an autumnal salad of pumpkin, kale and whipped feta, a Chalk Stream trout smørrebrød (open sandwich on rye bread) with egg, pickled cucumber and herb salad, or a sugar-speckled cardamom bun.
Homeground Café
Pancake fritters with blackberry purée and rosemary syrup anyone? Or how about Mexican baked eggs with crispy black beans and house cheese curds? The coffee is excellent too at this brunch-lunch place just a few minutes’ walk from Windermere train station.
What to see and do
From gentle lakeside strolls to heart-pounding fell climbs, literary pilgrimages and zipline thrills, the Lake District offers a landscape for every kind of adventurer.
Pull on your boots and explore. From bagging Wainwrights – the 214 fells in Alfred Wainwright’s classic guidebooks – to a gentle two-mile circuit of Tarn Hows, there’s walking for every level. The scenery is especially beautiful in autumn and winter, plus walking is free. Rain is frequent, so come prepared, particularly for mountain routes.
The Lion and the Lamb is a short, steep climb rewarded with views over Grasmere. Near Keswick, popular Catbells is quieter off-season and offers superb views of Derwentwater from its grassy slopes. For a bigger challenge, tackle Scafell Pike on a settled day: reaching England’s highest point is an achievement to savour.
The Lake District inspired the nineteenth-century ‘Lake Poets’, including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Visit Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s home, or National Trust-owned Hill Top, where Beatrix Potter created Peter Rabbit. At Coniston, hire a boat from the year-round Coniston Boating Centre and channel the adventurous spirit of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons. And talking of boats, you can explore Windermere from Ambleside or take the Ullswater ‘Steamers’ which run 363 days a year and connect with numerous walking routes from their pier stops.
For more adrenalin, tackle world-class cycling routes or take a 65mph ‘flight’ over the Honister slate mines on the UK’s longest, newest zipline. For a driving thrill, take Hardknott Pass from the eastern Duddon Valley, past Roman Hardknott Fort and down into Eskdale. It’s spectacular – and demanding – so bring a capable car and a cool head.
Where to shop
From sourdough and ‘fell to fork’ butchers to farm shops, famous gingerbread and sticky toffee pudding, Cumbria's food and craft scene is well worth exploring.
It’s just outside the official Lake District boundary, but the twice-monthly farmers’ market in Kendal is an award-winning one-stop-shop for some of Cumbria’s most delicious produce. Look out for sourdough loaves from Lovingly Artisan, bakes from Sweet Treats by Martin Frickel (previously sous chef at The Forest Side), and veg boxes from the Home Grown Here co-operative of Cumbrian growers. While in town, check out Roast Mutton, a ‘fell to fork’ butchers that works only with local, ethical farms, and pick up a bottle of something exciting from Northern Wine, a low-intervention urban winery.
Discover more local produce at farm shops such as Low Sizergh Barn on an organic working dairy farm near Kendal, maybe timing a visit to watch the cows being milked. In the western Lakes, don’t miss Sawmill Café and Farm Shop in Wasdale, the valley that’s home to England’s highest mountain (Scafell Pike) and deepest lake (Wastwater).
In Grasmere, queue (briefly, in the off-season) for Sarah Nelson’s gingerbread. Made to Sarah’s secret recipe since the 1850s, it’s sold, prettily paper-wrapped, from the tiny shop near St Oswald’s church. Over the road, Grasmere Gather is a hub for local crafts: pick up a flat cap woven from Herdwick wool, soaps from The Soap Dairy, made on a family farm near Coniston, or silver jewellery inspired by the Cumbrian landscape from Lakeland Rings.
Cheese-lovers should beeline for Cartmel Cheeses in Cartmel’s Unsworth’s Yard, and ale-lovers will feel right at home next door in Unsworth’s Yard Brewery where tastings are encouraged. Don’t leave the village without some Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding from the Village Shop where the multi award-winning pud was first made over 35 years ago.
Getting there
Avanti West Coast trains between Glasgow, Edinburgh and London Euston stop at the two key Lake District stations: Oxenholme (for the south-central Lakes and local trains to Windermere) and Penrith (north Lakes).
There’s a good network of local buses, including scenic circular ones such as the Honister Rambler 77/77A which loops from Keswick taking in the Honister Pass (until 1 November).
By car, come off the M6 at Junction 36 for the south-central Lakes, Junction 40 for the north.
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Enjoy the Lake District with National Trust Holidays
Searching for the perfect Lake District base? The Good Food Guide has teamed up with National Trust Holidays to steer you towards some real hidden treasures.
Low Strawberry Gardens, Hawkshead, Cumbria
This simple lakeside cottage, sitting just metres from Windermere’s western shore with its own jetty for launching a canoe or kayak, sleeps four across two bedrooms. Once a market garden where visitors would row across the lake for its strawberries, the cottage retains plenty of original character, including an old range and woodburner in the sitting room. There are no electricity sockets, Wi-Fi or television, so days revolve around the water and the scenery rather than screens, with a grassy garden leading straight down to the lake. Follow the shore path towards Wray Castle or Claife Viewing Station, take the ferry across to Bowness for lunch and shopping, and bring two dogs along for the lakeside walks.
Wray Castle House, Ambleside, Cumbria
Set within the grounds of Wray Castle, this impressive 19th-century lakehouse sleeps 10 across five bedrooms and makes a memorable base for a group escape. Its wraparound veranda is the place to linger, with views stretching over farmland towards Lake Windermere and the fells beyond. There’s a cosy sitting room as well as a snug for quieter moments. The lakeshore is just a 10-minute walk away via a level trail, with opportunities for kayaking and paddleboarding, while Ambleside, Hawkshead and Grasmere are all within easy reach. Two dogs are welcome too.
Rose Castle Cottage, Coniston, Cumbria
This romantic 19th-century stone cottage, tucked away in a peaceful spot above Tarn Hows with far-reaching views of the surrounding fells, sleeps four. Inside, a woodburner makes the open-plan sitting and dining room especially inviting, with a double bedroom and twin room providing cosy retreats at the end of the day. There’s no Wi-Fi or television here, encouraging a proper escape from modern distractions, while an enclosed garden offers somewhere to sit and soak up the scenery. The circular Tarn Hows walk begins nearby, with Coniston and Hawkshead within easy reach for pubs, shops and tearooms, and Coniston Water waiting to be explored by boat.
WIN £500 to spend with National Trust Holidays
We’re giving one lucky winner a £500 voucher to spend with National Trust Holidays.
Whether it’s a fisherman’s cottage tucked into a Cornish cove, a lighthouse keeper’s cottage on the North East coast, or a countryside retreat with its own private garden, the pick is entirely yours. Anywhere in the National Trust’s portfolio, at a time that suits you.
It’s the kind of prize that doesn’t come round often, and entering takes seconds. Don’t miss your shot at the ultimate quiet escape – enter now.
