43 places across Cumbria, 17 of which cost nothing. Every one written up honestly, with dated events from the venues that run them.
Be realistic about the driving first. From most of the North West, Cumbria is ninety minutes before you have parked, and the lake roads crawl in August, so days out in Cumbria are overnight territory more than a spontaneous Saturday. Once you accept that, the payoff is real. Windermere Lake Cruises plus the Lakeside & Haverthwaite steam railway make a combined day kids talk about for weeks, and Grizedale Forest's sculpture trails cost nothing but the car park.
Whinlatter above Keswick and Fell Foot's lakeshore on Windermere are the other free standouts, both just a parking charge, and Brockhole is free to walk into with pay-as-you-go activities. Rain here is a scheduling certainty rather than a risk, and the indoor options are small ones: the Lakes Aquarium, the Lakeland Motor Museum, the World of Beatrix Potter. Book the wet-weather ticket before you set off, because everyone else on the lake has had the same idea by ten o'clock.
17 dated events coming up across the county.
Regular story and rhyme time sessions for children under 5.
Runs on 8 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Free drop in for stories, songs and rhyme.
Regular stories and rhymes group for children under 5 and their grown ups.
Regular story and rhyme time sessions for children under five.
Visit Ulverston Market Hall to join our friendly drop-in session for children and families.
Everything on11 more not shown here
Twelve to start with. Each area above has the full list.
Carlisle's big riverside park, right under the castle walls: a large play area for all ages, a free splash park in the warmer months, skate park and acres of grass where the Eden and Caldew meet. The obvious free half of a Carlisle day.
The national park's visitor centre with treetop nets, archery, mini golf, boat hire and a big adventure playground running down to the lake shore. Free to wander; the activities are pay-as-you-go.
A National Trust lakeshore park at Windermere's quiet southern tip: grassy banks straight into the water, paddling, boat hire and an adventure playground. The easiest safe lake-swim spot for families.
Sculptures hidden through the trees turn a forest walk into a treasure hunt, with trails from buggy-flat to proper leg-stretch and Go Ape overhead. Between Windermere and Coniston, and quieter than both.
Carlisle's south side park, with free parking on two sides, play zones, a brand new concrete skatepark, a games court and a seasonal cafe. A miniature railway runs Sunday afternoons from Easter to October.
Ten acres of fellside garden looking down over Windermere, run by the Lakeland Horticultural Society: terraces, a walled garden, glasshouses and children's trails. No fixed entry price and children go free.
A free 12th-century ruin on a grassy hill above Kendal, open all the time, with walls to circle, arches to charge through and the whole town and fells spread out below. Ten minutes of steep pull to get up, then let them loose.
Turn up at half three and you can watch the herd being milked through a gallery window in the cafe, drink in hand. It is a working dairy farm outside Kendal and the trail round it is free.
The classic first family fell: a short climb from Windermere village to a proper summit with the whole lake and the high fells laid out below. A surfaced accessible path now runs all the way up, though it is still a real 120-metre climb, not a stroll.
A free park opposite Penrith station with a genuine castle ruin in it, plus a play area, tennis, bowls and an obstacle golf course that costs a pound or two for juniors. Cafe and toilets on site.
A big riverside park across the Eden from Carlisle city centre, with cattle grazing loose, a small free car park off Brampton Road and Hadrian's Wall Path running through over the suspension bridge.
Thirty acres between Ambleside and Grasmere with no gate to pay at. Children go for the Grot, a stone hut of 1668 whose window frames Rydal Falls, and the waterfall by the car park.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.