Windermere Lake Cruises
England's biggest lake from the deck of a proper boat, with red, yellow and green routes so you can pick a 45-minute hop or a full lake cruise. Combo tickets pair it with the aquarium or the steam railway.
Critter Creek Adventure Golf
Windermere & Bowness, Cumbria
Critter Creek is a new woodland-themed adventure golf course at Troutbeck Bridge, just outside Windermere, run alongside Choices Health Club. The theme is small woodland animals, tucked round the course for children to spot between putts.
A round takes 45 minutes to an hour and there is no minimum age, although you know your own four-year-old's attention span. Children are £8 and adults £10, but the Woodland Wanderers ticket covers two adults and two children for £34, and the £50 family golf and swim package adds a session in the health club pool, which makes it a useful half-day when the weather cannot decide.
What it costs: Mini Explorer (children up to 16) £8, Adult Adventurer (17 and over) £10, Woodland Wanderers (two adults and two children) £34. Family Golf and Swim package £50 (normally £60.99); solo adult golf and swim £18.
Know before you go
- Parking is free, but you have to register your car at the desk.
- A round takes 45 minutes to an hour. Groups are capped at eight, and there is no minimum age.
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Brockhole on Windermere
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.
The World of Beatrix Potter
Peter Rabbit's world recreated in walk-through scenes, ending in the garden with Mr McGregor's vegetables. Squarely for the under-8s; it is small, sweet and unashamed of it.
Orrest Head
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.
Holehird Gardens
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.
Windermere Jetty Museum
Lakeland Arts keeps Windermere's historic boats floating under cover in a wet dock on the Bowness lakeshore, so children see them in water and not propped on stands.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.