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.
Windermere Lake Cruises
Windermere & Bowness, Cumbria
England's longest lake from the deck of a proper boat - and for most children the boat is the point, scenery a pleasant bonus. Colour-coded routes run from 45-minute hops to the full-lake cruise, with combo tickets linking the aquarium and steam railway at Lakeside.
Board early for the open top deck; it goes first on fine days. The Yellow route to Lakeside connecting with the steam train is the classic Lakes day assembled without a single extra car park.
Know before you go
- The open top deck goes first - board early if the weather is good.
- The Yellow cruise to Lakeside connects with the steam trains and the aquarium for a genuinely great combo day.
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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.