6 weeks in UK without a car

This is the link to my post regarding the Lake District Summer Bus Timetable.-
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/summer-bus-services-in-the-lake-district-summer-2023

In addition to these services details of free buses to Wasdale, Buttermere and Cat Bells are currently awaited - the National Park are sorting out funding for them- see update post on these services below.

The 525 Cross Lakes Shuttle to Beatrix Potter's Hill Top is not running in 2023, but there are also some very good tours run by Mountain Goat- https://www.mountain-goat.com/Lake-District

It is very easy to get around the Lake District by public transport. I live here and use the transit all the time.

There are also lake boats on Derwentwater, Ullswater, Coniston Launch, Coniston Steam Yacht Gondola and Windermere, which are ideally suited for walkers.

Also two steam railways- Ravenglass and Eskdale (easily accessible from the Carlisle to Barrow railway line), and at Haverthwaite (for the Lakeland Motor Museum, the Lakes Aquarium and connection with the Windermere 'steamers').

For Coastal walking the Cumbria section of England's Coast Path is now open from Carlisle to Bowness on Solway (the end of Hadrian's Wall), then all the way down the coast following the trail of Roman activity down to the last coastal fort at Ravenglass and on south to Silecroft, Haverigg and Green Road station (south of Millom), also most of the South coast of the county from Walney Island (Barrow) to the Lancashire County Border.
There are a number of buses serve the coast- general details here (although I am happy to give specific advice by PM)-
https://legacy.cumberland.gov.uk/buses/default.asp.
Avanti and Transpennine run trains down the main spine of the Lake District to national destinations- and Northern run local trains down the coast, to Windermere (from the main line junction at Oxenholme) ,along Hadrian's Wall to Newcastle and down the famous Settle-Carlisle railway to Leeds.
The buses, boats and trains in the Central lakes will get you to some fine walking

The train runs west from London Paddington the way to St. Ives at the end of the peninsula. It does not run along the coast, but you can get a bus or taxi from the various stations to your destination on the coast. We have visited Port Isaac and the Jurassic Coast that way ( using taxis).

For the Lake District, if you want to do some nice hiking, consider spending some of your time with HF Holidays, a member-owned cooperative that focuses on guided walking. Non-members are welcome. They have two manor houses in the Lake District, one in the north near Keswick (where we have been) and one more to the south at Coniston. They offer 3-night, 4-night, and 7-night programs at each location, with a choice of 3 guided walks at different levels ( easy, moderate, and more strenuous) each day. The price is all-inclusive: lodging, all meals, guided walks, and transport to the trailheads and back. The accommodations are very nice, the food is varied and high quality (and flexible to accommodate gluten-free and vegetarian diets), and the hikes on offer are well-planned, and include some history and commentary by the guides. .And we really enjoy the camaraderie of the other guests, most of whom are British, with a sprinkling of Aussies, Canadians, and occasionally a French or German person.

Here is an example of the 3-night program and facilities of the house at Keswick:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/3-night-northern-lake-district-guided-walking-holiday?format=pdf&vid=1396

The house, as you can see in the photo, is right on the lake (Derwentwater), with a lawn sloping down to the water. It is about a kilometer outside the town of Keswick. They provide directions for using public transport to arrive: train to Penrith and then a shared taxi/transfer from the station right to the house.

It is all very well done. You could spend 3-or 4 nights each at each of the two Lake District locations, or a week at one or the other. The price appears high, but if you add up the lodging, meals, guided walking and transport, we feel it is well worth it for the convenience and reliability.

Hi ck -

Very comprehensive response from isn31c - and living in the Lakes too? Definitely won the lottery of life there!

As for where you could stay, Windermere/Bowness on Windermere are the main places to be close to the best transport links. Also being on the southern end of the Lakes it’s probably handier for the coast. The big ‘but’ here is that this effective ‘two-villages-glued-together’ spot is very, very busy and touristy the majority of the time. Ambleside further up Windermere (the Lake) is also popular and equally busy, although smaller. Grasmere similar but better yet in terms of locale but by the time you get here you’ve largely sacrificed those handy transport options.

Rick is not daft when he recommends Keswick (which I personally always find to be a delight) but while it does have transport links you possibly don’t get as many options as you would down the bottom end of the Lakes, although it is fairly well served by public transport - no rail links though, pretty much buses exclusively, or taxi.

One good thing, not having a car, is that you won’t be lumbered with finding and possibly coughing up for a parking spot (if my memory serves, the car park prices in Keswick especially border on highway robbery).

The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, known locally as ‘La’al Ratty’ is a miniature steam railway. Top tip, which I learned the hard way - if sitting in an open carriage especially, wear your sunglasses whatever the weather to avoid coal dust from the loco getting in your eyes! Roman ruins not far from both ends of the line.

And if isn31c is right and there’s the opportunity to travel on a free bus to Wasdale, I’d try do that as it’s a spectacular valley, not much there, but scenically stunning. It has the Lake District’s deepest lake, England’s highest peak and, once upon a time, the world’s biggest liar! Word of warning - don’t be tempted to walk the lakeside path under Wastwater Screes. It’s lethal! I’ve done it so you don’t have to!

Get back to us if you need more guidance or a second opinion on something!

Ian

Not driving will limit you somewhat in the rural areas you want to visit, but it’s far from impossible.
Cornwall can be slow to get around by public transport but with 10 days you have a refreshingly decent length of time. The main issue there will be securing accommodation. It’s not quite the peak season until late July but it will already be fairly booked up.
Cornwall is an excellent place to do some coastal walking, but be aware that some stretches can be Challenging. Google the South West Coast Path - there is an excellent website that gives full information, in particular how easy or hard every section is. Don’t be fooled into thinking the path is easy - there is a lot of up and down in many places. The whole path stretches right round the coast of SW England for 630 miles and the total ascent is more than 3 times the height of Mt Everest from sea level.
The Lake District can be surprisingly easy to navigate without a car as long as you stay around one of the main centres - Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere or Keswick. A regular bus service connects all of them and many good walks can be directly accessed from that route. In addition there is an excellent small touring bus company called Mountain Goat that offers all sorts of tours to get to the more remote areas.
The only places with really good rail links are Edinburgh and Glasgow. The latter is less well known internationally but has lots of tourist interest, but it is a big city. North of there the rail system becomes much less comprehensive and getting to interesting places in the Highlandsrequires some work on train and bus schedules.

We spent two+ weeks along the Dorset coast last summer and used busses and trains to get around. We downloaded the morebus app to check routes and traveled along the coast on the fun and fairly frequent Purbeck Breezer with a lot of other British holiday makers. We really enjoyed some outings on the Coastal Walking Path near the Knoll House Hotel, a relaxing all inclusive old fashioned hotel.

We were in the UK for a total of 4 weeks but as this was our first trip back to Europe since 2020 we limited ourselves to this coastal area and then London.

We traveled by train, local busses and the National Express to get from LHR to the coast and then in to London for our final week and a half.

In Cornwall I’d recommend staying in St Ives. It’s a beautiful place with lots going on and a train station. Best to go here as a first stop as it will get busier and busier in Cornwall as the summer goes on. That goes for everywhere (school holidays are from mid July) but it really does get exceptionally busy in Cornwall.

WOW! I’m getting some really excellent advice and recommendations. Taking notes! Keep it up, please 💕

Check out this map of the British rail network:>https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/Rail%20map%20v37%20orange%20Dec%2022.pdf

This is the Current Cornwall Bus Timetable-
https://images-gocornwallbus.passenger-website.com/2023-04/TFC%20April%202023%20Guide%20April%206th%20Update.pdf
There is a bus ticket integrated across all operators, for £5 per day, £20 per week, £80 per calendar month-
https://www.gocornwallbus.co.uk/fares-and-tickets

Jurassic Coast information-
https://www.jurassiccoast.org/explore/visitor-information/travel-information
Usually accessed by bus from rail stations at Axminster and Weymouth
This is the East Devon Bus Timetable Book- https://www.devonbustimetables.info/current/east_devon/1/

And, such as it is, this is the Dorset County Council public timetable page.

And this is all about the South West Coastal Path-https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/south-west-coast-path/

You have already hit the jackpot here, with lots of great advice.
We particularly like Keswick in the Lake District.
It's a wonderful tiny town by the lake that welcomes hikers. The town is full of family-run hotels, B&B's, restaurants and pubs. There's a little theatre down by the lake that offers plays in the summertime. Don't miss The Dog And Gun pub; good food and drink; people bring their well-behaved dogs in there. For fish and chips, The Old Keswickian is the place.
Lots of good hiking in any direction from Keswick. You can walk to an ancient stone circle from Keswick. Castlerigg Stone Circle. Better than Stonehenge because there's no one for miles around there and you have an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. If you arrived there at sunset, you could wait and enjoy it after dark as the stars came out; a "dark skies" place with no ambient light from towns, street lights, cars, etc.

We also travel in the UK without a car. As well as traveling on our own, we plan for one or two of these short tours during our vacation.
Rabbies Tours by small mini van. Excellent tours. They go to a variety of places; just keep browsing here to see if there's anything you'd like to work in somewhere on your trip. Rabbies has a couple of Lake District trips and one which includes Cornwall.
https://www.rabbies.com/en/england-tours

Thanks to the OP. In checking my response for accuracy when writing it, I found out that England's Coastal Path had been extended from Silecroft to Green Road (as stated above), as Silecroft had been the end of the route. I had not been aware of that, in spite of living 30 minutes away.
So on a glorious Spring day I have been down there today- what a lovely extension it is. A really good coastal walk.

Back to Keswick- this is the Visit Keswick website which you will see has accommodation listings .
As well as the Theatre by the Lake (which is a wonderful, quite intimate, theatre) don't miss a movie at the Alhambra Cinema- a delightful family run 110 year old cinema.
There are few small town movie houses like it left in the UK.
In July this year the main performance is a musical- Blonde Bombshells of 1943- lots of Glenn Miller style music, performed in the round.
The Theatre has a Cafe and Restaurant with stunning Lakeside and mountain views.

There are lots of fish and chip shops in Keswick. Everyone has their favourite- mine is run by an Orthodox family, and is next to the Town Hall, opposite Wetherspoons. I can't remember the name, as I just go though, it is too familiar for me to remember or even know the name. One of a network of chip shops in the area, run by Orthodox families- who are associated with the Orthodox Chapel at Braithwaite. A bit like the Italian Ice Cream shops in the west of Scotland.

Nice to see that Rebecca appreciates Castlerigg Stone Circle, which is surprisingly little visited.

I’ve made sooooo many notes! Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge and experience. Cannot wait to experience it for ourselves! You guys are awesome!

isn31c, I loved Castlerigg Stone Circle.
Thank you for the Visit Keswick website link.
I've been watching the downtown Keswick webcam.

ckpatchett, buses arrive into Keswick right beside the grocery store, Booths.
(The parking lot to the left of the store is used as the bus station. You will arrive here if you are coming in on a bus from Penrith, for example.)
Booths is a great place to buy snacks and all groceries you need. They have a small cafe to the right inside the front door.
This is a good cafe for a cup of coffee or tea, sandwich, or bowl of soup.

Have a great trip!!

By the way many of the Bed and Breakfasts in Keswick are at the top end of town, in the little back streets. It's still only 5 minutes walk into the town centre, less than 10 minutes to the Bus Station.

Many visitors and locals find it easiest to get off the bus from Penrith at what is locally called 'County Corner' (opposite the War Memorial-you won't find County Corner on a map) at the end of Station Street- everyone knows where County Corner is, dump their bags then walk into town. Often more people get off there than at the Bus Station, which often disconcerts people who actually want the Bus Station for connections, when the Bus empties out there.
Even several of the hotels are much closer to County Corner than the Bus Station.
Check the location of your accommodation on Google maps to see if County Corner is closest. If still in doubt I'll be happy to advise.
The last place I saw RS use is closest to County Corner, but far easier to direct people to from the Bus Station! So I would get off for that place at County Corner, but would tell a visitor to get off at the Bus Station.
While in Keswick don't miss a visit to Bryson's Bakery, also the Keswick Museum just down the street towards the old railway station and the leisure centre from County Corner is well worth a visit.
If you need a cab it is best to go to the rank at the Bus Station. The company is always busy, so if standing there call them on the number marked on the road, as it is rare for one to be sat there waiting for trade.
When waiting for a bus at Keswick Bus Station don't be worried about buses being parked up at the far end of the car park. You don't have to wander off down there. That is their waiting area, they come round into the station a few minutes before departure. Also most buses except the X4/X5 from Penrith (which goes through to Workington) when they get to the Bus Station now set you down outside the Cycle shop, not in the Bus Station itself- to allow them to go down to the parking area.

EDITED TO ADD TIMETABLE-
Further to my earlier post the Wasdale Shuttle Bus has been confirmed for 2023- https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/469426/02-SP-23-Bus-timetables-Wasdale-2023final.pdf

It will run from Saturday 3 June to the August Bank Holiday Monday every Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.

The first two buses will run from Ravenglass at 0900 and 1030, with two late afternoon return services at 1645 and 1815

During the day a 1/2 hourly shuttle will run from Netherwasdale pop up car park to Wasdale Head.

This year there is to be a charge of £2 per person per journey, £1 for children. UK bus pass holders travel for free. This is payable by CASH only- not card.

There is no extra Keswick to Catbells shuttle this year.

Details of the Cockermouth to Buttermere shuttle are here. Again there is a fare of £2/£1 this year but holders of Stagecoach Lakes Explorer Tickets travel for free. https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/visiting/getting-to-the-lake-district/buttermere-shuttlebus-from-cockermouth

Note the £2 fares are not part of the Government £2 fare scheme- so this fare will run all season. Note that this timetable is different to last year, if anyone used it then.