Anyone traveling to the Lake District, England this year?

My husband will be in the Lake District for 3 days this summer while I am at a course a bit south of there. He will probably have a car, but if he doesn't, I will definitely report back!

The relevant Rick Steves guidebooks cover getting around the Lake District using public transportation,

Somewhere I have put on a lengthy post about travelling the Lake District by public transport and am happy to answer any questions. There is a link to the full TT book.
I have put on the central area services, not those on the periphery of the area.
I know I have just tinkered with that post in the last few days due to new details about the seasonal service to Wasdale being cash only, which is the exception and is because that operator hasn't run a scheduled bus service in decades.

PS - I Will always have the up to date information, whereas with the best will in the world the RS guidebooks will always be a year out of date.
Living here I sometimes even get notice of changes before they happen.

Trains go from London (Euston) to Penrith (for northern Lake District via bus transfer). In the southern Lake District, Windermere is the main town and is on a branch line from the main line at Oxenholm. If you put in for a one way specific train ‘Advance fare’ for Euston to Wndermenre, it is likely to be more expensive than splitting the fare at the point where you leave the main line train that has brought you from London.

As a general rule Avanti through fares to Cumbrian branches are much cheaper than splitting fares.
I live here, I use the trains and buses all the time, and know the fare system like the back of my hand, using its quirks to my advantage frequently.
There may be rare exceptions, but that is very much the norm.
Some of the through Avanti fares are just plain daft low.
Yesterday I came to Glasgow for less than the price of just the local fare on my branch!
As a local I usually manually split fares on either Crewe or Birmingham, sometimes on Doncaster or Leeds. None of those are options the clever websites offer.
But for various reasons I don't recommend tourists to split on Crewe. It's one I will explain by PM if needed, it's just a bit odd, a bit high stakes. But that way I can do Lake District to London for between £15 and £20 frequently, even Oxford or Reading for just over £20.

I appreciate the responses. I have a bunch of guidebooks, but like supplementing the books with the trip reports because the trip reports always have little tidbits of info. you can’t find in the books. For example, when I was in York last month, I had the Sunday roast at masons arms because someone had raved about it in her trip report. It was the best meal of my trip.

isn31c, I do have several of your posts bookmarked. You always have great information. I think it was you who mentioned the pencil museum in Keswick in one of your posts. I was watching a you tube video on Keswick and they walked by the museum. I thought, hey I just read about that on rick steves. 😊

My initial thinking is that I want to fly in and out of Edinburgh. United has a season nonstop flight from Chicago and I’m just not ready to tackle London yet. So, I think Keswick might be a good base for me. I know Mountain Goat has some tours from there, so I would probably take 1 or 2 of those.

This trip would most likely be Sept. of 2025. I’m a big planner and like to start my research well in advance of my trips. Any other thoughts, ideas, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edinburgh to Penrith is one of those rail routes with ludicrously cheap fares.

Last week I did it from Whitehaven (so further than Penrith) for under £9 each way which is a quite normal advance fare, for 141 miles of travel.

That was on Avanti, TPE are often cheaper still, but they don't normally do multi operator fares.

Carrie,

Most unusually the winter timetables are showing significant service enhancements on buses in the Lake District including more 554 buses from Carlisle to Keswick, so you don't absolutely have to route via Penrith to Keswick.

Those are commercial changes.

But following the cancellation of the HS2 rail line Cumberland County Council have been given £1.5 million of money by the government to subsidise bus services in the County. So we may see further new or better frequency services by 2025.

Before any one corrects me Cumbria is now split into 2 unitary authorities- Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness.

Away from where you are visiting I, out on the west coast of the County, have huge service enhancements, especially on a Sunday and in the evening. Totally unexpected.

Hi isn31c, how nice that you remembered this thread and took the time to come back to update the info. I really appreciate it.

I’ve been wondering if the Rabbie’s lake district tour might be a good option for me, but then I lose all flexibility.

https://www.rabbies.com/en/england-tours/from-edinburgh/3-5-day-tours/the-lake-district-3-day-tour

I’m still in the pondering phase.

Much as I dislike hugely Rabbies muscling in on Mountain goat territory that sounds like a really good itinerary-

On Day 1 it sounds as if you are coming over the Grey Mares' tail on the way to Moffat which you couldn't do other than by car and is a scenic treat. With the M74 Moffat is now bypassed and it is a really nice town to explore. Then you couldn't do Aira Force to Keswick direct by bus other than on a Saturday, normally it is via Windermere or back to Penrith. It also saves you the evening walk back up to Castlerigg.

And on Day 2 if they are doing what they say they are between Hawkshead and Grasmere via Elterwater that is another route you would have to drive (no transit), and especially from Elterwater to Grasmere it's not the easiest drive in the world, but a nice one. That's a bit of a treat of a route to take.

Day 3 you could put that together yourself- but Whinlatter and the Honister slate mine is far easier as a package. You'll like Whinlatter FP and at Honister you can just visit the mine (very interesting) or do the Via Ferrata if feeling more active.
Then coming back through Biggar is a good diversion, one you couldn't do by public transit in a half day. That would be a complex full day journey. And alongside the lakes and over Honister better by far to let someone else do the driving- some of those roads are pretty skinny.

I have to admit that is a pretty good tour, you're doing some cracking stuff, without the stress of driving and on routes where there never was and never will be transit. You do lose a degree of flexibility but I think it's a good trade off.

I don't do bus tours, especially small van tours. But even I would do that one, without hesitation. With all the time in the world to plan it, as you have, I would choose my own place to stay in Keswick- unlike say Skye there is no need to get Rabbies to do that bit for you.

Hi isn31c, thank-you so much for looking over the Rabbie’s tour itinerary and providing your insight. That is very helpful. I’m happy to hear that you think it looks like a good option.

A group tour wouldn’t be my first choice, but for only 3 days, I think I could handle it. And I think it would make things easier not having to worry about all the transportation. Plus, like you mentioned, I’d be able to see some things I couldn’t on my own. This definitely has me leaning more towards the tour.

I’m a fan of mountain goat too. I took one of their tours from York this past May. And if I do end up doing the lake district on my own, I would definitely sign up for day tours with them.