Recommendations for 3 hours in the Lake District?

Where in the Lake District are you driving by?

I would suggest a cruise on one of the bigger Lakes.

So if you were driving up the M6, I would turn off at Junction 40, and take the short drive down to Pooley Bridge (some would say Glenridding, but that is pointless, you'll see the same scenery on the boat), then take a round trip from Pooley Bridge Pier on Ullswater Steamers.

If you're coming up through the Central Lakes for some reason I would come off at Junction 36 of the M6, then rather than follow the crowd up the A591 take the lesser known B5284 through Crook to Bowness on Windermere, then take a half lake, full lake or Islands Cruise on Windermere Lake Cruises.
The crowd are not always right.
Afterwards on your way out of Bowness don't go up into Windermere town but follow the road along the lake shore past the Windermere Jetty Museum, then straight across the mini roundabout and up over the Kirkstone Pass along Ullswater to rejoin the M6 at junction 40.
The other (far quieter) way to do Windermere Lake Cruises is to take the A590 at junction 36 towards Barrow in Furness, as far as Newby Bridge then follow the signs the 1 1/2 miles to Lakeside Pier, or even go on to Haverthwaite- 2 miles further- park up there and take a steam train to the boat.
Afterwards you can go back to Newby Bridge and turn left at the roundabout then follow the lake shore road to Bowness then Kirkstone as above.
Welcome to the Lake District from a resident, and hope to see you back some day, on a longer visit.

I'm sure some people will see the above as heresy because I'm daring not to take you to Rick's favourite of Keswick. In a few hours you can't go everywhere.
As I say it depends on your route, but Keswick is not the be all and end all of the Lake District.
I've thought about carefully about my response.

I would suggest a cruise on one of the bigger Lakes.

how many >lakes< are there in the Lake District?

I'd suggest that choosing one would be quite easy with the very small number to choose between...

Nigel - excellent pub quiz question knowledge!

OP - I think isn31c has it covered! The only other thing I might suggest is drive through the Lakes, Windermere to Keswick with, if it floats your boat, a stop at Dove Cottage, Wordsworths home just outside Grasmere (more esoterically there’s Brantwood, John Ruskin’s home near Coniston, which will require a small diversion, if literary figures are something you might be interested in).

Isn31c is not committing heresy by not steering you towards Keswick. It is a better base that rewards more prolonged exploration of the surrounding area.

Ian

or closer to Windermere is the chain ferry and Hilltop, the home of Peter Rabbit and friends, and Beatrix Potter their author and major contributor to the National Trust

The pub quiz answer to Nigel's question is that there is one 'lake'.
All the others end in the word 'Water' or 'Mere'.
But they are collectively known as Lakes.
Then there is the vexed question of when a 'lake' is so small that it is really a 'tarn'.
For everyone's benefit there are 4 lakes you can take public boat trips on- the others being Coniston (which has two different boat services) and Derwentwater.
I don't see Coniston as a proper use of the limited time available.
Most (but not all) of the other lakes have self 'drive' rowing or sailing boats- the exceptions generally being the lakes which are now reservoirs (originally for Manchester, but now also for West Cumbria). But I will even hedge that, for the pedants, by saying that Windermere (although never converted to a reservoir as such) also sees substantial water extraction to Manchester.
What relevance does this have to the OP- maybe, some, probably none.
Oh, and in high season, the chain ferry gets long queues (a fact you know if you live here) and you could spend most of your time sat in line on each side.
And, for further knowledge, the one lake we have (Bassenthwaite Lake) most locals just call Bassenthwaite (omitting the word 'Lake'). If you ask a local for Bassenthwaite Lake they are more likely to send you to the former Bassenthwaite Lake railway station- now where the train set used in the Orient Express movie re-make is 'parked' as a wonderful cafe. Also, for Nigel's benefit it was the scene of a fatal 19th century railway accident when a train managed to run away uphill- an odd thing which even the Board of Trade inquiry did not really answer. The runaway ended up in Cockermouth 6 miles away where it smashed into a stationary train- but a warning had been telegraphed ahead so there were no injuries at Cockermouth.

We’ll be coming up the A66 then onto the M6 just 30 minutes or so outside of Keswick which is what made us think we might be able to sneak over and see a bit of the district. So Keswick will likely be our landing spot unless we want to spend more of our time getting to a point of access and less time actually seeing it.

It sounds like the boat ride around the lake there that Rick suggests in the Lake District episode might be our best bet for time on the lake. This will be a stop on a long day in the car so I’d rather use the time to be out of the car exploring or hiking. We’ll be there in late May so not quite summer season but close enough that most things seem to be open.

Thank you for so much great info!

Just checked the maps and Pooley Bridge is even closer to our drive than Keswick so that looks like a perfect stop. Thank you isn31c!

Spoke too soon - looks like Ullswater Steamers isn’t open till the last week of May. We’ll be driving through on May 18th so we’ll just miss it. Maybe a walk rather than a boat ride? The lake near Keswick seems to have the boat running so that might be our best bet.

The Ullswater Steamers are open 364 days a year- here is the timetable- the one for 18 May being the blue one half way down the left hand side of the page-
https://www.ullswater-steamers.co.uk/files/documents/8214-LDE-Ulls-ChipShop-2023%20v3.pdf

My mistake. I went to the book online option and everything till end of May is blocked off. If there are no online tickets does that mean the sailing is full?

That is baffling. The sailings are never full, or at least not ahead of time. Most people just book on the day.
I've just looked at the 'Book a Journey' option for 18 May (rather than 'Book an Event') for Pooley Bridge to Glenridding return (the full length of the lake, Howtown is a walker's landing stage, and Aira Force is a spectacular waterfall,-you would have to change at Glenridding on to a smaller boat to get there and it would need more time than you have)- and there are 100 tickets available for each sailing, except the first sailing which has 95 tickets.

works for me too,,,, are you filling all the information as you tried to book? Did you click on a particular date or just see blank boxes and assume they were full?

By the way this is a weekday in May. There is zero need to book in advance. The boats will not be full. Booking ahead is a convenience not a requirement.
That applies to all the lake boats.

I’m great to know. Weird. I just saw locks symbols on all the days before the last week in May and can’t click. But I’m on my mobile so maybe that’s making it more difficult or I’m just missing something. The waterfall looks lovely. I’d love a walk but it looks like a choice between walking or boating and I think boating gives us a more overall view of the place.

Thank you both for all the helpful information! This is my first time using this forum and it’s been incredibly helpful.

Currently considering giving it another hour or so and starting in Howtown, taking the boat to Glenridding and then walking from that stop back up to Howtown. It looks like it would make a spectacular half day.

A great idea, might I suggest parking at Glenridding, boat to Howtown and walk back to Glenridding?
That's how most people do it.
There is no parking at Howtown Pier- you either park at the (new) Church or at the top of the Hause (Pass) beyond the pier, then walk back down the road to the Pier.
There is an old Church the other side of the Hause!, both are still open, not that there is any need to look in to either Church.
Also ending at Glenridding you end at somewhere with restrooms, and refreshment facilities- a good choice of cafes for a small village.

Three hours is enough time to get sticky toffee pudding in Cartmel and stop at the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop, for some of Sarah Nelson’s gingerbread.

I like how you think jamieelsabio.