Car Hire Lake District

With a surplus of heart-stopping views, the Lake District is one of the best places to drive in the UK. The roads are relatively quiet, the combination of shimmering lakes and perfect peaks a balm for the soul. No heavy motorways thunder through here, it’s a total joy to explore by car.

The nearest motorway is in fact the M6, which runs up the eastern fringe of the area, making its way north from Lancashire on its way to Carlisle and the Scottish border. If you’re collecting your car in Carlisle, you can use the M6 to reach the Lake District in around 30 minutes, entering the park at Askham. Alternatively, take the A595 to approach the park from the north.

From Barrow-in-Furness, another collection point, the A595 and A590 both enter the Lake District, the former to the west through Grizebeck, the latter to the east through Greenodd. Both routes take around half an hour.

There are car parks across the Lake District, both metred and free, which provide a convenient place to leave your hire car while you explore the beauty of the surroundings. Use the parking map on the Lake District website to find one on your route.

While there are some stunning secondary routes threading their way through the park, the main road cutting through it is the A591, which enters the park at the south-east edge near Kendal, a popular starting point for Lake District trips, and then skirts Lake Windermere before passing noted landmarks including Rydal Mount and Dove Cottage. It then continues north past Grasmere and Lake Thirlmere before coming to an end at Keswick, close to Derwent Water.

Part of the joy of the lakes, however, is finding your own way, with some gems to be found down the roads less travelled.

From the shoots of spring through to the verdant greens of summer, the russets and ochres of autumn, and the icy beauty of winter, the Lake District flourishes with sensations all year round.

Pick your lake

There’s a different feel at each of the district’s many lakes, and a variety of things to do at each as well. At Derwent Water you can climb aboard a Keswick Launch and enjoy blissful views of the mountains and the lake’s own islands. Alternatively, you can hire a row boat and take things at your own pace – time it right to catch a sensational sunset.

Close to Buttermere village, in a staggeringly gorgeous glacial valley, there are two lakes – Buttermere itself and Crummock Water.  With the fells rising over them, this is a popular place for walkers, with Alfred Wainwright, who wrote the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells – declaring it his personal favourite.

Towards the south, the long finger of Lake Windermere can lay claim to being England’s largest body of water, punctuated by 18 islands. The largest of these, Belle Isle, is home to a striking Italianate Round House.

For lovers of literature

The Lakes have been a muse and source of inspiration for generations of authors, poets and painters. Much of the Lake District’s landscape found its way onto the page via the quill of locally-born Wordsworth – he referred to Windermere’s Round House as a ‘pepper-pot’. The Wordsworth House and Garden is open to visitors in season and is preserved as it would have appeared at the time of his birth in 1770.

Close to Grasmere, you can visit Dove Cottage where he lived from 1799 to 1808. The adjacent Wordsworth Museum is superb, but you get a real sense of his family life in the cottage, home to personal belongings such as his glasses and passport.

Beatrix Potter was a devotee of the Lakes too. She bought Hill Top, a local farmhouse in Near Sawrey, in 1905. It’s hugely popular – expect a queue – because it wasn’t only where she lived but features in the pages of many of her most famous children’s stories. There’s the World of Beatrix Potter too, where the tales of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle-Duck are turned into a charming reality for little ones.

The fells for foodies

Cumbria has seen a huge increase in food tourism in recent years, partly because of the excellent restaurants here, but also due to BBC’s The Trip, where Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon dined their way around the area.

You’ll need to book ahead to eat at the two Lake District restaurants they enjoyed, but both are wholly worth it. Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume and David McLaughlin’s Holbeck Ghyll both hold a Michelin star and are set in sensational surroundings. Elsewhere in the Lake District, however, you’ll find cosy pubs with grub and tearooms aplenty.

There are villages to wander, mountaintop hikes and activities galore in this stunning part of the world. Explore every corner and see every beautiful sight when you hire a car in the Lake District.