5 Best National Parks In Cumbria

By what your family does with a shoreline. Derwentwater is the busier and better served of the two, with boat traffic, jetties and activity around the edge, which suits children who like something happening nearby. Buttermere Valley is quieter and more of a walk-and-look proposition, where the reward is scale and not facilities. Both carry very high ratings and neither is a mistake. The difference between them is atmosphere, not quality.

As an entry point, yes, though not as a destination. Lake District National Park covers an area you could spend years exploring, so the listing works as a reminder of what the region holds and not as a place to drive to. If you have not visited before, use it to get your bearings and then choose a specific valley, lake or village. Arriving with only the park name on your list is how families end up in the busiest car park of all.

Critter Creek Adventure Golf is the only entry built to entertain instead of to be admired, which is presumably how it found its way in. Otherwise this category is scenery, and scenery asks children to supply their own enthusiasm. That is easier by water than on a hillside, because stone-skimming, paddling at the edge and boat-watching all buy time. A lakeshore with a jetty holds a reluctant walker far longer than a viewpoint does.

Almost everything a wet Cumbrian day needs. None of the five lists a room you could stand in, and not one of these entries is a visitor attraction with a roof over it. The county has plenty of those, but they sit under museums, farms and activity centres, never here. If you are building a week's holiday, use this list for the good-weather days and a different category for the others, because the weather will make that decision for you anyway.