The Lake District, Driven Slowly Over Several Days

The Lake District is small on a map and slow in reality. The valleys radiate outwards and almost every route between them climbs a pass — Kirkstone, Honister, Wrynose, Hardknott — on roads that are narrow, steep and demanding. Being driven changes the experience completely. You spend the ascent looking out of the window rather than at the crown of the road, and the passes become the highlight rather than the obstacle.

A first day usually works south to north. Windermere and Bowness open the region, Ambleside and Rydal follow, and Grasmere holds Dove Cottage where Wordsworth wrote most of what he is remembered for. From Ambleside the Kirkstone Pass climbs sharply and drops to Ullswater, which many people quietly prefer to Windermere: longer, narrower, hemmed by fells and with a steamer that runs the length of it.

The north is wilder. Keswick sits at the head of Derwentwater with Borrowdale behind it and the Honister Pass beyond that, and the further west you go the emptier it gets. Coniston and the Duddon Valley in the south-west are quieter still. Two days lets you see the region properly. Three lets you stop when the light is doing something, which in Cumbria is the whole point.

Practically, we supply the car and the chauffeur, and on a multi-day itinerary your chauffeur's own accommodation is arranged and included in the written quotation. Hotels, admissions and boat tickets are booked by you. Your chauffeur is not a licensed guide and offers no commentary, though a qualified guide can be arranged to travel with you if you would like one.

Vehicle choice matters more here than anywhere else in England. A Range Rover handles the passes, the weather and the hotel drives with far more composure than a low saloon, and gives you the seating height to see over the walls, which on these roads is not a small consideration.