Is The Lake District Worth Visiting?
The Lake District is one of the 15 national parks in the UK and is located in Cumbria, northwest England. When we headed north back in the winter of 2021, we went to the Lake District in search of impressive peaks and stunning scenery. Instead, we were greeted with torrential rain, high winds, and flooding and therefore we only spent a couple of days travelling through before driving onwards to Scotland.
Aidan and I have lived and travelled full-time on the road now for quite some time, and we always get asked whether it’s worth visiting the places we’ve travelled to. We always like to explore the areas where we stay, and for us, if we don’t feel comfortable somewhere or simply feel like we’ve spent enough time at a location, we move on. Travel is such a personal thing, and each individual will likely want something different from the next, so try not to always judge a place by what you’ve been told by others. We find it’s a lot more fun to go and check things out for yourself and enjoy the journey along the way!
Is the Lake District worth visiting?
The Lake District is a beautiful National Park in the UK where nature thrives and stunning scenery can be explored regardless of the time of year. The Lake District is great for nature lovers with hiking, cycling, kayaking, and running all being popular activities to do in the national park.
Lately, while we’re waiting to return to our off-grid land in Portugal (cheers Brexit), we’ve been spending quite a bit of time down in the south of the UK, working and preparing to head back out to Europe later this year. Although we have some fantastic park-ups down south, we started to crave the mountainous peaks of the north and therefore decided to take a little trip to the Lake District for round 2, hoping the rain and wind wouldn’t batter us again!
Is The Lake District Worth Visiting?
As our time here got cut short a couple of years ago, we weren’t really sure what to expect from the Lake District, and it didn’t take long before we were blown away by the vast landscape of tall pines and white-topped mountains. This was also the first time for Cali to experience the Lake District, and she too, was very excited when mountains and forests started coming into view.
For anyone who hasn’t seen on our Instagram, we’re giving Peppe a break while we’re in the UK, and are instead travelling around in our old VW Crafter van, Pat. It’s lovely being able to tackle hills quicker than 10 mph and have heating in the front when we drive, but we are missing our old Mercedes 410D bus.
Cathedral Caves
On our first full day in the Lake District, we headed to Cathedral Caves, an old quarry with an inner network of tunnels you can hike to and explore for free. For parking, we found a quiet road with a couple of designated parking spots where we and our friend @travellingcatinavanuk could safely leave our vans.
The tunnels were pitch black and even Cali was a little apprehensive until we all turned on our torches. The darkness and puddles underfoot only added to the eerie ambience of the site, and it didn’t take long before we reached an opening in the middle of the cave. The 40-ft chamber inside the cave was breathtaking, and as we are just big kids, we were howling and whistling, listening to echoes being returned back to us. Cathedral Caves is tucked away in the Langdale Valley, and this is one of the likely reasons we didn’t come across many other hikers on our route.
Exploring the various caves and tunnels in the area was a lot of fun, but we found the nature outside of the caves to be just as impressive. After we’d adventured through many of the caves, we decided to hit the hills and carry on hiking. Cali was in her element racing over the mounds and through the trees. She really does bring so much joy and happiness wherever she goes, and we are so grateful to have brought her into our little family.
The Lake District is an area in the UK notorious for being a difficult place to park in a campervan without going to a site or paying to stop somewhere for the night. It’s hard to get around this, and unfortunately, across the country, it’s getting more difficult to find safe spots to sleep in a campervan.
We have a routine for finding suitable places to park in the UK to avoid going to a campsite or paying for parking every day. First, we take a look at Google Maps, zoom in on the area we’re travelling in, and see if there are any places that look good for a campervan stopover. Usually, we can find great spots this way, but if we’re struggling, we take a look at park4night and see the recommended areas to stay.
Nethertown Beach
From the mountains to the seaside! One of the joys of living this lifestyle is being able to head in whatever direction you’re feeling. If you are in need of long hikes in the mountains, you can journey to the north of the UK, or if you’re fancying some sand in between your toes, you can head over to the coast. Before leaving the Lake District, we knew we had to take a trip to the coast and get Cali on a golden stretch of sand - something we hadn’t yet done before.
The drive from Cathedral Caves to Nethertown Beach was just over an hour, and after spending so much time in central-south England, it felt awesome to be back on the rugged coast. The endless mixture of sand and shingles along the beach gave Cali plenty of space to run around, and we can 100% confirm, she is a beach-loving doggo.
Nethertown Beach may not be the most scenic coastal spot in the UK, but it was perfect for spending a couple of hours having lunch and letting Cali run around to her heart’s content. Having a completely different experience of the Lake District this time around goes to show how different a location can feel in better weather or a warmer season. Perhaps we were too quick to dismiss the national park on our last journey north, or maybe that’s exactly how everything was supposed to go. Either way, the Lake District really does have so much on offer, and even if you only have a week or so to spend there, you won’t be disappointed.
Whinlatter Forest
If you know Aidan, Cali, and I personally you’ll know how much we adore forests and getting nestled in the trees. We therefore couldn’t take a trip to the Lake District without visiting England’s only true mountain forest, Whinlatter Forest. The forest rises majestically 1,000ft above sea level and is a paradise for nature lovers, hikes, trail runners, and mountain bikers. Frustratingly, the car park we found for the forest charged £2.50 for the first hour and 50p every 15 minutes thereafter, but since we weren’t planning on spending endless hours at Whinlatter Forest, we decided to bite the bullet and park our camper there.
With so much moss and lichen growing throughout Whinlatter, Autumn must be a time when mushrooms thrive and the forest floor becomes a carpet of colour, texture, and life. The landscape of the Lake District is dramatic, with parts encompassing a Scottish Highlands feel, and the forest of Whinlatter definitely gave us a Scotland vibe. The Lake District National Park welcomes over 15 million tourists each year, and we can all do our bit to help keep the landscape beautiful for many years to come.
We’ll definitely be returning to the Lakes, but for now, it’s time to catch up with loved ones we haven’t seen in a while, and enjoy Spring finally making an appearance!
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