Top Windermere Bus Tours

Avoid narrow roads, tricky navigation, and trying to fit the Lake District’s vast scenery into a short visit on this full-day small-group tour from Windermere. Travel by comfortable minivan with a guide who handles the driving and storytelling as you explore mountain passes, waterfalls, stone circles, and up to ten of the region’s most scenic lakes, including Buttermere. The route also takes in villages such as Grasmere and includes free time in Keswick.

See the best of the Lake District in a short amount of time on a guided sightseeing tour with an efficient route. Travel between key viewpoints, lakes, and villages without the need to self-navigate, and cover areas that are difficult to reach independently. The itinerary includes multiple lakes, heritage villages, and a stop at Castlerigg Stone Circle, along with time in Grasmere.

When you’re in the Lake District, skip the tour group, and opt for a self-drive, self-guided tour instead. This well-priced option allows you to explore at your own pace, following an audio guide that’s downloaded to a smartphone app. After booking, you’ll receive instructions, and then set off on a preplanned route that showcases Ambleside, Keswick, Ullswater, and more.

Enjoy a seamless introduction to the Lake District and discover its scenic highlights on this half-day driving tour. Over the course of your tour, see numerous lakes (including Lake Windermere—the largest in the area); visit the Neolithic Castlerigg Stone Circle; discover the photogenic Ashness Bridge; chart the Kirkstone Pass; and much more. As you go, learn all about the region and its history from your guide’s commentary.

Close your eyes and picture it: standing inside a 4,500-year-old circle of stones, mountains rising on every side, the wind the only sound for miles. That's Castlerigg, one moment in an afternoon built around views most visitors never find. While sixteen-seater minibuses queue along the main road, you gently ascend in comfort along the steep, narrow lane out of Ambleside instead — a quieter, wilder approach to the Kirkstone Inn, the highest inhabited building in the National Park, before the legendary descent unfolds beneath you. You'll see eight lakes, not the usual six, plus Ashness Bridge framed against the fells, Surprise View's sudden reveal of Derwentwater, and Dunmail Raise, where a king is said to sleep beneath the stones. With only seven guests aboard, your guide shows you exactly where Wordsworth saw the daffodils that inspired his most famous poem, pointing out the sheep grazing the fells, brings geology and legend to life, mile after spectacular mile.

Visit the Beatrix Potter house and some of the Lake District’s prettiest locations on an afternoon tour from Windermere. After a scenic Lake Windermere cruise, travel through idyllic countryside to Hill Top, the Beatrix Potter home where the beloved children’s author lived during the early 1900s. See the garden and rooms left as she would have known them and learn about her life here. Finish with a visit to the quaint village of Hawkshead, where poet William Wordsworth attended school; and Tarn Hows, one of Lakeland’s most gorgeous spots.

Put away the guidebook and enjoy a private tour to a shortlist of the Lake District's most interesting sights. A driver helps you maximize your time in the region by taking you to a variety of popular attractions in just a few hours. See Aira Force waterfall, Grasmere, Castlerigg Stone Circle, Ullswater Lake, and Kirkstone Pass—the highest mountain pass in the Lake District.

See the Lake District in one day without missing a thing! Visit 10 of the National Park’s famous lakes and learn about their geological past and historic importance in culture, art and literature. Enjoy scenic drives through valleys and dales, spot waterfalls and explore ancient landmarks, like the stone circle at Askrigg. Take memorable photos at specially-chosen look-out points and hear tales about the local folklore of the fells and villages you pass by.

Discover the Lake District spots beloved by Beatrix Potter in just half a day on this small-group afternoon tour. Ideal for time-crunched visitors, this tour from Windermere and Bowness visits many such places in a few hours. Explore Beatrix’s Hill Top home, see Esthwaite Lake where she fished, visit Hawkshead, enjoy a cruise on Lake Windermere, and learn detail about her life and characters via the onboard commentary that you might never otherwise hear.

See some of the Lake District's most beautiful lakes on this half-day tour around Windermere. Settle into an air-conditioned minivan as your guide takes you through the stunning scenery, passing Derwentwater and England's second-longest lake along the way. You'll also stop to sample delicious gingerbread from the famous Grasmere bakery and discover scenic spots you might struggle to reach alone. Choose departures from Ambleside, Bowness, or Windermere.

Soak up the splendour of England’s largest lake, Windermere, on a scenic self-guided audio tour of the Lake District. • Find out how Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth are connected to the area and take it some of its famous sites • Hear from producer Martin Wilson, the owner and producer of Lake District Drives • Do it all in 3 hour or linger at stops along the way with complete control over when you start and finish • Get unlimited use before your booking date and after it • Use the virtual tour option at home Once you’ve booked, you’ll receive a ticket with instructions and a unique code listed under “Before You Go”. Then simply install the VoiceMap app and enter your code. The app displays directions to the starting point, and when you’re in the right place, just tap start. The app has automatic GPS playback, with turn-by-turn directions. It also works offline.

Discover Yorkshire’s windy moors and learn about their influence on the famous Brontë family on a private tour of Haworth, the Brontë Parsonage, and beyond. Round-trip transfer from Windermere and South Lakes allows seamless exploration of the dramatic landscape, while a private tour ensures personalized interaction with your guide.

Make the most of limited time in the Lake District with this full-day tour to help you tick off picturesque villages, lakes, waterfalls, and mountain views. Instead of having to focus on driving, enjoy the luxury of having a private driver to take you between sites. Along the way, stop for scenic strolls and photo opportunities, including Kirkstone Mountain Pass, Castlerigg Stone Circle, Keswick, and Aira Force waterfall.

Witness the grandeur of the Lake District’s mountains and western fells on this full-day tour from Windermere. Follow a route first traced by the Romans over the Wrynose and Hardknott Passes, two of Britain’s steepest, and pass by Hardknott Roman Fort. Explore Muncaster Castle, enjoy lunch, and admire spectacular views of Wastwater before returning to Windermere.

This is a great pick for first-time visitors to the Lake District. Save hours researching and planning your own itinerary, and enjoy the luxury of a private tour where the full schedule is planned out for you. Visit quaint villages, nature spots, and rural locations such as Grasmere, Hawkshead, Tarn Hows, and Blea Tarn with a chance to stop off for photos whenever you like.

This is a perfect pick for nature lovers. Save time organizing car hire and instead, enjoy a full-day private tour that takes you to 10 lakes in a day. No need to worry about navigating— a private driver takes care of that, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful views. Highlights include Lake Windermere, the Kirkstone Pass, Ullswater Lake, the Castlerigg Stone Circle, Buttermere Lake, and Lake Grasmere.

With this half-day tour, enjoy getting a shortcut to places in the Lake District linked to the world-renowned author and illustrator, Beatrix Potter. Instead of doing your own research, a guide takes you to Potter’s former home—Hill Top–with admission included to save you time waiting in ticket lines. The trip also visits a selection of other top locations linked the author’s stories and characters.

Spend a day in James Herriot country, the Yorkshire Dales, on the trail of the “All Creatures Great and Small” TV series that was much beloved in the UK. In a small group capped at six people, you’ll visit filming locations such as the Drover’s Arms pub and Darrowby village, plus Helen’s family farm, surrounded by the fields, sheep, and dry-stone walls of the Yorkshire Dales. Round-trip transport is included from different Lake District locations.

Gain a unique perspective of the Lake District on a winter tour, which collects and drops at a choice of convenient meeting points. Take advantage of a comprehensive sightseeing itinerary to tick off several scenic landmarks in just a day, including 10 different lakes, two waterfalls, and the Castlerigg Circle. Numbers are capped at seven travelers for an intimate feel and great interaction with your knowledgeable guide.

Other operators run a ten-lakes tour. None of them put you on the water. This is the only ten-lakes tour in the National Park that includes a genuine hour-long cruise on Ullswater — pre-booked, included, no extra cost on the day — aboard a steamer sailing this lake since 1859. While other tours drive past and point, you'll feel the lake from its surface, Place Fell rising sheer from the shore, the whole basin opening out around you. The same depth applies elsewhere: at Honister, your guide explains the centuries of industry carved into that cliff face, not just a photo of the mine. At Buttermere, widely considered the most beautifully proportioned lake in the district, you'll understand why it's been celebrated since the earliest days of Lake District tourism. With only seven guests aboard, every question gets answered properly, across four mountain passes and ten lakes most visitors never see in a single trip.

William Wordsworth was born and bred in the Lake District, and penned his poems using local landscapes for inspiration. But, finding those local landscapes isn’t easy without research and planning. With this small-group tour, that hard work’s already done, resulting in a carefully planned itinerary that visits Wordsworth’s important landmarks. Round-trip transportation from Windermere makes it easy, and stops at Dove Cottage and St. Oswald’s Church are among the highlights.

Most Brontë tours show you the parsonage and call it a day. This one walks you through the village, the church, and the graveyard, putting you back in Haworth as it actually was in the 1840s — over 40,000 burials in a few acres, a contaminated water supply, an average age of death of 25. Once you understand that, the novels stop reading like vague Gothic atmosphere and start reading as the stark reality of the lives the sisters lived. Few other tours go this deep. You’ll stop to look out across the valley the sisters walked, the same sweeping moorland that fed directly into everything they wrote, not just somewhere pretty to take a photo. And because it’s just you, your driver, and your own storyteller for the whole day, the conversation runs the entire way out and the entire way back: the landscape, the family, literature in general, and whichever novel means the most to you. It’s less a tour with stops bolted together than a genuinely shared day spent talking about books you love.

Skip the fixed itineraries of group tours and discover the Lake District sights you truly want to see without having to plan your own transport. With this private tour, choose the lakes, waterfalls, and places you wish to visit from the available range; and then soak up the scenery and sites as you wish, all as your own personal guide furnishes you with stories and detail you could miss otherwise.