Windermere Hotels and Guest Houses

Windermere in Cumbria lies close to Lake Windermere. Even though officially Lake Windermere does not exist (the only official LAKE is Bassentwaithe), everyone calls it Lake Windermere to distinguish between the two. The town of Windermere does not have any shores as it is located almost a kilometre inland. It is, however, linked to Bowness on Windermere which is a town that does lie in touch with the actual lake. Travel to and from Windermere is easy by train which serves for instance, Manchester or Manchester Airport as well as the West Coast main line.

In the early days the town was known as Winandermere, but the rail company thought this was too long, so they called the station Windermere. Since then both the lake and the town have adopted this name.

The main reason to stay here is to take a look at the lake and one can do this via boat trips on the lake or by circumnavigating the lake. The lake is a massive 17km long and at its widest point it is almost 2km wide. Inside the lake you can spot 18 islands of which some of them are privately owned. Belle Isle is the largest of these and can be seen laying directly opposite of Bowness and stretching for about 1km in length. A nice attraction is in Bowness where you can find the Windermere Steamboat Museum. This museum exhibits steamboats dating back to 1890 or so. Swimming is allowed in the lake and during the Great North Swim (indeed a variation of the well known Great North Run) more than 6500 people swam here together. Those people must not have been scared by the many "monster" stories going around. As with almost every body of water there are always stories of "monsters". In the case of Windermere this is about a giant "eel" which dates back to the 1950's. Of course many people claim to have seen it, but no one has proven there to be one. If you do not fancy a swim in the water then you can always take one of the many ferries or sightseeing boats available.

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The Windermere Tourist Board gives comparable information to this page. If you require more information about Windermere, you may be able to obtain it from the Windermere Tourist Board.

We hope you find suitable Windermere accommodation. You can book cheap hotels, guest houses or Windermere bed and breakfasts from the list above. Enjoy your stay in Windermere hotels.