The Lakes Planner

About The Lakes Planner

The Lakes Planner is an independent guide to the Lake District, written and photographed by people who are actually out on the fells.

We started it for a simple reason: most Lake District information online is either thin, out of date, or written by someone who has never been. Opening times that closed two years ago. Walks described from a map rather than from the path. Photographs bought from a stock library. We wanted to build the opposite - a guide where every route has been walked, every viewpoint photographed, and every pub, café and car park checked before it appears on the page.

The site covers the Lake District town by town, from Keswick and Ambleside to Grasmere, Coniston, Buttermere, Bowness and Hawkshead, with detailed walking guides, waterfall and fell routes, wild swimming spots, family days out and places to stay. Every walk includes the practical detail people actually need - distance, ascent, realistic timings, parking, what the ground is like underfoot and whether it works with a dog. We tell you when a path is boggy, when a car park fills by nine in the morning, and when an attraction isn't worth the admission. Honest beats promotional, every time.

Alongside the written guides, we've built a free AI day planner that turns a rough idea - a family day out, a big walk, somewhere quiet in the rain - into a workable Lake District itinerary in seconds. There's no charge and no sign-up. We also publish What The Fell!, a free short daily newsletter with Lake District news, walks and photography, Monday to Friday.

The Lakes Planner is based in Lazonby, near Penrith, and everything on it is first-hand: our words, our routes, our photographs. Cass, our Staffordshire Bull Terrier, checks most of the walks before you do.

Walking routes are the core of The Lakes Planner. Every guide gives distance in miles and kilometres, total ascent, and a realistic time range rather than an optimistic one - the sort of figure that assumes you'll stop, take photographs and get your breath back on the steep bit.

Each route covers where to park and how early it fills, what the ground is actually like underfoot, and whether the walk suits a dog. Routes are mapped natively on the site rather than embedded from third-party apps, and graded honestly for difficulty. If a path is boggy for most of the year, or a section is steeper than the guidebooks suggest, we say so.

Guides range from short lakeside and valley walks suitable for families, through waterfall and woodland routes, up to the Wainwright fells.

Beyond the walks.

The Lakes Planner covers the Lake District settlement by settlement - Keswick, Ambleside, Windermere, Bowness, Grasmere, Coniston, Buttermere, Hawkshead, Pooley Bridge, Glenridding and more. Each town guide pulls together the walks nearby, the attractions worth your time, places to eat and drink, and the practical arrival detail that decides whether a day goes well: where to park, how early it fills, and what's within walking distance once you're there.

Alongside the towns we run themed guides to Lake District waterfalls, fells and Wainwrights, caves, wild swimming spots, camping and glamping, and family days out - including the ones that still work in the rain, which in Cumbria is not a minor consideration.

Our free AI day planner takes a few details - who's coming, how long you've got, how far you want to walk - and builds a workable Lake District itinerary in seconds, with live weather factored in. There's no account to create and no charge.

What The Fell! Is our free newsletter, out Monday to Friday. Short, readable, and worth opening: Lake District news, a walk worth doing, and a photograph from the fells.

Everything on the site is free to read. No paywall, no membership, no booking fees - we don't sell trips, we just tell you where to go and what it's really like when you get there.

Written from the fells, not from a desk.

The Lakes Planner is written by Peter, based in Lazonby near Penrith, with the Lake District effectively on the doorstep. That proximity is the whole point: routes get walked in different seasons and different weather, attractions get revisited, and guides get corrected when something on the ground changes.

Every photograph on the site is our own. We don't use stock imagery, because a stock photograph of a fell in perfect summer light tells you nothing useful about what that path looks like in February.

Business details are verified before they appear. Cafés close, pubs change hands and venues get renamed - a live website is not proof that a business still trades under that name, so we check. Where something can't be confirmed, we say so plainly rather than guessing, and we avoid publishing prices that will be out of date within months. Links go directly to the operator so you're seeing current information rather than ours.

Cass, our Staffordshire Bull Terrier, walks most of the routes before you do - which is why the dog-friendly detail on this site is specific rather than a box ticked.

If you spot something out of date or wrong, tell us. Guides age, and the only ones worth trusting are the ones that get corrected.