There are lots of wonderful things to do in the Lake District for children of all ages. Summer holidays for children means getting out and about to enjoy some of the best Lake District attractions. So if you’re looking for things to do for families and children in the Lake District, we’ve included a few of our favourites here for you to choose from.
So what is there to do in Lake District in the summer?
Getting out on the water is one of the most exciting Lake District family holiday activities for you and the kids. Parents can take in the most beautiful scenery of the Lake District, whilst the children play being captain of the ship!
No surprise then that a trip out with Windermere Lake Cruises is arguably the number one tourist attraction in the area. With various cruises on offer, you can discover the length and breadth of England’s longest lake, and extend your trip with a walk, cycle, steam train ride or visit to Wray Castle.
It’s an exciting day out for the children, especially as you can stop off at various places along the way, including Lakes Aquarium and Brockhole.
And there’s more family fun in the Lake District at the Low Wood Bay Watersports Centre. Our experts will get you out on the lake on kayaks, paddleboards, canoes, motorboats or yachts.
There is nothing more pleasant on a summer day than being on the water – either with speed, or just cruising along under your own steam. Tuition is available and wetsuits and buoyancy aids are provided. And English Lakes Hotels guests receive a 10% discount off all watersports activities.
If you’re looking for some of the best Lake District activities for children, why not try falconry?
Both Low Wood Bay and The Wild Boar partner with Lake District Falconry to offer you and the children to see magnificent birds of prey up close.
Our resident falconers will explain everything about these majestic creatures. Walk through the woods with the hawk alongside you soaring and swooping on a simulated hunt. And there’s the chance to get some great photos with the birds too.
The World of Beatrix Potter is one of the most popular family attractions in the Lake District. The magical walk-through attraction brings well-loved characters Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail to life. It is beautifully laid out with scenes from the popular Beatrix Potter book series. You will also learn more about the author and her life in the Lake District.
Set in beautiful gardens, there’s something for everyone at Brockhole. The grounds sweep down to the lake and contain an arts and crafts designed house with gardens and a great adventure playground for children of all ages. Throughout the holidays and most weekends there are also events like birdwatching or raft building and regular ‘welly’ walks.
For the older children and adventurous parents there’s the adrenaline rush of Treetop Trek. Tackle the 35 exciting high-level challenges, rope bridges and wobbly logs, plus the spectacular 250 metre zip wire finish. It’s not for the faint hearted!
There is a mini version Trek lasting around one hour which is open to adults and children over 5 years. For those 3 years and over, there is the option of the Treetop Nets – trampoline and tunnel heaven.
If you’re looking for more adventurous things to do in the Lake District for children in the summer holidays, Go Ape may just be the ticket.
Set in the extensive and picturesque Grizedale Forest, Go Ape has five different adventures on offer. Treetop Adventure and Treetop Adventure Plus for younger children, and Treetop Challenge for the ones with no fear!
High platforms and tricky crossings can take 2–3 hours to complete. There is also a Zip Trekking Adventure which takes you on a series of zip wires through 3 km of the forest.
Another family day out in the Lake District worth considering is Low Sizergh Barn. A fine example of farming and diversification, it features a flower walk for children, complete with fairy doors to open and plant life quizzes. There’s also a 2-mile farm trail to the nearby woodlands.
It’s inside the buildings that things get really colourful. Three floors of crafts, gifts, clothing and local foodstuffs are housed in the 17th century barn shop. The adjoining tearoom has delicious home baked produce. If you time your visit right, you can watch the herd of cows being milked from the large viewing windows in the café.
Safari and wildlife parks are always high on the list of summer holiday family outings in the UK. So South Lakes Safari Zoo is well worth a visit for its huge collection of animals. See Sumatran tigers and a host of big cats. There’s kangaroos, monkeys and gibbons, lemurs, giraffes, rhino, wildebeest and honey badgers, as well as a whole flock of different birds and reptiles galore. Feeding time for the big cats is a real spectacle and worth timing your visit around.
Another great Lake District summer holiday out for all the family to enjoy. Set in twenty-four acres of stunning Lake District land, there’s over a hundred species of animals and wildlife from around the world. There are also seasonal activities at the park, including, Alpaca Walking and The Ultimate Animal Experience to meet tapirs and meerkats up close.
More accurately, a gothic-style private house that looks like a castle. With turrets and towers and a sweeping informal lake side garden, this is a great summer holiday Lake District day out for the family. Spacious ‘castle’ rooms, smaller servants’ quarters and activities like a dressing up box, crown making or ‘build your own castle’ are excellent for inspiring children’s imaginations. And you can get there by boat with Windermere Lake Cruises.
Lakes Aquarium features an array of displays of freshwater and seawater life. Standing in the underwater tunnel gives a very different perspective. There’s also a good selection of wild fowl, as well as amphibian and insect life. Otters, sharks, rays, diving ducks and marmoset monkeys are just some of the species on show.
It’s great to arrive by a Windermere Lake Cruises steamer. And a popular extension to your day is a journey on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite steam train. It all adds up to a great day out in the Lake District.
Windermere Jetty Museum houses a fascinating collection of historic steamboats and motorboats. This includes SL Dolly, one of the oldest mechanically powered boats in the world. Get up close to Esperance, the boat that inspired Arthur Ransome’s houseboat in Swallows and Amazons, and Beatrix Potter’s wooden rowing boat.
The museum displays an important part of the Lake District’s history and heritage and there’s an onsite workshop where you can watch boats being restored, using traditional crafts.
Another great summer holiday activity for children is tackling a climbing wall. There’s tuition and supervision from qualified instructors for beginners of all ages. There’s such a sense of achievement, sometimes having to overcome a little anxiety or fear of heights. The 35-foot lead wall is a replica of a real crag taken from a mould of natural limestone.
The Puzzling Place attraction will have you scratching your head and having to work out what is real, and what is fiction. Optical illusions include an anti-gravity room where you stand at an impossible slant without falling and the room with holograms and horror-grams that come to life when viewed from different angles. Eyelusion is an optical illusion interactive exhibit using art and sculpture. Grow tall or shrink tiny in the Ames room or manoeuvre a 90-degree twist in the Sideways room. It’s well worth a visit for a summer holiday Lake District day out.
The Hawkshead Chocolate Factory is another summer holiday Lake District adventure for children. Parents and the kids can get involved creating their own treats in the family chocolate workshop. There’s plenty of scope for artistic impression with a choice of toppings and little hand-made flourishes. And you get to take your own chocolate creations home with you, along with a chocolatier’s apron and hair net.
Set on the shores of Windermere, Stott Park is the only working example of a bobbin mill left in the Lake District. In its heyday, it was a major employer in the area, with 250 men and boys working there, often in extreme conditions. Their work produced a quarter of a million wooden bobbins every week which were sent off to Lancashire for use in the spinning industry. Today the bobbin mill is an award-winning attraction and takes visitors on a production tour from raw materials to the final product, including the use of the original machinery.
Summer holidays for children in the Lake District conjure up images of the great outdoors, but we know that the weather doesn’t always play ball. So why not drop in to see one of the area’s famous museums with the kids instead?
Lakeland Motor Museum houses 30,000 exhibits describing the history of motoring manufacture over a period of one hundred years. Classic cars, bikes and trikes, motorbikes a plenty. There’s also a 1920s garage complete with car mechanic tools of the time, period shopping displays, an Isle of Man TT tribute, and the Campbell Bluebird exhibition, a testament to the UK’s rich heritage of motoring, engineering, daring and speed.
And another historic and unusual attraction for the family is the Derwent Pencil Museum. Discover where the first pencil was created and learn about the graphite mine and cottage industry that it supplied before Derwent Pencil Museum expanded to the worldwide business that it is today. There are secret WW2 pencils, hidden maps, an 8-metre coloured pencil and miniature pencil sculptures as well as various artistic activities.
These are just a few of our favourite places to entertain children and families during your Lake District summer holiday stay with us.
There is a great choice of accommodation types and fabulous amenities at Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa. Perfect for a short stay or longer summer holiday. The Wild Boar Estate is also a great venue for families with a range of activities in the adjoining woodlands and over 70 acres of rural countryside to explore. Both are within easy reach of attractions and activities to keep the children richly entertained during their summer holidays.
We’re always adding great deals, events and experiences that you won’t want to miss out on.
