A short visitor's guide to Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria: things to do, places to eat and drink, and what's on through the year.
Bowness-on-Windermere sits on the eastern shore of Lake Windermere, the longest natural lake in England, deep inside the Lake District National Park in Cumbria. It runs straight into its sister town, Windermere about 2 km uphill to the north east, so most visitors think of "Bowness" and "Windermere" as one slightly sprawling lakeside resort with the water at its feet. Historically part of Westmorland, the town is small (a few thousand residents), but the lakefront does the heavy lifting: piers, steamers, ice cream queues, and a constant low hum of boats coming and going.
People come for the lake. Bowness Bay is the launching point for Windermere Lake Cruises, the Windermere Ferry across to the quieter western shore, and a long parade of cafés, pubs and gift shops that climb the hill from the water. It is a genuinely useful base for the southern Lakes: easy walking onto the fells from the door, the Beatrix Potter country at Hill Top a short ferry ride away, and Ambleside, Hawkshead and Coniston all within reach for day trips.
The headline attraction is the Windermere Jetty Museum, a smart lakeside museum on Rayrigg Road dedicated to the boats and steam launches that worked the lake. Heritage vessels are displayed in glass-walled sheds over the water, and on running days you can ride a restored steam launch out into the bay. It is genuinely unusual: not a row of dusty cabinets, but working craft going in and out of the lake.
In the centre of town, St Martin's Church is worth twenty minutes for the medieval stained glass and the older fabric beneath the Victorian restoration; the Baddeley Clock Tower on New Road is the obvious meeting point if you are dividing the family up for the morning. For Lake District art rather than fridge magnets, Cook House Gallery in The Arcade has been showing work by local painters since 1981 and is the place to find an original picture of the fells to take home. Out on the Lyth Valley road, Lindeth Fell Country House is a country-house hotel rather than a pay-on-the-door attraction, but the gardens, croquet lawn and lake-view terrace are open to anyone booking lunch or afternoon tea.
If you only do one thing on foot from Bowness, walk up to Brant Fell Viewpoint. It is a short, sharp climb (an hour up and down at a steady pace) from the back of the town and the view at the top is the postcard one: Windermere stretching away, the Langdale Pikes lining the horizon, the islands looking like green coins on the lake. Come up at first light or in the last hour before sunset and you tend to have it more or less to yourself.
Down at the water, The Glebe is the broad lawn that runs along the eastern shore by the piers, and it is the thing most visitors actually mean when they say "we're going down to the lake". Bring a coffee and a sandwich, watch the rowing boats, the swans and the queues for Windermere Lake Cruises, and let the kids burn off energy by the boathouses. Windermere Park, a quiet pocket of green between Bowness and the railway station, is where dog-walkers head when they want a flat loop without the crowds. Speaking of which, this is dog-walking country: see Dog-friendly holiday cottages in Bowness-on-Windermere for cottages that take well-behaved hounds.
When the rain comes off the lake (and in the Lakes, it does), Bowness has more wet-weather options than its size suggests. The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction on Crag Brow walks you through every Potter tale with three-dimensional sets and gentle interactive bits; it is genuinely good for under-tens, and the tea garden out the back is a perfectly civilised place to sit out a shower with a scone.
The other staple is the Royalty Cinema on Lake Road, an Art Deco three-screener that still has a working Wurlitzer organ and the charm of a building that has been showing films since the 1920s. Programming is a sensible mix of new releases and the occasional classic. Round it out with a browse of the local galleries: The Lakes Gallery on St Martin's Parade specialises in landscape photography of the fells and the lake, while Cook House Crafts on Grosvenor Terrace stocks ceramics, glass and textiles from British makers under the same family roof as the Cook House painting gallery. For a rainy-day evening with friends, Bowness Escape Room at Quarry Rigg has two different one-hour rooms; book ahead in school holidays.
For the genuinely characterful pint, head straight to Hole in t' Wall on Robinson Place, the oldest pub in Bowness and a small, low-beamed tangle of rooms with an open fire, slate flags and a menu of homemade meat pies and sandwiches. It is the local-feeling antidote to the busier lakefront places and worth the five-minute walk uphill from the bay.
Down on the waterfront itself, Quayside Bowness is the obvious crowd-pleaser, a big nautical pub overlooking the marina that does comfort food and lake views in roughly equal measure; it gets busy on summer afternoons. The Albert on Queens Square is the proper traditional choice in the centre of town, with regular live music in the evenings and a small beer garden. For something different, Bodega Bar & Tapas Bowness on Ash Street swaps pies for Spanish wines and tapas in a lively rustic room, and Boaters Bar on Glebe Road is a small craft ale and gin specialist on the Quays for anyone who came to taste rather than to drink.
For an honest meal in town, Hyltons Restaurant on Ash Street is the local favourite for a smart British dinner: classic mains, pasta, fish, and a kitchen that actually smokes its own pulled pork. It is the place to book if you want one proper sit-down evening of your week. Round the corner, BAHA does the loud, late side of Bowness with Asian street food, cocktails and live music; reckon on a wait without a booking on a Saturday.
For pizza, Rastelli's Pizzeria on Lake Road is the high-ceilinged neighbourhood Italian most regulars send first-timers to. Trattoria at Quarry Rigg is the alternative if Rastelli's is full, with a vine-arbour ceiling and outdoor tables. The two Thai kitchens, King Of Siam on Grosvenor Terrace and Jintana Thai Restaurant on Lake Road, both do solid curries and pad thai if you fancy a break from Lakeland comfort food. And when you have spent the afternoon on the fells and want feeding fast, Vinegar Jones Fish & Chips on Royal Square is the no-fuss takeaway by the bay.
For coffee and a slice of something with a Lake District pedigree, Bryson's on Royal Square is the obvious first stop: a craft bakery and traditional tea room that has been turning out cakes and bread in Bowness since 1947, and the place to buy a fruit cake to take home in the tin. The Alpine on Grosvenor Terrace is the quieter, slightly more grown-up choice in the centre, the sort of place locals park up with a flat white and a proper book.
Down by the water, The Bluebird Cafe on the Bay at Glebe Road and The Pier café on Bowness Pier are the two pre-cruise pit stops, both built for a quick coffee before you board a steamer. Dan's Shack out at Ferry Nab is the lake-side opposite: an unfussy hut by the car ferry that has been doing breakfast baps, toasties and ice creams since 1996, and is the right answer when you have a wet dog and walking boots. For a treat with the children on a damp afternoon, ChoccoBar Hot Chocolate House at Quarry Rigg is exactly what it sounds like, a cafe built around waffles and very serious hot chocolate.
By train, the nearest station is Windermere railway station, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) up the hill from the lakefront, with connections to the surrounding Lake District, Manchester, Manchester Airport and the West Coast Main Line. From the station you can pick up a connecting bus or a short taxi straight down to Bowness Bay; the walk is downhill and pleasant in good weather.
For buses, Stagecoach runs the main Lake District services through Bowness, including a small number of the long-distance 555 route which links the central Lakes from Lancaster up to Keswick. The local council also runs wheelchair-accessible minibuses around the edges of town for visitors who need them.
If you are arriving by car, sat-nav for Far Sawrey (~2.9 km) or anywhere on the western shore of the lake will route you via the Windermere Ferry at Ferry Nab, a car-carrying cable ferry that crosses to Ferry House in roughly ten minutes and saves a long drive round. Once you are settled in, the most enjoyable way to get up and down the lake is on foot off the boats: Windermere Lake Cruises sail year-round from Bowness Bay north to Ambleside and south to Fell Foot, with cars left happily in the car park while you cruise.