Lake District Spring Tour

Five nights on Windermere, escorted, in the guest’s own classic, driving five mountain passes and a dozen lakes, with the price quoted on application.

One hotel for the week is the right way to tour the Lake District. The distances are small, the roads are the attraction, and nothing is gained by moving luggage around a region you can cross in an hour.

The Lakeside Hotel on Windermere is the base throughout. Wrynose and Hardknott come early and come together, which is the hard day: Hardknott is the steepest road in England at one in three, with blind hairpins and no room to pass, and it is worth knowing in advance that a long-wheelbase classic will find it a serious test. Muncaster Castle follows on the same run. The other days take Hawkshead, Tarn Hows and Coniston Water, then Kirkstone Pass and Ambleside, then Grasmere, Honister, Whinlatter and Ullswater, which between them cover around a dozen of the lakes.

Five nights at a four-star hotel, five three-course dinners, breakfast daily, a roadbook with the daily itineraries, a Michelin map of the region and a tour director throughout are all included; lunches, coffees, drinks with dinner, entry fees and ferries are not. The price is given on application. Spring is the operator’s season for this one and a good choice: the passes are clear, the daffodils that Wordsworth made famous are out, and the roads are far emptier than in July and August, when Hardknott in particular collects queues of overheating cars. Six days is enough to drive every road worth driving in the Lakes without hurrying any of them.