Keswick sits at the top of the Lake District’s road network, which makes it one of the best bases in the national park for days out. Borrowdale runs south from the town into the highest fells in England; Bassenthwaite and the Solway plain lie north; the western valleys are over a pass; and the M6 corridor at Penrith puts Carlisle, the Eden Valley and the Pennines within easy reach. Almost everything below is under an hour’s drive.
A word on driving. Lake District roads are slow, narrow and busy in season, and the passes — Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter — are steep with tight bends and passing places. Times given here are realistic rather than optimistic, and add half an hour to everything on an August weekend.
The best short drive in England, and it starts at the end of Keswick’s own lake. The B5289 runs down the eastern shore of Derwentwater past Ashness Bridge and Surprise View, through the Jaws of Borrowdale to Grange and Rosthwaite, then climbs Honister Pass to the working slate mine at the top. Twenty minutes to Grange, forty to Honister. Stop for the Bowder Stone, a house-sized balanced boulder with a ladder up it, and for Lodore Falls at the southern end of the lake — spectacular after rain, disappointing in a dry spell.
Continue over Honister and you drop into Buttermere, eleven kilometres from Keswick as the crow flies but a good half hour by road. The flat four-and-a-half-mile circuit of the lake is regularly voted the finest low-level walk in the Lake District — a genuinely easy path with Fleetwith Pike, Haystacks and Red Pike arranged around it. Moss Force waterfall sits on the Newlands Pass above, and returning to Keswick over Newlands rather than the way you came makes a circuit of about two hours’ driving with stops.
Fifteen minutes west, above Braithwaite. England’s only true mountain forest, with waymarked walking trails, purpose-built mountain bike routes, a Go Ape course, red squirrel hides and a visitor centre with a café. It is the best bad-weather destination near Keswick because the tree cover changes everything.
Thirty to forty minutes east over the A66 and down the A592. Glenridding sits at the southern end of Ullswater and is the starting point for Helvellyn, England’s third-highest mountain, and for the Ullswater Steamers — historic passenger boats that run the length of the lake. The Aira Force waterfall, on the way, is a National Trust site with an easy walk in. Ullswater is the other great Lakeland lake and it feels quite different from Derwentwater: longer, more open, more Scottish in character.
Ten minutes north. Bassenthwaite is the only body of water in the Lake District officially called a lake, and Dodd Wood on its eastern shore has forest trails and, in season, one of England’s best osprey viewing points. Mirehouse, a seventeenth-century house with gardens and a lakeside walk, sits on the same road, and the Lake District Wildlife Park is a couple of minutes further.
Thirty-five minutes south on the A591. Wordsworth’s village, with Dove Cottage, the poet’s grave in the churchyard, and the gingerbread shop that has been selling the same recipe since 1854. Allan Bank and the lake itself are both National Trust. It is busy — properly busy — so go early or late.
Twenty-five minutes north-west, sixteen kilometres out. A handsome Georgian market town at the meeting of the Cocker and the Derwent, with a broad main street, independent shops, the Wordsworth House where the poet was born, and a castle. It has its own Wikivoyage guide, which for a town of under nine thousand people is a fair indication of substance. The Memorial Gardens by the river and the Kirkgate arts centre round out an easy half day.
Twenty-five minutes east on the A66. The gateway town to the northern Lakes, with a ruined red sandstone castle, a good market, Rheged just outside, and the main-line railway station that most Keswick visitors arrive at. Useful for a rainy day and for anything you cannot buy in Keswick.
Fifty minutes north. A border city with a Norman castle, a cathedral, the Tullie House museum and a shopping centre. The best full-day option when the fells are out of the question, and a good jumping-off point for Hadrian’s Wall.
Forty-five minutes to an hour south. The southern Lakes are a different holiday — bigger, busier, more commercial, with lake cruises, Wray Castle, Beatrix Potter attractions and the Windermere shoreline. Worth one day, not more, if you are based in Keswick.
Forty-five minutes north-west brings you to a completely different landscape: saltmarsh, wading birds, huge skies and almost no visitors. Silloth and Allonby are old-fashioned seaside in the best sense.
Wasdale, an hour or so round by road, holds England’s deepest lake, highest mountain and, allegedly, smallest church. The drive in is long and the reward is the most dramatic head-of-valley view in the country. Eskdale and the Ravenglass and Eskdale narrow-gauge railway are on the same side.
An hour and a quarter to the central sections around Housesteads and Vindolanda. A long day from Keswick but a straightforward one, and best combined with a night away if you can.
Keswick has no railway — the line closed in 1972 and the nearest stations are Penrith, twenty-five kilometres east, and the Cumbrian coast line to the west. What Keswick does have is a genuinely useful bus network. Services run down Borrowdale, over to Buttermere in season, north to Cockermouth and Carlisle, east to Penrith and south to Windermere and Kendal, all from the central bus station.
Add the Keswick Launch, which circles Derwentwater and drops walkers at jetties around the lake, and a car-free stay here is entirely practical. Several tour operators also run guided day trips from Keswick, covering the ten-lakes circuit and the western valleys in a minibus, which is the easiest way to see a lot of ground in one day without driving it yourself.
For arrival routes and local transport detail, see our getting to Keswick page.
The Borrowdale round, half a day. South down the eastern shore of Derwentwater with stops at Ashness Bridge and Surprise View, on through the Jaws of Borrowdale to the Bowder Stone, then up Honister Pass to the slate mine. Turn round at the top or continue to Buttermere. Around three hours with stops, more if you walk at Grange.
The full western circuit, a whole day. Keswick to Honister, down to Buttermere for the lake circuit on foot, over Newlands Pass with a stop at Moss Force, and back into Keswick past Catbells. Roughly ninety minutes of driving and three hours of walking, and it takes in the best road and the best low-level walk in the northern Lakes in one loop.
The northern day, no fells required. Bassenthwaite and Dodd Wood for the forest trails and the osprey viewing, Mirehouse for the house and gardens, the Wildlife Park if there are children, then Cockermouth for the afternoon — Georgian streets, independent shops, Wordsworth House and a castle. Back in Keswick for dinner. Almost no climbing and a lot of variety.
Two practical points decide how these days go. The passes are slow and the traffic on the A66 and through Ambleside can be worse than the map suggests, so build in more time than the distances imply. And the popular car parks — Buttermere, Aira Force, Grasmere, Honister — fill by mid-morning in season, which means an early start is not enthusiasm but strategy. Leaving Keswick at half past eight rather than half past ten routinely saves an hour of driving around looking for a space, and gets you the good half of the day.
Buttermere over Honister and back by Newlands, if you have a car and one clear day. Ullswater if you would rather be on a boat.
From Keswick, yes. The bus network reaches most of the valleys and the launch covers Derwentwater. Some of the western valleys are genuinely hard to reach without a car.
About thirty-five kilometres by road, which takes forty-five minutes to an hour depending on traffic through Ambleside.
Comfortably enough to see the northern and western Lakes properly. Trying to add the south and east as well is how people end up spending a holiday in a car.
More ideas closer to home are on our places to visit page.