7 Best places to stay in Lake District

The Lake District is littered with big country house hotels, which makes the Samling – with just 12 rooms – perfect if you’re after something more personal.

Positioned on a hillside overlooking Windermere, and surrounded by a 67-acre estate of gardens, woodlands and grounds, it’s the epitome of low-key luxury. Rooms (all named after Lakeland lakes) are split between the main house and four sumptuous suites around the grounds. They’re elegantly appointed, and most offer stunning views over Windermere.

The hotel’s restaurant is another highlight, with panoramic glass windows overlooking the hotel grounds and the lake beyond.

For many years a classic Lakeland country house hotel, these days Gilpin Hotel & Lake House feels decidedly more adventurous. There are still cosy, comfy rooms in the lovely old Edwardian house if that’s what you’re after, but it’s the modern additions that are most exciting: most rooms have their own hot tubs, and the more recent Scandi-style suites dotted around the Gilpin Hotel grounds have their own private spa, sauna and cocktail bar.

Just a mile down the road on a separate 100-acre private estate is Gilpin Lake House, where just 6 bedrooms share the private lake, boat house, spa treatment room, hot tubs, saunas, and swimming pool.; it’s a stunning private paradise.

They have three fine restaurants: the Michelin-starred SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel and the adjacent pan-Asian Gilpin Spice; on the Lake House Estate you will find Knipe Grill at Gilpin Lake House. Gilpin will transport you to all three restaurants from wherever you’re staying.

This large, well-run hotel makes a sensible and smart place to stay.

It’s in a very central spot near Grasmere, and is the only hotel in the area with a proper lakeside location. It’s extremely handy for visiting the main Wordsworth sites, too: Dove Cottage is right across the road.

Facilities are excellent (including the lovely spa) and the hotel feels surprisingly modern, despite its imposing Victorian façade.

Family rooms, junior suites, accessible rooms – you’ll find them all at the Daffodil, making this one of the Lake District’s most versatile hotels.

If it’s out-and-out luxury you’re after, the Brimstone is the ideal choice.

This is a special place to really spoil yourself, modelled on a posh ski hotel: there are log-burning stoves and huge emperor beds in every room, a fabulously indulgent spa and customer ‘hosts’ on hand to arrange activities – everything at the Brimstone is designed to cater to your every need. There’s even a boot room with gear to borrow, supplied by premium brand Arc’teryx.

Factor in the wonderful location on a private estate in Langdale, and you have an adults-only hotel that really takes some topping.

If you’ve always dreamt of staying in your very own castle, then Augill is the place for you.

A 19th-century pile built in mock-medieval style, complete with turrets, towers and castellated ‘battlements’, it’s actually a very welcoming family home: owners Simon and Wendy Bennett have restored it with passion and care, and do their best to make it a relaxed, friendly home away from home.

Rooms are suitably grand – many have four-poster beds, clawfoot baths and antique furniture – but it feels stylish rather than stuffy. More contemporary rooms are available in the estate’s old stables and cottages.

Linthwaite is a longstanding Lake District hotel that has reinvented itself in recent years by ridding itself of formality and old-fashioned decor. It now offers a mix of classic and contemporary: sumptuous rooms in the main house, the best of which offer widescreen views over Windermere, along with timber-clad Fell Suites that feel more minimalist and modern.

The restaurant, Henrock is a huge selling-point: it’s overseen by star chef Simon Rogan, known for his experimental cooking (his flagship restaurant in Cartmel, L’Enclume, recently won its third Michelin star). The gardens are gorgeous, and offer fun surprises such as an outdoor chess set and a boules pitch. Various trails wind around the grounds, and the hotel even has its own tarn complete with wooden rowboats.

Linthwaite’s location is hard to better: it sits on a quiet hill above Windermere, offering an uninterrupted vista of the lake and the fells beyond. If you do feel able to tear yourself away, Windermere and Ambleside are both on your doorstep, with Grasmere, Coniston and the valley Great Langdale a little further afield.

Renowned British hotelier Andrew Wildsmith has utterly reinvented this old Victorian mansion just outside Grasmere, and it now feels more boutique chic than country cosy.

The whole place brims with luxurious materials and innovative design, as well as a playful sense of humour that makes it a pleasure to stay here. Rooms are spacious and luxuriously furnished, and the restaurant is one of the best in the central Lakes (and Michelin starred).

It’s a brilliant hotel for a romantic weekend away – and several rooms are dog-friendly, too.