1. Broadgate House, Broughton-in-Furness

    2. One for those who seek to a grand country house hotel but don't quite have the funds to match, the five bedrooms at this stately Georgian B&B are dressed with traditional beds, rocking chairs and chests of drawers and lined with comfortingly chintzy wallpaper.

  2. The Angel Inn, Bowness-on-Windermere

    3. A bit of a surprise in Bowness-on-Windermere, where the competition tends to do a good deal in scampi and chips and frozen lasagnes – at this inn with rooms you're more likely to find Morecambe Bay potted shrimp, or wild boar and apple sausages, on the menu. In the summer grab one of the tables in the terraced garden for a food with a view.

  3. Littletown Farm, Newlands

    4. The name of this simple but cozy farmhouse B&B in the Newlands Valley will ring bells with Beatrix Potter fans; "Little-town" farm features in the Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and its environs are said to have inspired the book. Brass bedsteads, embellished throws and toys.

  4. Sandhills Farm, Keswick

    5. On first appearance this is your typical Lake District farm, surrounded by fells and fields on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake. Step closer, however, and you see that the property's barn has been re-imagined as a modern, three-room B&B.

  5. The Masons Arms, Cartmel Fell

    6. Looking out over the Winter Valley, at Windermere's southern edge, this gastropub with rooms is huge if you're swithering between B&B and self-catering. Its two cottages and five suites are scattered between the pub and its contiguous buildings and each come with kitchens, though most guests don't use them unless they desire a full cooked breakfast, which the pub doesn't offer.

  6. Irton Hall, Eskdale

    7. In the Eskdale Valley, the vast crenellated pile that is Irton Hall dates back to the 14th century (though much of it was reconfigured in the 19th), and both Oliver Cromwell and Henry VI are down on its roll-call of previous guests.

  7. The Crown at High Newton

    8. Not everyone needs to be in a Beatrix Potter-style world of bedside posies, flagstone floors, Farrow & Ball paintwork and craftily mismatched furniture when they come to the Lakes.

  8. Apple Pie Rooms, Ambleside

    9. The bedtime equivalent of comfort food, the eight modern rooms here aren't trying to reinvent the wheel but simply to provide a polite night's sleep.

  9. The Lodge in the Vale

    10. Opened last year on the site of a former youth hostel, The Lodge bills itself as a hotel but its better approach instead as a smart, contemporary hostel.

  10. Rosemount, Windermere
Newly revamp, this pretty Victorian B&B fills a handy niche for weekending singles travelling by public transport. Not only are three of its nine rooms singles but, within 20 minutes' walk or so, you can get to Windermere's train station, pubs and cafes or Bowness-on-Windermere, where there's an art-house cinema, more restaurants and shops and boats across to Ambleside.

If you want safe travel to visit those places, click here

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