10 Lakes Winter Scenic Tour - Expert Guide - Photo Stops - Magnificent Locations

During the course of a visit to London, we opted to spend a couple of days in the Lake District. Due to paucity of time and with questionable driving skills we chose to take a conducted tour of the Lakes, than do a self drive. While the latter might be a more measured way of enjoying the wondrous beauty of the area, the conducted tour offers a sampling of all that the area has to offer. Through Viator, I had chosen a small group tour with English Lake Tours. Originally, the booking was for Sunday. When I discovered that the pickup for the tour was a good half an hour’s drive away, a request to the company was promptly attended to and the tour was shifted to Monday so that we could be picked up at Bowness, which is where we were staying. The mode of transport was by minivan. The pick up was punctual and the Van was very clean. We had just another couple with us, so that the group was really small. Our guides for the tour were Jill and Tim, who was also the driver. The Van was equipped with tiny speakers, one for each seat, so that the passengers were not disadvantaged in listening to the information being provided by Tim. The drive through the Lake District is not easy. Commingling with narrow roads are sharp turns and fairly steep ascents and descents. Tim took all of that in a manner that was unobtrusively reassuring. The drive was interspersed with a commentary on the history of the area as well as the geography and topography of the place. All this was not not a dry recitation of facts, but was peppered with humorous anecdotes and pithy one liners. All this made a trip that lasted nearly 7 hours seem much shorter than it really was. The commentary given by Tim was well supplemented by well chosen short comments by Jill. She came into her own element in the Latter half of the tour, in Grasmere, when she took us to visit the grave of William Wordsworth. My wife is a teacher of English and the discussion that followed was extremely erudite and captivating. It is entirely possible that based on this single interaction, we may do a literary tour of the area under her guidance. Another highlight of the tour was the one hour cruise over the Ullswater Lake. The drift down the lake is an encapsulation of all that makes the Lake District a variably picturesque tourist attraction. We loved the entire experience.