Another Place, The Lake
Another Place, The Lake is a design-led hotel on the shore of Ullswater in the Lake District, a former Victorian estate whose 47 rooms and suites take in doubles, shepherd huts, a treehouse and cottages, set in 18 acres that run down to a private jetty. Families come for the Kids' Zone that takes children from six months, a 20-metre indoor pool with lake and fell views, plus wild swimming, kayaking and paddleboarding straight off the jetty.
On this page
Is it worth it?
Who the hotel suits, how the money works and the facts to skim before the detail.
Another Place, The Lake is a boutique hotel rather than an all-inclusive resort, so it works differently from a holiday park. You stay on a bed-and-breakfast basis, with dinner-inclusive packages if you want them (a two- or three-course Rampsbeck dinner added to each night, or the two-night "Escape to the Lake" package), and pay separately for lunch, extra dinners and most activities. What the premium price buys is a lakeside setting, an Ofsted-registered kids' club that takes babies and is included in every stay, plus a hotel as happy to see muddy wellies as smart shoes. It sits at the top end for a Lake District hotel, and watersports, babysitting and days out add up on top, so it suits families who value real childcare and a design-led place over the lowest nightly rate.
It's the first of two hotels from the team behind Watergate Bay in Cornwall, opened in 2017, with 47 rooms and suites of every kind, from doubles to huts, a treehouse and cottages, spread across the estate. Its sister hotel, Another Place, The Machrie on Islay, opened in 2024. Press and family-travel reviews are consistently warm: Time Out's Amy Houghton gave it four out of five in October 2024, calling it "a cosy, family-friendly HQ for Lake District adventures", and the childcare, the pool and the setting are what families single out again and again.
The hotel is open year round, with a two-night minimum stay, four nights over Christmas and three over New Year. It's cashless, taking Visa and Mastercard, and you pay in full when you book.
Best for
You want a design-led hotel with a real kids' club, a lake-view pool and wild swimming or paddleboarding off a private jetty, and you're happy to pay for it.
Maybe not for
You're on a tight budget, you want everything on one site with a big splash-and-slides pool or you can't bring a car.
Best ages
Babies from six months up. The Kids' Zone runs to twelve, watersports start around five to eight and there's plenty for adults too.
What stands out
Real childcare on site, the pool over Ullswater and expert-led swimming on the lake.
What to check
Which room or suite gives the children their own space, and the Kids' Zone session times for your dates.
Where is it?
Watermillock, on the western shore of Ullswater in the Lake District, about ten minutes from the M6 at Penrith.
Quick facts for families
A former lakeside estate on Ullswater
What the hotel is, how it's laid out across the grounds and what that feels like with children.
The hotel occupies Rampsbeck Grange, a former Victorian estate at Watermillock, Cumbria CA11 0LP, roughly midway along the western shore of Ullswater, the second-longest lake in England at about 7.5 miles, within the Lake District National Park. The main building is a Georgian country house, and a newer wing alongside holds most of the rooms and all of the family suites. The 18 acres of grounds run down through meadows, wildflower gardens and a herb garden that supplies the kitchen to a private jetty on the water. For the wider area, see our Lake District guide.
Dotted around the grounds are six shepherd huts tucked among yew hedges and ferns, a two-bedroom treehouse up in the oaks, the Victorian Glasshouse restaurant by the water, the Sheep Shed watersports cabin on the shore, the Kids' Zone buildings, an outdoor hot tub and a seasonal lakeside sauna. With 47 rooms and suites across all of it, this is boutique by any measure, small enough to feel personal but large enough for a proper pool, restaurants and a kids' club. The grounds are open enough to feel spacious yet contained enough that children can move between the buildings without going far, which parents note as one of the easier things about a stay here. The look throughout is design-led and built from the landscape around it: slate, timber and natural palettes, rather than a country-house chintz feel.
Dogs are welcome in at least sixteen of the rooms and most of the shepherd huts, and in the Living Space, the Glasshouse and the Brackenrigg Inn. Rampsbeck, the main restaurant, is the one place they can't join you.
The hotel buys its power from a renewable energy partner drawing on wind, biomass, solar and hydro, and is working towards B Corp certification, the independent standard for a company's social and environmental performance, though it isn't certified yet. Its kitchens lean on Cumbrian and seasonal produce for the same reason, sourcing close to home rather than shipping ingredients in. The indoor pool is UV-filtered, which keeps the chlorine low.
Every place to eat and drink
The four kitchens, the picnic service and how families with young children fit around them.
There are four places to eat and drink, plus a picnic service, and nothing is all-inclusive: you pay as you go unless you're on a dinner package. Two are at the hotel, one is down by the water and one is a short walk up the hill.
Rampsbeck is the main restaurant, in the contemporary wing with lake views and an open kitchen. Dinner is a two- or three-course menu built around Cumbrian and seasonal produce, served 6pm to 9pm, and booking is strongly recommended. Families are encouraged to book between 6pm and 7pm, and there's a freshly cooked buffet children's tea from 5pm to 6pm for families dining there that evening, plus a three-course menu for younger diners if you're eating later, from 6pm; high chairs throughout. Breakfast runs 7:30am to 10am, with waffles made to order, a full cooked breakfast, grab-and-go pastries, smoked salmon and bagels, fresh juices and coffee from enamel pots. It's the one restaurant that isn't dog friendly.
The Living Space is the casual all-day option, a bar and dining room with doors onto a terrace. The menu is sharing plates, rice bowls, curries, burgers, steak frites and salads, served midday to 3pm and 5pm to 9pm. There's a children's menu from 5pm and high chairs, and it's dog friendly. Lunch is walk-in, but it's open to non-residents through the day and can get busy, so it's worth booking for dinner.
The Glasshouse is a Victorian-style building right by the water, between the herb garden and the lake, serving wood-fired pizza with a terrace under an oak tree. No booking is needed and it's dog friendly. It opens Thursday to Monday, midday to 5pm, and later on Friday and Saturday until 8pm; on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when it's closed to walk-ins, it's available for private hire. It doubles as a space for yoga, swim camps and workshops.
The Brackenrigg Inn is a traditional Cumbrian pub a five-minute walk up the hill, with roaring fires and Ullswater views. Alongside its regular menu it runs Pie Night on Wednesdays, Curry Night on Thursdays, live music on Friday evenings and a Sunday roast at midday. Breakfast runs 8am to 10am, lunch midday to 3pm and dinner 5pm to 8:30pm, 8pm on Sundays; it's dog and child friendly, wellies encouraged, and guests staying in its rooms get full use of the hotel, the Swim Club and the Kids' Zone.
In summer the kitchen puts together picnics to eat in the grounds or take up a fell, open to non-residents as well as guests: a simpler Lake picnic at £30 a person or a more elaborate Fell picnic at £40, both with gluten-free options and soft drinks included; pre-book at least a day ahead. Small pantries around the main building have a microwave, a fridge and washing-up facilities, which makes warming a bottle or putting together an early toddler breakfast easy without waiting for a restaurant to open.
So a family with young children is well covered at either hotel restaurant, with an early children's tea, high chairs in both and the pantries for anything in between. There's also a Swim & Dine evening for non-residents, from 6pm, which pairs Swim Club access and cocktails with a three-course dinner at 8pm for £60 a person, Sunday to Thursday outside school holidays. The Brackenrigg's children's menu marks its pesto fusilli pasta as vegan and its sticky toffee pudding as vegetarian; the other two restaurants don't spell their children's options out the same way, so for a child with a dietary need it's worth checking with the team before you arrive.
The rooms, huts and cottages
Every type from doubles to shepherd huts, which suit a family and how the booking works.
Accommodation runs from double rooms in the house and the wing through family suites, cottages, shepherd huts and a treehouse. The hotel doesn't publish room sizes, so the table below goes by how many each sleeps; the notes say which suit a family, and the guidance after it goes into why.
| Room | Sleeps | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Standard double | 2 adults | Smallest rooms, in the house or the wing, with no lake view; not set up for children |
| Better double | 2 adults | More space and a partial lake view; some interconnect, which you email to book |
| Best double | 2 adults | Larger, with full lake and fell views; fits an extra bed or a cot |
| Suite | 2 adults | The largest doubles, with Ullswater views and a choice of balcony, dual-aspect or roll-top bath |
| Better family suite | 2 adults + 3 children | Contemporary wing, with a separate bunkroom for the children, a seating area and a partial lake view |
| Best family suite | 2 adults + 4 children | Second floor, with a bunkroom and sweeping lake views from the main bedroom |
| Better family cottage | 2 adults + 2 children, plus a cot | Two-bed cottage by the main house, with its own garden and a pantry; dog friendly |
| Best family cottage (Willow) | Two bedrooms | Designed by Lynsey Ford, the Interior Design Masters winner, with a natural wood palette and a large mural in the living room; lake and fell views; occupancy not published, so ask reservations |
| Shepherd hut | 2 adults | One of six huts on the estate; stargazing roof over a king-size bed, copper bath, log burner and a fire pit; dog friendly; not set up for children |
| Family shepherd hut | 2 adults + 2 children under 10 | Two of the six huts joined by a glass walkway, with a bunkroom, a log burner, a pantry and a private garden; the most secluded option, with full use of the hotel |
| Treehouse | Two bedrooms | The largest suite at the hotel; floor-to-ceiling lake views, a bath on the deck, a log burner and reclaimed oak floors; dog friendly; occupancy not published, so ask reservations |
| Brackenrigg Inn room | Up to a family of four | Seven pub rooms a five-minute walk uphill, singles, doubles and a two-bedroom suite that sleeps four, with full hotel access |
The Standard double isn't set up for children, so it's a couples' room. The Better and Best doubles and the Suites also sleep two adults; for a family with a baby who needs only a cot, the Suites and the Best doubles have the space, both with lake views, and a Best double can fit an extra bed or a cot alongside the two adults. For children in their own room you want a family suite, both in the contemporary wing with a separate bunkroom and their own seating area: the Better family suite sleeps two adults and three children, and the Best family suite, on the second floor with sweeping lake views, sleeps two adults and four.
The two family cottages sit by the main house with their own garden and a small pantry. The Better family cottage sleeps two adults and two children with room for a cot, and is dog friendly; Willow, the Best family cottage, was designed by Lynsey Ford, the winner of Interior Design Masters, in a natural wood palette with a large mural in the living room and lake and fell views, and its occupancy isn't published, so ask reservations. The shepherd huts come two ways, six in total across the estate. The couples' huts, with a stargazing roof over a king-size bed, a copper bath and a log burner by a fire pit, are dog friendly and for two adults, not set up for children. The family version joins two huts with a glass walkway and adds a separate bunkroom for up to two children under ten, a log burner and a small pantry; it's the most secluded thing on the estate, though guests still have full use of the hotel's restaurants, pool and Kids' Zone. The treehouse, the largest suite at the hotel, has two bedrooms, floor-to-ceiling lake views, a bath out on the deck, a log burner and reclaimed oak floors, and is dog friendly; like Willow, its occupancy isn't published, so ask when you enquire. Up the hill, the Brackenrigg Inn has seven of its own rooms: singles, doubles and a two-bedroom suite that takes a family of four, with continental breakfast and full use of the hotel's facilities.
Rooms are priced per room per night for two people sharing. Travel cots are available for children up to three years old. Some rooms interconnect, but you'll need to email the reservations team to book those rather than doing it online. Children aged three and over sharing a double are charged a quarter of the room rate, while the family suites are simply priced per room to their maximum occupancy.
Kids Go Free and the long-stay discount
The Kids Go Free offer lets children aged three to twelve stay free, breakfast included, when they share an adult's room, suite or family shepherd hut. It runs Sunday to Thursday outside school holidays and the festive period, which makes a term-time midweek break noticeably better value. Separately, stay seven nights or more, on either bed-and-breakfast or a dinner package, and the hotel takes ten per cent off.
The Swim Club and the pool
The indoor pool and its facilities, then the lake itself and getting on the water.
The Swim Club is the indoor heart of the hotel: a 20-metre pool with glazed walls on two sides looking out to the lake and the fells, lit from above by a skylight. The water is UV-filtered, so the chlorine is low, which parents with young or sensitive skin notice, and there's a shallow end made for young children. It's open daily 7am to 9pm, with the middle of the day, 9am to 6pm, given over to family swimming, and the early and late slots, 7am to 9am and 6pm to 9pm, kept for adults.
There's no separate splash pool or paddling area for toddlers, so the shallow end is where the youngest swim. That's worth weighing if your family is used to the slides and splash features of a holiday park.
Just outside, a Swedish-style heated outdoor hot tub looks across the lake and is sheltered enough that people use it in the snow, and there's a traditional sauna with glazed doors framing the lake and Arthur's Pike fell. Both the hot tub and the sauna are for guests aged sixteen and over. A separate Endless Pool, a small training pool with a current to swim against, hosts paid video stroke-analysis sessions with the coaches Colin Hill, Karen Field and Salka Hintikka, for ages eight and up, at £80 for one or £115 for two. In autumn a second, outdoor Fellside Sauna opens down by the shore for a seasonal residency, separate from the Swim Club one.
The lake and getting on the water
The estate has its own jetty straight onto Ullswater, which the hotel describes as "sheltered and quiet, with excellent water quality". From it you can wild swim, kayak, canoe, paddleboard, sail and wingfoil. The Sheep Shed cabin on the shore is the watersports base, with warm showers year round and somewhere to dry wetsuits, and there are wetsuits to borrow for free.
The lake surface sits at roughly 14 to 17°C even in summer, cold by seaside standards, so a wetsuit is sensible for open-water swimming. This isn't a managed beach: there are no lifeguards at the water's edge and the shore is pebbly and rocky by the jetty. Children need close supervision near the water.
Babies, toddlers and the Kids' Zone
The club, its session times, babysitting and the small touches for babies.
The thing that sets Another Place apart from other Lake District hotels is the Kids' Zone, an Ofsted-registered childcare setting in its own buildings in the grounds, staffed by qualified carers with DBS clearance, the criminal-record check required to work with children. It takes children from six months to twelve years, and supervised sessions are included in every stay rather than charged as an extra. Ofsted registration means it's inspected to the same standard as a nursery, which is why families single it out.
Younger children go to The Cabin, for six months to seven years, which runs arts and crafts, campfire cooking, forest school, sensory play and outdoor games across indoor and outdoor space. Older ones have The Den, for eight to twelves, a games room with chess, a creative corner, beanbags and films.
Sessions are grouped by age and change between term time and the school holidays. On term-time weekdays, only the under-fives have sessions, since older children are usually at school; on term-time Saturdays and every day in the school holidays, all three age bands run to the same times. The table below is what's listed on another.place as of June 2026; the hotel changes the timetable through the year, so check it again when you book and once more on arrival.
| When | Age band | Times |
|---|---|---|
| Term-time weekdays (Sun–Fri) | 6 months–5 years | 9:15–11:30am, 1:15–3:15pm, 3:45–5pm |
| Term-time Saturdays and school holidays | 6 months–under 3 | 10:30–11:45am, 2:45–4pm |
| Term-time Saturdays and school holidays | 3–7 years | 12:45–2:15pm, 4:30–7pm |
| Term-time Saturdays and school holidays | 8–12 years | 12:45–2:15pm, 4:30–7pm |
Each session lasts up to two hours, long enough for a spa treatment, a swim or a paddle, and you can pre-book up to two sessions before you arrive, with more available on the day if there's space.
School holidays add a daily theme: forest school, superhero games, creative arts, science experiments, a junior chef session, board games and a movie night, plus mindful crafts on Sundays. A few practical points come with it: children bring their own nappies, wipes and a change of clothes, anyone who's had sickness or diarrhoea within 48 hours can't attend, and parents need to stay contactable during a session; everyone washes their hands on arrival and again at pick-up.
For an evening to yourselves, the same Kids' Zone team offers in-room babysitting for up to three children up to age twelve, from 6:30pm to 1am, at £17.50 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Babysitters are Kids' Zone staff, so they hold the same DBS checks as the daytime team plus paediatric first aid certification. Babysitters follow the child's usual bedtime routine but won't bath them, and they can't sit in a room where a dog is staying unless there's a travel crate or an interconnecting room; book it through the Kids' Zone team. While you eat, a tablet-based baby-monitoring service covers Rampsbeck, the Living Space and the library, on request and subject to availability. The hotel also lends a small number of Out 'n' About all-terrain buggies, off-road pushchairs built for rough Cumbrian paths, which you email ahead to reserve.
Things to do at the hotel
Watersports, dry-land activities, the gym, the spa and what's free.
Beyond the pool and the Kids' Zone, most of what fills a day here is outdoors and charged separately from the room, though walking, cycling and stargazing cost nothing.
On the lake, guided open-water swimming, including stargazing night swims and multi-day swim camps, is led by the wild-swimming coach Colin Hill, for ages ten and up, from £45 a person. Stand-up paddleboarding, standing on a board and paddling along, starts at eight, at £40 a person with qualified instructors accredited by the RYA, the Royal Yachting Association that governs watersports training, or £30 to hire a board on its own. Kayaking, to explore the bays and islands of the lake, starts at five in a group or eight on your own, from £30 a person; a rafted canoe, two canoes lashed together for stability, is the steadiest option for younger children and also starts at five, from £30 a person. On dry land there's archery in the grounds from age seven, at £20 a person, covering theory, safety and target shooting. Sailing is arranged through the Ullswater Sailing School, who collect you from the jetty, and for older children and adults there are introductory wing-surfing sessions and, to progress, RYA-approved wingfoiling, both from thirteen. These are all paid on top of the room.
Walking routes lead straight from the door and the hotel hands out printed guides; the Lakes and Dales cycling loop, over 196 miles of routes, also starts at the gate, though you bring your own bikes or hire locally, and children's bikes aren't something the hotel keeps on site. Horse and pony trekking can be booked with nearby stables such as Park Foot, Rookin House or Fell Pony Adventures. The Lake District holds Dark Sky Discovery status, the recognition given to good spots for stargazing, so a clear night is a free activity in itself.
Indoors, the Swim Club has a cardio room with a cross-trainer, rower, treadmill, exercise bike, free weights, medicine balls and yoga mats, included for guests. The spa has two treatment rooms, a double and a single, plus a snug, offering 50-minute treatments and open to non-residents by appointment. The library in the main house is large, with games and books that give it more of a games-room feel than a quiet reading room, and it's where families tend to gather on a wet afternoon.
The area and days out
The village, the Steamers and the family days out within an easy drive.
The Ullswater valley is quieter than the Windermere side of the Lakes, which families count as a plus, though it means fewer town amenities and a longer drive to the busiest spots. Most days out need the car.
Pooley Bridge, the nearest village at about two miles, sits at the northern end of the lake with a small grocery, cafés and pubs, plus the most convenient Ullswater Steamer pier. The Ullswater Steamers are Victorian-style cruise boats that link Pooley Bridge with Howtown and Glenridding along the lake, and a boat ride tends to go down well with toddlers; a popular outing is to sail from Pooley Bridge to Howtown and walk a stretch of the Ullswater Way back. The Aira Force pier is currently closed, with sailings suspended, so check the current timetable before you plan a route around a pier.
Aira Force, a National Trust waterfall about ten minutes' drive away, makes a good first day out: a short circular walk to the viewpoint, though the path to the falls themselves isn't pushchair-friendly, plus a tea room. There's a car parking charge. Hallin Fell, at 388 metres, is often recommended as a family's first fell for its short climb and big views, reached from Howtown after a Steamer crossing.
Lowther Castle, around fifteen minutes away, pairs gothic mansion ruins and gardens with one of the largest outdoor adventure playgrounds in the country, the Lost Castle, for children aged three and up; admission is £16 for an adult, £10 for a child, under-threes free, and £45 for a family (two adults and up to three children, or one adult and up to four), with parking at £2 a day (last checked June 2026); dogs are welcome in the grounds but not on the Lost Castle playground. Whinlatter Forest, about thirty minutes on, has Go Ape with its zip slides and treetop climbing, plus Forest Segway tours. Zip World Windermere, roughly forty minutes away, runs Treetop Trek from age five and Treetop Nets, a world of suspended nets, slides and ball pools, from three.
Penrith, about fifteen minutes, is the nearest market town for a pharmacy, cash machine, larger shops and restaurants, with castle ruins to wander; the hotel also stocks a few front-desk essentials for anything more urgent. Keswick, around twenty-five minutes, is the main Lakeland hub, on Derwentwater, with a market and the Puzzling Place. The Windermere area, about forty-five minutes south, has Bowness boat trips, the World of Beatrix Potter and the villages of Ambleside and Grasmere, though it's busier than Ullswater. In a cold enough winter, the local ski clubs at Raise and Ski Dodd run when conditions allow, more a Lakeland pastime than anything the hotel arranges.
Loves and gripes
What guests rate, what they flag and how the hotel stacks up against the alternatives.
What families love
- The Kids' Zone and its staff, the most common praise, and rare for a Lake District hotel.
- The balance of family time and child-free time, with evening babysitting on top.
- The pool and its lake and fell views.
- The quiet Ullswater setting, away from the Windermere crowds.
- The food across all four places to eat.
- Wild swimming, kayaking and paddleboarding off the jetty.
- The relaxed, wellies-welcome atmosphere.
- The all-terrain buggies to borrow.
Common gripes
- The price: a third-party listing puts a standard bed-and-breakfast room at roughly £240 to £345 a night, a rough indicator rather than a bookable rate, since the hotel's own rates are dynamic and vary by room and date (checked June 2026), before activities and babysitting are added on. It's not a budget-friendly stay.
- Little reach without a car.
- Short session windows for the very youngest children: on term-time Saturdays especially, the six-months-to-under-three slots run to just 1 hour 15 minutes, so timing feeds and naps around them takes some planning.
- Weather: the lake, the grounds and the watersports are the main draws and they're all outdoors, and the Lakes are wet for a lot of the year. The indoor pool and Kids' Zone give you somewhere to go, but some visitors who hit a run of wet days still find the wet-weather choice narrower than at a bigger all-inclusive resort.
- No toddler splash pool beyond the shallow end.
- Booking pressure for the most popular Kids' Zone slots.
It has some industry recognition behind it too: Outstanding New Hotel at the Independent Hotel Show and a Cumbria Tourism new-business award, both in 2018, plus a Family Traveller shortlisting the same year.
Against the alternativesHow it compares
Center Parcs Whinfell Forest, thirty to forty minutes away, is the obvious other option for a Lakes family holiday: the full holiday-park formula of the Subtropical Swimming Paradise pool, the Aqua Sana spa, a big activity programme, evening entertainment and self-catering lodges, usually at a lower nightly cost than a boutique hotel. It suits families who want everything on one site and like a structured programme, where Another Place suits those who want a hotel, the landscape and the option to explore. Our Center Parcs guide covers how that brand works.
Armathwaite Hall, near Bassenthwaite twenty-five to thirty minutes off, is a 4-star country-house hotel with a spa pool, but children can only use the pool from 8am to 9:30am each morning with an adult present, and there's no kids' club, so Another Place is the stronger choice for families with under-eights. Landal Whitbarrow, a self-catering village in a converted Cumbrian farmstead fifteen to twenty minutes away near Penrith, has an indoor pool plus a dedicated children's splash pool, a spa, crazy golf and a duck pond, at a gentler price. The splash pool is the differentiator if you're travelling with a baby or a very young toddler; otherwise Whitbarrow trades the hotel feel and the childcare for self-contained living.
Against Lake District family hotels generally, Another Place is the premium pick: no other has an Ofsted-registered club from six months, expert-led wild swimming and this standard of food all at once, and you pay accordingly.
Getting there and when to go
How you reach the hotel, whether you need a car and the best months for a family.
The hotel is about ten minutes from the M6 at junction 40 near Penrith, and the drive in is straightforward; parking is free for guests. Manchester is roughly two hours away and London about four and a half, though these are general driving estimates rather than fixed times, and traffic or your route will shift them about. There are five EV charging points in the lower car park, run through the Monta app, so bring your own untethered cable.
By train, Penrith on the West Coast Main Line is a ten to fifteen minute drive away, with connections from London Euston, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Public transport from the hotel itself is very limited, so a taxi from Penrith is the practical way in without a car, and there's no hotel transfer service. The valley is rural, and while you could happily spend a few days without leaving, a car is what makes Ullswater and the wider Lakes reachable, so it's worth having one.
For families, May to September is the window. July and August are the school-holiday peak, when the Kids' Zone runs every day, the lake is at its warmest and everything's fully open; May, June and early September give the same set-up with fewer people. Autumn and winter bring a quieter, fireside hotel, forest colour and a lake that's cold but still open for watersports, atmospheric for adults but less the obvious pick for very young children given the short days and the chill.
When to goWeather, month by month
The Lake District is wet year round, and Ullswater is no exception. The figures below are typical monthly averages for the area. The point for a family is that the indoor pool, the Kids' Zone and the restaurants keep a wet day easy to fill, which it often isn't on a beach holiday, so pack waterproofs and layers whatever the month.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7° | 1° | 218 mm | 18 |
| February | 7.5° | 1° | 192 mm | 16 |
| March | 9° | 2° | 167 mm | 15 |
| April | 12° | 3° | 114 mm | 14 |
| May | 15.5° | 5.5° | 114 mm | 13 |
| June | 17.5° | 8.5° | 109 mm | 14 |
| July | 20° | 10.5° | 108 mm | 12 |
| August | 19.5° | 10° | 133 mm | 13 |
| September | 17° | 8° | 153 mm | 14 |
| October | 13.5° | 6° | 242 mm | 19 |
| November | 9.5° | 3° | 216 mm | 20 |
| December | 7° | 1° | 230 mm | 18 |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. The hotel is open year round; the lake sits at about 14 to 17°C even in summer.
Questions
The things families ask most, the official pages worth a bookmark and when this guide was last refreshed.
Is Another Place all-inclusive?
No, so the main thing to decide is how to handle dinner. Rooms are bed-and-breakfast with the Kids' Zone included, and you can add a dinner-inclusive package that fixes the cost of eating at Rampsbeck each night. That pays off if you'll dine in most evenings; if you'd rather mix in the casual Glasshouse pizzas, the Brackenrigg pub or a night out, pay as you go instead and budget for lunches, watersports and babysitting on top.
Which stays qualify for Kids Go Free?
Children aged three to twelve share for free on Sunday to Thursday nights outside school holidays and the festive period, in an adult's room, a suite or the family shepherd hut. The catch is space: a plain double sleeps two, so an older child sharing for free in practice means booking a suite or the family shepherd hut. If your dates fall in the holidays the offer stops and each child of three or over is charged a quarter of the room rate, worth pricing up against moving the trip to term time.
Can we get an evening to ourselves?
Yes. The Kids' Zone team sit in your room in the evening, so once the children are settled you can head to a later table at Rampsbeck. Arrange it with them ahead rather than assuming it's on tap.
Is there a cot for the baby?
Travel cots are there for children up to three. Only some rooms have the space, though, so if you need one, look at a Best double, a suite or a family room and mention it when you book rather than doing it online.
Do we need a car?
For the hotel itself, no; you could spend a couple of days on the estate and the lake without moving it. For anything beyond Pooley Bridge you'll want one, as buses are scarce and it's a taxi from the Penrith train otherwise.
How far ahead should we book the Kids' Zone?
You can lock in two sessions before you arrive and pick up more on the day if there's room, so book the two you most want early, especially in school holidays when the popular slots go first. The times shift through the year, so check them for your dates.
See more Another Place, The Lake photos
Open the Another Place, The Lake photo gallery →Useful links
- Another Place, The Lake: the hotel's own site for rooms, the Kids' Zone, the Swim Club and offers.
- Ullswater Steamers: timetables and piers for a boat trip on the lake.
- Lowther Castle: opening times, tickets and the Lost Castle playground.
- The Lake District with little ones: our guide to the wider area and when to go.
Last updated 11 July 2026.
