Days Out · Lake District & Cumbria

Bloody Luxury Days Out in Lake District & Cumbria

Across the North

Luxury Valentine's lunch and afternoon tea for two in the North

Valentine's Day 2027, 14 February, falls on a Sunday, which is good news for a lunch or afternoon tea: the six places here, from a Windermere lake house to a Michelin-starred Sunday lunch in the Ribble Valley, all publish regular Sunday service. They are chosen for exactly that, because plenty of the North's best restaurants and tea rooms are shut on a Sunday.

Across the North

Luxury Valentine's spa days for two in the North

Five spa days built for two rather than one, from a Wensleydale riverside spa you hire for yourselves to a private treatment room overlooking Windermere with its own copper salt bath. Each is a standing offer you can book now, and Carden Park has already published a Valentine's evening for 11 to 15 February 2027.

Across the North

Luxury Christmas gift experiences for the friend who has everything

This Christmas, for the friend who's impossible to buy for: an eco-mill spa day, a century-old Yorkshire institution, a sommelier's cellar in the Lake District, and a floating sauna in Liverpool's docks — four gifts none of them will have already given themselves.

Across the North

Luxury Christmas gift experiences for treating your other half

Four ways to give an evening or a day out rather than another jumper this Christmas — a lakeside spa, a grand afternoon tea, a Michelin chef's table, and a wild sauna on Coniston Water, all genuinely giftable so the actual date stays entirely up to the two of you.

Cumbria

Luxury spa retreats in Cumbria for a full escape

When a normal spa day won't cut it and you want the whole weekend given over to it, these are the Cumbrian spas worth building the trip around, from grand lakeside estates to a boutique bolt-hole in the middle of Ambleside.

Lake District

Luxury spa days in the Lake District with a view

The Lake District does spa views better than almost anywhere in the North: a 16-metre hydro pool facing Derwentwater and Catbells, a heated infinity pool over Windermere, outdoor hot tubs in the woodland at Gilpin and on the Ullswater shore. Seven spas, from a £50 evening swim to a full day of treatments and lunch, including one in the middle of Ambleside and one that only opens to hotel guests.

Across the North

The North's luxury outdoor (not that wild) swimming spots

Wild swimming has gone thoroughly mainstream, and with it a run of genuinely well-run spots across the North where the cold water comes with a warm robe, a decent coffee and somewhere proper to sit afterwards. Eight of the best, from a beachfront sauna in Tynemouth to a floating one in Liverpool docks.