Luxury spa days in the Lake District with a view

The consensus

The Falls Spa at Lodore Falls sits on the Derwentwater shore in Borrowdale and is built around a 16-metre hydro pool with neck jets and underwater loungers, looking across the lake to the Catbells range. Behind it is a thermal suite with a laconium, herbal sauna, salt steam room and ice fountain, plus a glass-fronted Finnish sauna beside the pool. It is adults only (18 and over) and open to day visitors: two hours of morning access is £60, £75 with prosecco, or £165 with a 50-minute treatment. TripAdvisor rates the hotel 4.2 out of 5 across roughly 4,850 reviews, with value its weakest sub-score at 3.9 and reviews mentioning pricey extras and uneven rooms, while The Hotel Guru calls the lake and fell views enviable. A spa-led treat with a view, not a flawless one.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, The Hotel Guru — how we rate venues

The consensus

The Spa at Low Wood Bay sits on the Windermere shoreline and is built around its outdoor space: a heated infinity pool, hot tubs and a wood-fired Fellside sauna facing the lake, with an indoor thermal suite of dry salt sauna, steam rooms and a herbal lounge behind them. It is adults-only (16 and over). Day visitors can book from £69 for a two-hour twilight session, from £85 for a midweek three-hour thermal journey, or from £175 with a 50-minute treatment. The Good Spa Guide named it Best Spa in the North West in 2025, and TripAdvisor rates the resort 4.4 out of 5 across more than 5,500 reviews, with the spa the most praised element. Complaints centre on cost: hotel guests pay extra for the spa unless they book a spa break, and one reviewer advised waiting for a sale. The whole spa can be hired exclusively for groups.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, Good Spa Guide

The consensus

Armathwaite Hall sits on a 400-acre estate on the shore of Bassenthwaite Lake near Keswick, dog-friendly throughout and built around a spa whose 16-metre infinity pool looks straight out over the lake to the fells beyond. Alongside the infinity pool, the spa runs to a hydrotherapy pool, sauna, aroma room, steam room and outdoor hot tub, and rooms start from around £211 a night. Both TripAdvisor and the independent Hotel Guru review are consistently positive, and the spa and its infinity-pool view are the single most repeated highlight across reviews — nothing resembling a significant, recurring complaint turned up in the review sampling here, which is unusual enough among spa hotels on this coast to be worth noting plainly rather than dressing up further. It's also one of the better-established venues on the voucher platforms, with packages listed directly through both Buyagift and Red Letter Days.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, The Hotel Guru

The consensus

Gilpin Hotel & Lake House is a family-run, AA Five Red Star, Relais & Châteaux property near Windermere, holding Two MICHELIN Keys and home to the Michelin-starred SOURCE restaurant alongside the more casual Gilpin Spice. Its private Spa Suites and Spa Lodges each come with their own sauna, jacuzzi and steam room, and the Jetty Spa Experience package pairs a treatment with private pool use; classic bedrooms start from around £295 a night in summer, with Spa Suites from around £890. TripAdvisor rates it 4.7 out of 5 across close to 2,500 reviews, and the independent Good Hotel Guide covers it favourably too — the overwhelming majority of feedback is glowing on welcome, staff and setting. It isn't flawless, though: a small number of more recent reviews describe an unwelcoming check-in experience, and a few guests have raised maintenance niggles or questioned value for money against the price, worth weighing against the otherwise strong consensus.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, Good Hotel Guide

The consensus

Another Place, The Lake sits on 18 acres of private Ullswater shoreline near Watermillock. Its defining feature is genuinely expert-led wild swimming: sessions run by Colin Hill, a Winter Swimming World Championship competitor and English Channel soloist, covering everything from a one-hour introduction to stargazing night swims, with wetsuits, gloves, boots and tow floats issued free from the lakeshore Sheep Shed. The spa, branded Swim Club, centres on a 20-metre lake-view pool, treatment rooms and a sauna. Press coverage — including a glowing write-up in the Times and Star — praises the design-led, activity-first positioning without much reservation. TripAdvisor rates the hotel 4.5 out of 5 across more than 2,100 reviews, though a minority of reviewers push back on the luxury pricing, describing rooms as smaller than expected for the rate. Doubles start from around £210 a night, breakfast included.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, Times and Star

The consensus

The Salutation occupies a 17th-century building right in the centre of Ambleside, a couple of minutes' walk from Lake Windermere, and its Elemis-branded Waterfall Spa is consistently the part reviewers single out: an indoor pool, outdoor fountain spa, steam room, sauna and ice fountain, plus treatment rooms running facials, hot stone massage and aromatherapy from around £80. Some of the 70 rooms come with their own private hot tub, which is the detail that pushes this from "nice hotel" into gift-worthy territory. Breakfast and the spa are the two most-praised elements across independent reviews, and staff are generally described as attentive. It's worth being upfront that this is a well-run boutique spa hotel rather than a grand country-house resort — a handful of reviews mention tired décor in parts of the building, and at least one notably negative review described the staff as unwelcoming, which stands out against an otherwise strong track record. Of the venues in this guide, it's the most accessible on price without giving up a genuine spa experience.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, Ambleside Salutation Hotel & Spa

The consensus

Brimstone is a 16-suite, adults-only hotel forming part of the wider Langdale Estate near Ambleside, and it shares its Brimstone Spa facility with the neighbouring, larger Langdale Hotel & Spa. The spa itself is genuinely striking — a 9-metre indoor-outdoor swim-through pool, Finnish sauna, aroma steam room, laconium and ice room, with treatments using the estate's own Pure Alchemy products. One thing to flag plainly, since this guide is about spa days: Brimstone Spa isn't sold as a walk-in day pass to the public — access is exclusive to guests staying at Brimstone or elsewhere on the Langdale Estate, so this is a stay-and-spa venue rather than a drop-in one. TripAdvisor rates it highly, around 4 out of 5 across some 1,450-plus reviews as "Brimstone at Langdale," and Good Spa Guide lists it independently too. It isn't universally five-star, though — a handful of reviewers have questioned whether it's worth the price at this tier, and some have flagged slow service and a limited menu at the on-site restaurant.

Sourced from TripAdvisor, Good Spa Guide