alainr

We are flying from new york on May 15th and want to spend about 10 days in North Wales and the Lake District. We want to walk/hike, enjoy beautiful scenary, lakes, some castles. After the lake district and wales, we will spend time in london and fly home from heathrow. we plan to rent a car for wales and the lake district.

1. Should we fly into heathrow? and then take a train or rent a car and drive to the lake district?
2. Or shld we fly into edinburgh or manchester? via dublin/amsterdam.... and avoid heathrow.
3. Lake District Home Base --would the Hazel Bank country house in rosthwaite, Keswick be a good home base? and a nice place to stay? I read that grasmere and ambleside get crowded and that the northern lakes are more beautiful.
4. No. Wales --we would like to treat ourselves to a nice country home/hotel/B&B. I don't know if we shld base ourselves in Conwy? or Betws-y-Coed? Llandudno? we want to take nice walks/hikes. Are the roads very curvy--so that short distances can take a long time to drive?
5. If we have 9-10 days, shld we divide it evenly between the lake district and no.wales?
6. Shld we stay in one spot in no. wales?

I don't want to drive into london. so we wld drop off the car somewhere and take a train into london.

alihutch

You could fly into Glasgow direct from New York. Glasgow is far more direct for the Lake District than Edinburgh.

hetismij

I would say fly into Manchester if you can,
In both the Lakes and Wales the roads are slow and curvy on the whole.
Betws-y-coed or Llanberis would make a good base for visiting North Wales, Llanberis will provide some good walking on and around Mount Snowdon. There are plenty of B&Bs and hotels in the area. Conwy and Llandudno are on the coast, but away from the mountains.
I doubt that either area will be especially crowded in May. School holidays are a little later in the month I believe.
A very nice if unusual B&B in the Southern Lakes is Fellside Studios in Troutbeck http://www.bestofthelakes.com/.

janisj

I'd do open jaw into MAN (or GLA) and out of LHR or LGW -- depending on which gets you the best schedule/routing.

You should be fine for accommodations in both Wales and the Lakes. The last Monday in May is the big Bank holiday and many take the full week afterwards for family trips - especially to the Lake District. But May 15-27 would be a very light time before the hordes hit the next weekend.

I'd probably divide it up 4 days/nights in one central location in the Lakes, 3 days/nights near the North Wales Coast/Snodonia and 2 or 3 days/nights farther down the west coast of Wales.

But if you wanted to stick to the Lakes and N. Wales - 50/50 would be good too.

Or - you could do 4 days Lakes, 4 days N Wales and 1 or 2 days in the Peaks. Then you could pick up and drop the car at MAN.

You won't have huge choice of places to drop a car and train into London - Small towns seldom have major car rental agencies so you'll want to work out your itinerary to end up relatively near a major city or airport.

OR - you can always drive to LHR - drop the car there and take public transport into London.

annhig

Hi, alainr,

I agree with janisj - fly into Manchester/Glasgow, do the Lakes, then Wales, then head south.

Keswick is a great centre for exploring the northen lakes and walking particularly. if you can, get hold of any books by A. Wainwright to see the range of walks that you can do in the area.

with your interests, the northen lakes will be the best area, i think.

have a great trip

regards, ann

Frances

For a nice country house to stay in whilst near Snowdonia look at Neuadd Lwyd Hotel Penmynydd.
Manchester is your airport for North W.ales