Lake District National Park Travel Forum

Hi, I am planning to go to England and Scotland in September. Unfortunately, booked my train tickets from London to Edinburgh. Not realising that I wanted to go to Lake district and that lake district is closer to Scotland. Wanted help to figure out how far is Edinburgh to Windermere ? Is it drivable ? Is it a good idea to drive from Edinburgh to Windermere and then go to rest of Scotland ? Or is it better to do it while returning from Scotland ? Pls pls help

Depending on the type of rail ticket that you have then it may be OK for you to break your outward journey and see Winderemere etc and then continue on to Scotland. To do that you would have to depart from Euston Station and not Kings X.

Thanks. Have a ticket from Kings Cross to Edinburgh on GNER. Dont know if I can do break journey on it.

Windermere is very close to the alternative rail route from London to Edinburgh i.e. the route from London Euston to Edinburgh via Preston and Carstairs (known as the WCML). The question as to whether it's possible to break your journey at Oxenholme (the mainline station for Windermere) depends upon what type of ticket you have.

If you hold totally flexible open tickets which are more expensive than typical advance purchase or saver tickets it's possible to alight at Oxenholme, visit Windermere, and then board a later northbound service to Edinburgh; the same applies if you are an overseas visitor holding a Britrail pass. If you have purchased a (peak hours) Business Saver @ GBP138 or a Saver Return @ GBP94.10 you are permitted to break your journey on the RETURN journey only. To visit Windermere on the return journey from Edinburgh if you hold any of the above tickets board a southbound Virgin train from Edinburgh on the route via Carlisle and Preston (not the route via Berwick which is also used by Virgin Trains) and alight at Oxenholme, approx 1hr 45 mins from Edinburgh. From there take the regular local train for the short trip to Windermere - unless a Britrail pass holder you'd need to buy a ticket for this trip but it wouldn't cost much. Upon return to Oxenholme board the next southbound service either direct to London Euston or, if a Virgin Cross country service, you'd need to change again at Preston.

If you have purchased one of the cheaper advance purchase tickets for London Edinburgh they are date / route / train specific and a detour via Oxenholme / Windermere would not be permitted. You could take a day trip via rail from Edinburgh to Windermere but suspect you would'nt want to do this as there is much to see in Edinburgh.

It is normal to be able to break your train journey only on the RETURN. However, it is easy and advisable to do this. Head London to Edinburgh via the East Coast and return via West Coast and Oxonholm. Ensure your ticket does not restrict your route choice.

To see a good online map: www.multimap.com

To calculate road distances and travel times: www.theaa.com

Best wishes

Malcolm

Have a look at megatrain.com, you can pick up a single train ticket from Edinburgh to Penrith and/or Oxenholme (for Kendal) from one pound if you are making a drastic change to your itinerary and can't use your original ticket. The website will also show your train times, but I imagine it's about 3 hours.

I'm not sure of date of travel therefore picked Wed Sep 13. Megatrain availability looks good - there is 0720 departure from Edinburgh arrives Oxenholme 0946 with return departing OXN 1920 arr EDB 2132; fare in each case is just GBP 1 - an absolute bargain for a journey of around 150 miles. From Oxenholme local trains run to Windermere hourly, the trip taking around 20 minutes with fare of £3.70 for cheap day return (no advance booking needed - buy ticket at Oxenholme if staffed otherwise on the train).

In summary if you can pickup Megatrain's bargain tickets the daytrip can be done from Edinburgh for £5.70 return....and you'd have around 7-1/2 hrs in Windermere which should give ample time for a boat trip if desired.