Car park locations & status
Finding a parking place can be tricky in the Lake District, especially at peak times. A number of car parks described in this website are at popular locations that can fill up quite early in the day. The good news is that many of these locations, especially in towns and villages, have alternative parking nearby where you might be able to park if the main car park is full. There are a number of useful websites that will help you find all car parks across the area, exact locations, facilities, how much they cost and also how full they might be.
There are many public car parks across the Lake District and Cumbria, as well as the private ones for individual attractions. The vast majority of public car parks are managed by the National Park Authority, the National Trust or local Councils. The local Councils cover all of Cumbria whereas the other two only cover the National Park. Links to car park information as follows;
Lake District National Park Authority
Local councils;
South Lakeland District Council including Windermere, Coniston & Kendal
Allerdale Borough Council including Keswick, Cockermouth & Workington
Copeland Borough Council including Eskdale, Wasdale & Whitehaven
Eden District Council including Penrith, Ullswater and much of the Eden valley
Carlisle City Council including Carlisle city
Barrow Borough Council including Barrow and surroundings
It is worth checking these websites for alternative car parks on your Lake District Drive in case the listed car park is full or you discover somewhere else you would like to visit along the way.
Car park status. This very useful website has recently been introduced where you can check the current status of all the main Lake District car parks, whoever manages them. Part of the National Park website, this shows how busy each car park currently is and is regularly updated by the many patrols across the area. There are colour coded indicators; green is not very busy, amber is fairly busy, red is busy and a ‘no entry’ sign is full. It is certainly worth referring to this status page as you progress on your Lake District Drive. Live travel and parking information is also given on Twitter @LakesTravel, part of the National Park Twitter @lakedistrictnpa
Online resources are certainly a big help in finding car park information across the Lake District and Cumbria and hopefully these examples will help you on your Lake District Drives.