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WINDERMERE town was all but non-existent until 1847 when a railway terminal was built here, making England's longest lake (after which the town is named) an easily accessible resort. Windermere remains the transport hub for the southern lakes, but there's precious little else to keep you in the slate-grey streets. Instead, all the traffic pours a mile down hill to Windermere's older twin town, BOWNESS - bus #599 leaves Windermere train station every twenty minutes for the ten-minute run down to its lakeside piers. This is undoubtedly the more attractive of the two settlements, with enough scattered attractions to fill a morning. Most tourists, though, bypass everything in Bowness bar the lake for the chance to visit The World of Beatrix Potter in the Old Laundry on Crag Brow (daily: Easter-Sept 10am-5.30pm; Oct-Easter 10am-4.30pm; £3.50; ). It's unfair to be judgmental - you either like Beatrix Potter or you don't - but it's safe to say that the displays here find more favour with children than the more formal Potter attractions at Hill Top and Hawkshead. Five hundred yards north of Bowness, on Rayrigg Road, the Windermere Steamboat Museum (Easter-Oct daily 10am-5pm; £3.40; steam-launch cruises £5; ) has as its star exhibit the 1850 Dolly , claimed to be the world's oldest mechanically driven boat, and extremely well preserved after spending 65 years in the mud at the bottom of Ullswater.

Both, however, come second-best to a trip on Windermere itself. Windermere Lake Cruises (tel 015394/31188, ) operates stylish steamers and vintage cruisers to Lakeside at the southern tip (£6.20 return) or to Waterhead (for Ambleside) at the northern end (£6 return). A 24-hour Freedom-of-the-Lake ticket costs £10.50. Services on both routes are frequent between Easter and October (1-2 hourly at peak times), but much reduced during the winter. The car-ferry service across the water to Sawrey (Mon-Sat 7am-10pm, Sun 9am-10pm; departures every 20min; 40p; cars £2), from just south of Bowness, provides access to Beatrix Potter's former home at Hill Top.

A mile and a half south of Bowness, the architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott's Blackwell (daily 10am-5pm, closes 4pm in winter; £4.50; ) was built in 1900 as a lakeside holiday home for Edward Holt, of the Manchester brewing family. Selected rooms of the restored interior can be viewed, which show off lakeland motifs (particularly trees, flowers, birds and berries) in virtually every nook and cranny. There's a tearoom and gardens too, though no direct bus - the walk from Bowness is about a mile.

Three miles northwest of Windermere, the Lake District National Park has its headquarters at Brockhole Visitor Centre (Easter-Oct daily 10am-5pm; grounds & gardens open all year; free; parking £3; ), a fine mansion set in landscaped grounds on the shores of the lake. Besides the natural history and geological displays, the centre hosts guided walks, children's activities, garden tours, special exhibitions, lectures and film shows. The #555/556 and #559 buses between Windermere and Ambleside run past the visitor centre, or you can get there by Windermere Lake Cruises launch from Waterhead, Ambleside (hourly 10.45am-4.45pm; £4.60 return).

From Bowness piers cruises also head south down the lake to Lakeside , on Windermere's quieter southern reaches. Lakeside is the terminus of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway (Easter-Oct 6-7 daily; £3.90 return; tel 015395/31594, ), whose steam-powered engines chuff along four miles of track through the forests of Backbarrow Gorge. The boat arrivals at Lakeside connect with train departures throughout the day and you can buy a joint boat-and-train ticket (£9.60 return) at Bowness. Also on the quay at Lakeside is the Aquarium of the Lakes (daily: April-Sept 9am-6pm; Oct-May 9am-5pm; £5.50; ), an entertaining natural history exhibit centred on the fish and animals found in and along a lakeland river, including a pair of captive otters. Again, there's a joint ticket available with the boat ride from Bowness (£10.35 return).

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