Is the superb scenery in the Lake District matched by superb services by Stagecoach? PAUL KIRBY found out during a 10-day holiday in Summer 2022
In my mind, the Lake District has the most scenic routes in England, if not the UK. It was on the incredible 77 Keswick to Buttermere circular where I first thought of carrying out a nationwide survey to see whether people agreed. They didn’t, as it happened; the top three winning routes in 2019 were in North Yorkshire, Scotland and the South Coast. The Lake District did not feature in the top 10 and I wondered if there was any particular reason. So, five years after my last visit to Britain’s most popular National Park, I spent 10 days there with my partner in peak season. We stayed in the south (Barrow) and the northwest (Maryport) so we could experience most of the main Stagecoach routes in the Lake District and its coast.
Background
In 2021 there were nearly six million visitors to Cumbria who stayed overnight. They spent an average of 3.4 nights in the county, according to Cumbria Tourism. The organisation claims that the visitor economy contributed £3.1bn in 2019. That should encourage the council and bus operators to be at the top of their game and g…
