Crow Park

The walk up to Crow Park from Keswick takes about twenty minutes and rewards you with one of the Lake District's best vantage points - Catbells and the fells rise dramatically across the water, and on a clear day you can see right down Derwentwater. It's a proper viewpoint rather than a formal attraction, which means no queues, no admission fee, and no gift shop trying to sell you overpriced fudge.

What you're doing here is walking. There's a well-maintained path through woodland that opens out onto an elevated platform where locals and visitors alike gather to take photographs or simply sit with a coffee. The view justifies the leg work. In autumn the fell sides glow copper and gold, and even on grey days there's something about the scale of it all that makes you feel small in the right way.

Families with reasonably fit kids will manage it fine - the path isn't technical, just steady uphill. Older children might lose interest after the viewpoint itself, since there's nowhere much else to explore once you've absorbed the vista. Serious walkers often treat Crow Park as a warm-up before tackling the bigger fells beyond.

Go early morning if you can. By mid-afternoon in summer the viewpoint gets rammed with tour groups. Spring and autumn mornings are quietest and best. If you're based at Keswick Camping and Caravanning Club or Castlerigg Hall just down the road, it's an obvious half-day outing that costs nothing and takes the edge off cabin fever. Well worth the walk.