Although the Lake District might appear too popular for its own good, tourist numbers are concentrated in fairly specific areas and even on the busiest of days it's relatively easy to escape the crowds. Given a week you could see most of the famous settlements and lakes - a circuit taking in the towns of Ambleside Hotels, Windermere and Bowness , the Wordsworth houses and sites in pretty villages such as Hawkshead and Grasmere , and the more dramatic northern scenery near Keswick Hotels and Ullswater would give you a fair sample of the whole. But it's away from the crowds that the Lakes really begin to pay dividends, so aim to steer by central valleys such as Langdale and Eskdale , and the lesser visited lakes of Wast Water and Buttermere . Of course, it's only when you start to walk and climb around the Lakes that you can really say you've explored the region. Four peaks top out at over 3000ft - including Scafell Pike , the highest in England - but there are literally hundreds of other mountains, crags and fells to roam.

Human interaction has played a significant part in the shaping of the region. As the first settlers, five thousand years ago, learned to shape flints into axes, they began to clear the upland forests, a process accelerated by the road-building Romans. An even greater impact was made by the Norse Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries, who farmed the land extensively and left their mark on the local dialect: a mountain here is referred to as a "fell", a waterfall is a "force", streams are "becks", a mountain lake is a "tarn", while the suffix "- thwaite" indicates a clearing. Two factors spurred the first waves of tourism : the reappraisal of landscape brought about by such painters as Constable and the writings of Wordsworth and his contemporaries, and the outbreak of the French Revolution and its subsequent turmoil, which put paid to the idea of the continental Grand Tour. At the same time, as the war pushed food prices higher, farmers began to reclaim the hillsides, a tendency sanctioned by the General Enclosure Act of 1801. Most of the characteristic dry-stone walls were built at this time, a development that alarmed Wordsworth, who wrote in his Guide to the Lakes that he desired "a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy." His wish finally came to fruition in 1951 when the government designated 880 square miles of the Lake District as England's largest national park.

Windermere, at 12 miles long, one mile wide and 220 feet deep, is the largest natural lake in England, and is fed by numerous rivers. The Romans built their fort of GALAVA at its northern end (Waterhead), and it has always been an important waterway for movement of heavy materials.

Bowness-on-Windermere - Lakeland's most popular holiday resort - is an excellent centre for boating activities, with over 10,000 boats registered. Sailing, canoeing, windsurfing and water-skiing are all evident. Windermere is the only lake without a speed limit. Steamers and launches operate from Bowness Bay to Waterhead at Ambleside, and Lakeside at the southern end.

At the southern end is Lakeside Pier, and Lakeside Station of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, and also the Aquarium of the Lakes.

Ambleside has now become a major tourist resort with shops, hotels and restaurants, and is one of the best town bases for exploring the Lake District.

Bassenthwaite Lake, owned by the National Park Authority, is one of the largest at 4 miles long and 3/4 mile wide.

Carlisle is a busy industrial and market town with a population of about 70000. It is Cumbria's capital city.

Coniston derives its name from the Anglo Saxon "king's village", the area first played host to prehistoric settlers on nearby Banishead Moor-with its remains of a stone circle-above the village.