Windermere Park

Windermere Park is a bed and breakfast on New Road, on the walk between Windermere village and Bowness, with a public park immediately next door - which is the single most useful thing about it if you are travelling with a dog. First and last walks of the day take about thirty seconds to reach, and the lakeshore at Bowness is a stroll rather than a drive. Free parking on site is the other practical win in a town where that is genuinely hard to come by.

Dogs stay in a small number of designated bedrooms at £15 per night, and it is worth asking where those rooms are when you book: they sit at the top of the building, which is fine for a young dog and much less so for an old one. Dogs are not allowed in the breakfast room, though staff have a reputation for producing a sausage or a bowl of something for them, and guests travelling with dogs are consistently warm about how welcome they are made - extra towels for drying off after a wet walk come up more than once. Breakfast itself is one of the strongest points of the place.

The reservations are about how the building is run rather than how dogs are treated. There is no reception staff after around half past five, and calling for help later in the evening can attract a charge, so anything you need is best sorted in the afternoon. Housekeeping is the recurring complaint: rooms that were not clean on arrival, tea, coffee and towels not restocked during longer stays, and a standard that does not always match the price. That grates most where the nightly dog-room charge is understood as a cleaning fee and the room then goes unserviced.

Being a dog-friendly guesthouse also means hearing other people's dogs, and a light sleeper should expect some night-time noise. Windermere Park earns a 4.2/5 paw rating - the location, the park next door and the welcome pull it up, the housekeeping pulls it back. It suits dog owners who plan to be out walking all day and want a well-placed, well-priced base with parking, not anyone wanting hotel-standard service.