Top things to do and see in the English Lake District include Wordsworth's Dove Cottage, Kendal, Keswick, Windermere, Grasmere, Ullswater, daffodils and Beatrix Potter.

The English Lake District is among the country's top visitor attractions. Six months spent among some of England's finest scenery wouldn't be enough, and these are just a few of the "must see" highlights.

Ambleside

At the northern tip of Windermere, Ambelside is one of the many Lake District towns which are both lovely to look at and over-run with visitors in the summer. There isn't as much to see as at Kendall and Keswick, but it's worth visiting the Armitt Museum which has some Beatrix Potter watercolours as well as a look at how writers like Wordsworth interpreted the Lake District.

Coniston

The small town of Coniston stands on Coniston Water (the setting for Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons), and by the popular climbing spot known as The Old Man of Coniston (2635ft). It's also home to the Ruskin Museum, as the artist/critic John Ruskin lived at Brantwood, on the east side of the lake.

Daffodils and Rydal

If you want to see Wordsworth's daffodils in the spring then head for Dora's Field next to St Mary's Church in Rydal. Wordsworth and his wife planted the field with daffodils to remember their daughter Dora, after her death in 1847. Rydal Mount was the poet's home from 1813 until his death, and visitors can see his study, and the garden that he himself laid out.

Grasmere and Dove Cottage

Grasmere is where William Wordsworth is buried at St Oswald's church, with his sister Dorothy, his wife Mary, and four of their children. Here too is Dove Cottage, his home from 1799 to 1808. It remains just as it was when it was his home. More modern is the Wordsworth Museum, which covers his life and the other Lake District poets.

Hawkshead

One of the prettiest villages in the Lake District, where you'll find the Hawkshead Grammar School, which Wordsworth attended, the Beatrix Potter Gallery, and Hill Top, the home of Beatrix Potter.

Kendal

Regarded as the southern gateway to the Lake District, the attractive market town of Kendal (where the Mint Cake comes from) has good shopping, the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, the Kendal Museum, Sizergh Castle, the Levens Hall country house and the Abbot Hall art gallery among its many visitor attractions.

Keswick

The market town of Keswick on the shores of Derwentwater is another popular base for Lake District exploration. It's noted for its outdoor shops, and there are plenty of hotels, guesthouses, pubs, and restaurants. There is also the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, which has some letters written by some of the Lake poets, and the Cumberland Pencil Museum, which doesn't have the pencils they wrote them with, but does have the entire fascinating history of the humble pencil.

Ullswater

The second-largest lake in the Lake District after Windermere, Ullswater is a beautiful place and where you'll find one of England's finest hotels, the Sharrow Bay. It is as renowned for its food as for its lakeside setting.

Windermere

England's largest lake is 11 miles long, and about 1.5 miles wide. It's extremely busy and popular, and you will seldom have the place to yourself unless you get well away from the honeypot towns of Windermere and Bowness. But if you stay here you can enjoy a Windermere cruise, lots of shopping, and some good hotels and restaurants.

The World of Beatrix Potter

If you like Beatrix Potter then you'll love this, and children enjoy the 3-D displays which bring Peter Rabbit and all her other characters to life.