By train. Windermere station is the end of a short branch line from Oxenholme, which itself sits on the West Coast Main Line. Direct trains run from Manchester Airport (1h 40m) and Manchester Piccadilly (1h 30m); connections from London Euston via Oxenholme take around three hours. The branch line is a single-track relic that has been threatened with closure for decades but keeps running.
By car. Junction 36 of the M6 motorway feeds the A591, which is the main road into the Lake District. From Manchester or Liverpool allow about two hours; from London, five hours including a break. Parking in Windermere and especially Bowness is expensive and sometimes impossible on summer weekends — the park-and-ride at Brockhole is often the easiest option.
By bus. National Express runs direct coaches from Manchester, Birmingham and London Victoria. Local Stagecoach services connect Windermere and Bowness to Ambleside, Grasmere, Kendal and Keswick at high frequency in season; the open-top 599 is a sightseeing route in itself.