[Closed] Peak District recommendations

Bakewell.

Bakewell is great. Also Castleton.

I'd go for Castleton area personally.

Ladybower Inn. Good accommodation and food. Trails for riding and walking from the doorstep.

Personally I think there’s a bit more in bakewell than Castleton. It’s not hard to get between the two though.

any number of b+b or cottage in either place.

Bakewelll, you’ve got Chatsworth, peak rail, Matlock/Matlock bath. Monsal head and loads of walking

castleton has the caverns, proper dark peak walking and scenery.

you’re not far from ladybower for great riding, of its nice weather the bakewell loop is one of my favourites.

basically you can’t go wrong in either place but my choice is Bakewell as there’s just a bit more to keep you amused

Thanks guys, we're looking into accommodation in those areas suggested, any other ideas are most welcome.

thanks

mmmm bakewell pudding.. (not the tart! that thing that kipling's make)
Castelton area has more altitude and better riding (IMO) whereas Bakewell town is much bigger and greater choice of restaurants/pubs etc. You'd have a good time at either. 🙂

We stayed in Bakewell last week. It was lovely! Plenty of good walks straight out of the door and great food and beer to be had. What more do you want?

Hayfield is good for walking. Smaller and lower key than Castleton, which turns into tourist central come summer time and Bakewell, which is in the wrong place 😉  Joking aside, it depends a little on what you're after in walking terms. Hayfield is great for access to Kinder and - with a short drive - to Bleaklow, proper Dark Peak grit stuff, though equally easily accessed from the Edale  / Castleton / Hope end of things.

There's a choice of cafes and pubs, though not as extensive as either Castleton or Bakewell I guess, but relatively little else to do bar the odd art gallery, a chippy and a village store. Great mountain biking out of the door mind.

Depends what you're looking for I guess.

Walking wise I guess would be between 5 & 8 miles of moderate terrain, and mtb routes would be anything up to a few hours riding. I've been looking at a cottage in Hope , is there much there in the way of pubs etc..

Hope's got at least three pubs and a selection of cafes plus the excellent 18 Bikes plus a Spar, a deli and a few gallery-type places. It's smaller than Castleton, which has a larger selection of pubs and cafes. I'd say there's better walking straight out of the door in Castleton as well, either up towards Winnatts or onwards to the Mam Tor ridge. The obvious stuff from Hope is either along the river towards Castleton or a bit of a bimble cross country before you hit the end of the ridge. That said, if you don't mind a short drive you can reach Edale or Hathersage - Stanage is an atmospheric walk - pretty quickly.

I'd say Hope is low key, but pleasant enough. Much smaller than Bakewell, a bit more relaxed than Castleton, but enough pubs and cafes to be getting on with.

Wirksworth.

Great riding from the door and shit loads of walking. Some well thought of real ale establishments, niche cinema place, pubs and foodage. 10 mins from matlock 20/25 to Bakewell.

The Cheshire Cheese pub in Hope is very nice.

Ashford in the Water, 2km outside Bakewell, is also a very nice place to stay

http://www.cheshirecheeseinn.co.uk/

This one is in Castleton, not the one in Hope mentioned above. Good beer, good food. the room I stayed in was nice enough (just a tiny single). Recommended.

funny how no-one's mentioned Buxton or Leek. 😆

Both lovely towns 😐

Loads to look at so far , thanks all.

Buxton isn't in the Peak District

Haha. That is an interesting question. I'm now wondering why Buxton isn't seemed to be in the Peaks. Looking at a map it's surrounded by the National Park. Only thing I can think of is that having such a large town in a National Park would create all sorts of planning and regulatory issues e.g. they probably already had their own council. That being said for holidaying I'd count it as being in the Peaks.

When the Peak park boundary was being agreed, someone put the point of a pair of compasses on the map centred on the town hall in Buxton, and drew an arc that took all the quarries local to Buxton out of the national park - apparently