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Graythwaite Adventure

Graythwaite Adventure

Graythwaite Adventure
5
Shooting Ranges4WD, ATV & Off-Road ToursNature & Wildlife AreasBoat ToursOff-Road & ATV Trails
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
About
Graythwaite Adventure provides a range of outdoor adventure experiences on the private Graythwaite Estate; 5,000 acres of stunning woodland, parkland and lake frontage. With careful planning and consideration for the natural landscape, we’ve designed the Lake District’s only off-road course with BORDA (British Off Road Driving Association) accreditation and BORDA qualified instructors providing expert tuition to guests joining us for 4x4 off-road driving experiences. Clay pigeon shooting, archery and axe throwing take place at our shooting site nestled in the heart of the estate with bushcraft in a beautiful hidden away woodland setting. From the secluded shore, April to October, we offer RIB boat tours on Windermere. We're perfect for couples, families, groups and corporate events. Cumbria Tourism Awards 'Experience of the Year' winner in 2019 and finalist in 2022.
Hawkshead, Cumbria, England
Meets animal welfare guidelines

Awards
Travellers' Choice
2024

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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

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5.0
5.0 of 5 bubbles377 reviews
Excellent
373
Very good
3
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
1

Chiranthi M
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Family
Excellent experience with Graithwaite Adventure. We booked 2 sessions for our family of four- 2 adults and 2 children ( 9 and 12 years old). Paddle boarding and kayaking. The paddle boarding was guided and was brilliant fun. Some members of the family managed to master headstands on the board! Kayaking in the lakes was memorable with great views and would highly recommend it!
Written 20 February 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you Chiranthi for the review and for choosing to spend some of your holiday with us. Hopefully we'll get chance to welcome you back at some point. Have a great summer and I hope you get some adventure time. Thanks again.
Written 3 March 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Charlie2983
London, UK14 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2021 • Family
As a family of 4 (2 adults & 2 kids aged 6yrs and 9yrs) we spent almost a full day at the Graythwaite Adventure Watersports site.

We had 2 hours of double kayak hire and then later in the afternoon we had a private paddleboard lesson with Dan.

The kayak hire was great. Dan got us up to speed quickly and was happy to point out places along the Lake that we could stop for cold drinks and ice creams. The kids loved this and we had a blissful 2 hours.

We had 2.5hrs hours to while away before we had our paddleboard lesson booked, but we were told to enjoy the site, bring a picnic and make the most of the beautiful weather. The kids were allowed to keep hold of their life jackets so they spent the entire time swimming in the Lake, whilst we set up the deckchairs on the shore and soaked up the sun.
We brought a picnic and made the most of the under cover picnic tables at the edge of the water.

The paddleboard lesson was great. Dan was incredibly patient and was great at reassuring my 6 year old. He had my 9 year old standing within minutes and we covered a lot of ground over the 1.5 hours.
He helped my 6 year old to get to standing by allowing him to stand on his board with him to start with and by the end of the lesson he was standing and paddling solo!

We had enough time to learn some tricks and jumps on the boards, which ended up with us all taking a dunk.... including Dan the Instructor.
Dan also took some pictures of us during our lesson and sent them over to us at the end so that we had some photographic evidence of our paddleboarding prowess!! A really nice touch which was more than we expected.

An absolutely brilliant day for all of us. We were totally spoilt with the 28 degree weather but the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff totally made it.

As an aside, there is a little drinks shack there which was so reasonably priced.... £1 for soft drinks and 50p for water and chocolate. Nothing over priced, no hard sell just really great surroundings and service.

We will definitely return!!
Written 21 July 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
What a fabulous read, thank you very much. I'm still smiling, and one definitely to share with Dan and the whole team. Thank you Charlie. For us, it's more than just a paddleboard lesson, or a kayak hire, and you've captured it so well. Of course, we can't take credit for the weather but we're very pleased the sun shone on your day with us. It's great you've taken a whole heap of happy memories away. Thanks again and have an ace rest of the summer.
Written 15 August 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

SamTollerson
Kendal, UK5 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2020
Graythwaite Adventure gave a group of year 6 leavers an unforgettable afternoon of fun that included paddleboarding, kayaking and a ride on a RIB. I would highly recommend them as they give top notch service from initial contact, during the run up and most importantly, on the day. The setting at Graythwaite is stunning and being on this side of the lake means it's much quieter. The kit is very clean and well looked after and the staff are so enthusiastic that you can't not have a good time! Our group of kids were split into three groups and they did the activities in rotation. The kit was thoroughly cleaned between sessions and they made sure social distancing measures were in place. Thank you Sara, Tim, Isabel, Ollie, Matt and Fraser!
Written 14 July 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
What a blast of an afternoon! We absolutely loved it. Thank you again to you all, it was a pleasure to welcome you all on site and share some time with the children, who were all impeccably behaved and brilliant. Please send our best and good luck wishes to them all as they gear up to going to secondary school. Happy summer holidays, from us :)
Written 16 July 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Lucy H
Birmingham, UK114 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020 • Family
As a family of four with two dogs we all wanted to spend a few hours paddle boarding but one of us would have to stay on shore with the dogs. Other hire companies were insisting on each of us hiring a board even though a maximum of three of us could be in the water at any one time. Graithwaite adventure did not they allowed us to hire just two boards and wet suits for those of us who didn't have their own. This meant we all had a decent amount of time on the lake without hiring equipment we couldn't use. The staff and instructors were great, friendly and welcoming. We loved it so much on Wednesday we returned Thursday and did it all over again To top it off beautiful secluded spot, hardly anyone there, carpark on site free and glorious sunshine.
Written 15 August 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thanks for taking the time to review Lucy, and it was a pleasure to be able to fit in with your needs. What a week you picked to be in the Lakes! The lake was a must wasn't it - to enjoy and cool down in. Enjoy what's left of the summer, and thanks again, Sara, Tim and Matt.
Written 20 August 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Vicky Kammin
2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020
We had the best day out at Graythwaite Adventure, booking with our friends there was 13 of us in total. Our family did 4x4 driving and a ride on the rib, the 4x4 we did in a convey of 3 landrovers, one for each family which was pretty spectacular and two of the families jumped on the rib ride while the other family had fun axe throwing.

Tim was such a fantastic instructor, so calm, clear and reassuring with our boys on the 4x4’s for their first ever driving experience! Was so incredible to see them behind the wheel and they absolutely loved it as did we! The rib ride was also amazing, again Tim was fantastic, taking us on a tour of the lake and all the incredible houses and their stories as well as giving us an exhilarating ride!

Our friends live in the Lakes so we come up at least once a year and we will definitely be back!

We would highly recommend Tim as an instructor and just to hang out with for the day! We felt very safe in his hands. He made a very special day for us all as i know the other instructors did for the families we went with.

With very many thanks
Written 19 August 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you Vicky and we loved having you all on site! Really appreciate you taking the time to review - I'll make sure I share your kind comments with everyone. Isn't great to share the children's excitement both in the Land Rovers and on the RIB. Thanks again to you all for joining us and when you're visiting again, it would be a pleasure to welcome you back for some adventuring. Thanks, Sara, Tim, Matt and Jago.
Written 20 August 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Sarah
2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2020
Had the best experience with Graythwaite Adventure when we booked to go Paddle boarding on Lake Windermere! It was the first time we had tried it and very early on we were all standing up on our boards! The activity was mixed with technical learning and fun tasks and it worked really well. The location for the activity is ideal, it's secluded and you feel like you have the lake to yourself. I think it's worth mentioning at this current time, that they have set up the experience within the Covid19 guidelines and it didn't affect the quality of the experience at all. Tim and his team are very friendly, they put you at ease and make sure you have the best fun. Booking the activity was very easy, Sara replied very quickly and sent comprehensive information for the booking so you had everything you needed. They have a professional set-up and would definitely use them again.
Written 27 June 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Sarah. Wow, thank you for a great review. It was a pleasure to welcome you onto the Estate again. What a day you chose for it too! It's reassuring to know that the measures we've put in place make you feel comfortable and at ease, particularly when you're learning something new and there may be a few nerves on the day. Hope to see you back out on the water soon, for some more SUPer times. Thanks again, from the GA team.
Written 30 June 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Yuveer R
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2021
Sara was beyond fantastic when it came to personal service and could not have been more accommodating. After scouting several companies for a group of 11/14 to experience Clay Pigeon Shooting we found many to be too expensive and very dismissive when it came to customer service.

After finding Graythwaite Adventure and speaking directly to Sara, she went above and beyond to accommodate us and even shuffled some previous bookings around - just for our large group!

The actual experience was excellent and the two instructors, Simon & James, were both entertaining and extremely helpful. Complimentary tea and coffee were provided to those not participating and to say we got more than what we paid for, would be an understatement!

Could not recommend highly enough!
Written 6 July 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Yuveer, you're too kind! Thank you again for choosing to join us, it was a pleasure to host you all and I know our team had as much fun as you did. Thanks again, and have a great rest of the summer. :)
Written 15 August 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Jon H
Witham, UK10 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2020 • Couples
I treated my wife to a weekend away and booked us onto the 4x4 off road experience and clay pigeon shooting. Both were hosted by Matt who was friendly, helpful and provided clear instruction and coaching so that we could extract the most from the time we were there.

Despite the wet weather, we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and wouldn't hesitate to recommend Graythwaites to anyone that was visiting the area.
Written 14 September 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you Jon, so pleased to chose to spend some of your time in the Lakes with us. I'll be sure to pass on your kind words to Matt. Best wishes, Sara
Written 23 September 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Steve C
Maidenhead, UK16 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2020
Graythwaite Adventures and their instructors really made our Lake District trip special.

We started with the family adventure day with our two children (10yrs & 7yrs) with a 4x4 Off road course up to a great picnic spot. Tim taught the children bushcraft skills and fire making with great patience and then cooked a lovely bbq lunch. In the afternoon the children were given the chance to drive the land rover which they really loved, it takes a special kind of bravery to get in a land rover with a 7 year old driving. The day ended with archery and axe throwing and now we have to live with the fact our son is clearly the best axe thrower amongst us.

We came back for Canoeing with instructor Sean who showed great staying power convincing the children to keep paddling so we could actually make it back. Matt's RIB tour was great showing off all the lovely houses along the lake side, stopping for ice cream in Bowness and the children really enjoyed jumping in from the boat. Tim's passion for paddle boarding really shone through with lots of games on the water and kept the kids engaged the entire way.

Every time we visited the site the instructors always made us feel welcome and relaxed. Thanks to Sean, Matt and Tim for all their hard work and Sara for helping us organise over email. Looking forward to going back next time.
Written 16 August 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
What a great read, thank you very much. It's much appreciated to hear feedback on our team ... we all love playing a part in guests' holidays and know how important and precious quality family time away is. It wouldn't be right for us to not be able to share the fun and games at Graythwaite and surrounding areas with you. Thanks again for joining us and we hope you've taken a bit of the Lakes back home with you, and I'm sure your son will remind you about the axe throwing win for some time to come! Thanks again, Sara, Tim, Matt and Sean
Written 20 August 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Amy
Windermere, UK23 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020 • Couples
Had such a fantastic day of activities. Prices were great and affordable, we enjoyed time playing archery with great instruction and competitions to keep it fun! Clay pigeon shooting was brilliant, I have been before elsewhere but didn't enjoy it. However I would recommend it here! My partner loved it, fun and comfortable! Great day out and would recommend.
Written 19 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Amy. Aw, thank you, what a lovely, happy and positive read. We're so pleased you both enjoyed your time with us. Hope you have a great rest of your holiday in the Lakes and visit us again soon! Take care, thanks again, Sara, Tim and Matt.
Written 20 March 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

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