South Lakeland Leisure Village:
what it's really like

It's a quiet, gated lodge park on the Lancashire–Cumbria border, five minutes off junction 35 of the M6, with a heated indoor pool, a lakeside restaurant and a fishing lake on site. Windermere, Coniston and the Arnside & Silverdale AONB are all within about half an hour.

And the thing most people get wrong before they arrive: the pool isn't included in your lodge price. It's a separate pass, bought on the park.

We own two lodges here, so some of this we know cold and some of it we'll point you at the park for. We've said which is which. New to the park? We've also written a full guide to ten family-friendly walks nearby, all within twenty minutes of the lodge door.

The short version

The pool, and what it actually costs

This is the question that comes up more than any other, so here's the honest version.

The Pure Leisure Health & Fitness Centre sits on the park and has a 15-metre indoor heated pool, a steam room, an air-conditioned gym with cardio and resistance kit, a fitness studio running classes, and the Pure Essence beauty therapy suites.

Access is pay-as-you-go, on day or week passes bought at park reception. Pure Leisure publish current guest fees themselves and they change, so we're not going to print a number that'll be wrong by spring — ask at reception when you check in, or look up the current guest fees before you travel. As a rough shape of it, as of August 2026 a family day pass has been in the region of £25 for four. Treat that as a ballpark, not a quote.

Centre opening hours, as published by Pure Leisure: Monday to Thursday 6:30am–10pm, Friday 6:30am–8pm, Saturday 7am–7pm, Sunday 9am–5pm. Bank holidays can differ. One thing worth knowing: the pool's swim-session times are published separately from the centre's opening hours and shift with the season, so the centre being open doesn't automatically mean the pool is. Check the current swim timetable rather than turning up with three impatient children.

If your kids are swimmers, our honest view is that the pass is the best money most families spend here. If they aren't, you can skip it entirely and the holiday still works. And if it rains, here's what's actually indoors nearby, sorted by how far you'll have to drive.

The restaurant — no, you don't need a pass

This one worries people and it shouldn't.

Waters Edge is the bar and restaurant on the park, by the lake. Pure Leisure describe it as open Wednesday to Sunday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, to owners, guests and the general public, and seven days a week for drinks.

So: the leisure pass is for the pool and the gym. It has nothing to do with eating. You can walk over for dinner without buying anything else. Days and hours do move about, especially out of season and over Christmas and New Year, so check before you plan a night around it.

The lake

There's a fishing lake on the park with a path round it. Pure Leisure say it's free to use if you're a lodge owner or a holiday guest with lake access — worth confirming the lodge you're booking has that, because it's a lodge-by-lodge thing rather than a park-wide given.

It's also, for our money, the most underrated thing here. A flat, safe, gated loop you can walk before breakfast or after dinner with a dog and a small child, without getting in the car. On the days when the weather has other ideas, it's the walk that still happens.

For the bigger days out, we've written up ten family-friendly walks near the lodges — Arnside Knott, the Fairy Steps, Jack Scout, Warton Crag, Leighton Moss — all within about twenty minutes, with distances, terrain and parking for each.

Dogs

Dogs are welcome on the park, and at both of our lodges.

What a dog costs varies from lodge to lodge, because every lodge here is individually owned and sets its own terms. That's the single most useful thing to know before you book anywhere on this park: the park is one thing, the lodge is another. Check the specific listing.

Around 18% of the bookings across our three lodges arrive with a dog, so it's not a fringe case — it's normal here, and the walking on the doorstep is a large part of why.

Getting there, and whether you need a car

The park is at Borwick Lane, Borwick, Carnforth, LA6 1BH, about five minutes from junction 35 of the M6. If you're driving up from Manchester, Leeds or Liverpool, you're off the motorway and unpacking while people heading further north are still on the A591.

At our two lodges you park directly outside the door, which sounds like a small thing until you've carried a travel cot and a week's shopping across a car park.

You want a car. The park isn't within walking distance of a town, and while Carnforth is only about five minutes away by car — Booths and Aldi are both there — we're not going to pretend there's a convenient bus, because we haven't verified one. If you don't drive, ask the park directly before you book.

Not sure whether to stay here or right inside the Lakes? We've written up the honest case for staying at junction 35 instead of inside the Lakes.

What's actually within reach

Approximate driving times, from the park:

Pure Leisure describe Windermere, Coniston and the Arnside & Silverdale AONB as all within about thirty minutes, which matches. The genuinely unusual bit about this location isn't the Lake District — it's that two national parks are reachable from the same driveway, and that the limestone coast fifteen minutes south is somewhere most people driving past on the M6 have never heard of.

The bits nobody puts in the brochure

• Every lodge here is individually owned. Two lodges a hundred metres apart can have different bathrooms, different dog rules, different check-in, different everything. Reviews of "the park" tell you very little about the lodge you're actually booking. Read the listing.
• The pool isn't included. Worth saying twice.
• It's a holiday park, not a hotel. Nobody carries your bags. That's mostly the point.
• The Yealands is the newer, quieter phase, tucked away from the main village. If quiet matters to you, it's worth knowing the park isn't uniform.
• Restaurant and leisure hours shrink out of season and over the Christmas and New Year period. If your trip depends on either being open, check first.
• We can't answer for other owners' lodges. Whether there's a welcome pack, whether towels are provided, whether you can have a barbecue — those are lodge questions and park questions, and we'd be guessing. Ask whoever you're booking with. If they can't tell you, that's useful information too.

Which of our two lodges

Both sleep six, both take dogs, both are on The Yealands with parking at the door and self check-in by lockbox.

The Debonair has two full bathrooms, including an en-suite off the king room, and it's all on one level. If you're two families sharing, or travelling with anyone who'd rather not do stairs, that second bathroom is the difference between a good week and a queue.

The Sahara has one and a half bathrooms and a slightly cosier feel, and it's the one guests most often describe as looking like nobody had ever stayed in it.

Bed linen is provided in both. Towels and welcome extras vary lodge to lodge across the park, so check what's included wherever you book — including with us.

Book either of them direct and you get the best rate we offer, because there's no booking platform taking a cut in the middle.

The same is true at the other end of the area. Our third lodge sits on Fallbarrow Park in Bowness, which is a different proposition entirely — no pool, but a minute from Windermere and five from town. We've written that one up too: what Fallbarrow Park is actually like.

Check availability — The Debonair  Check availability — The Sahara

Park facilities, opening hours and guest fees are as published by Pure Leisure and checked in August 2026. Prices and hours change — check current details with the park before you travel.