Travel to the Festival

Kendal is easy to reach from many parts of the UK. The town will be especially busy during the Festival weekend and there is limited parking – to avoid traffic and minimise the environmental impact of your journey, please use public transport wherever possible.

Train

Kendal train station has direct services to Manchester Airport, with stops in Manchester, Bolton, Wigan North Western, Preston, Lancaster, and Oxenholme Lake District. You can also take the train to and from Windermere, Staveley, Burneside, and Oxenholme directly from Kendal. Oxenholme Lake District is on the West Coast Main Line, with direct trains from Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. If arriving at Oxenholme, hop on the 7 minute connection train to Kendal. Trains run regularly between the two stations. 

Plan your train journey using National Rail and find out how much carbon you will be saving with I Came by Train.

Access: There is step-free access to all platforms at Kendal and Oxenholme train stations. Please note, access to Oxenholme’s Platforms 2 and 3 is via a steep ramp.

Bus

Kendal Bus Station is on Blackhall Road, just off the high street behind the Westmorland Shopping Centre. 

A single bus fare in Kendal (and across most of the Lake District) is capped at £3.00, with many bus fares well below this price.

You can travel to Kendal by bus from all over the region – work out your route with the Stagecoach Journey Planner.

National Express coaches stop in Lancaster and Penrith, which are both connected to Kendal by bus and rail services.

Bike + Alternatives

Kendal has plenty of bike racks all over town, and there will also be a limited number available at our Basecamp Village. 

The Cumbria Travel Actively website includes a helpful tool for planning active journeys as well as a map of all cycle parking locations across the town, which you can also see via our Interactive Festival Map. 

Alternatives? 

Every year, we're inspired by attendees who've found creative, low-impact ways to travel from far and wide to the festival.

If you’ve ever made the journey without using a car or public transport – whether by bike, on foot, or something more unusual – we’d love to hear from you! Share your adventure with us info@mountainfest.co.uk.

Car

If you do choose to travel by car, please organise a lift with or offer to drive others – find a lift/passenger with Liftshare or BlaBlaCar.

Parking is limited over the festival weekend, particularly in the town centre, and the one-way system traffic may increase your journey time. We strongly recommend choosing a car park outside of the centre and enjoying a short stroll/cycle/bus/train/taxi ride to your destination.

If you do drive into Kendal, make sure to plan ahead – the websites below are a good place to start:

Accessible Parking

Blue Badge holders parking in any bay in South Lakeland District Council car parks get one extra hour of parking for free, on top of the parking they pay for. Blue Badge holders need to display their badge. A full list of disabled parking spaces can be found here.

Festival interactive map

Use our interactive map to see parking, bicycle parking, and electric vehicle charging points.We recommend clicking "View Larger Map" to you can enable/disable different layers. This way, you can customise the map to see the information you need for your visit. 

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