Boats from the piers in Bowness sail around the lake, many calling at Ambleside or at Lakeside where there is a restored railway.

Windermere station offers train and bus connections to the surrounding area, Manchester Airport and the West Coast Main Line.

[5] Windermere was from 1894 to 1974 governed by an urban district council which in 1905 absorbed the former Bowness-on-Windermere UDC although Bowness remained a separate civil parish until 1974.

Windermere UDC had slight boundary changes in 1934 and was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 replacing it with South Lakeland District Council.

[7] The station serves trains run by Northern to Oxenholme on the West Coast Main Line; some services continue on to Manchester Airport.

[8] Stagecoach Cumbria operates bus routes to Keswick, Kendal, Lancaster, Grasmere, Ambleside, Bowness-on-Windermere, Barrow-in-Furness, Penrith and Coniston.