rutland water

Amazing place for great walk with kids. Lots of ducks, birds. Smiley people around, had great spring walk :)

A lovely informative place to visit. Upkeep of the paths is excellent and so is the signing. Lots of birds to see and a lovely walk around the lake at the same time. The Visitors Centre has viewing facilities as well as info on the local nature. A very small drawback - the only food for sale was crisps and such like, so be prepared.

You cannot beat the joys of the English countryside in spring. Lovely to see nature at its best, good walking and a nice drink a the end - doesn't get much better than this!

A really lovely expanse of water to walk round with interesting and different water birds. There are beautiful views at all times of year.

its lovely to take a walk around the lake. Once you get away from the visitor centres it is relatively quiet particularly walking at the waters edge.

Visited on lovely day. Hired tandems from the Giant bike shop. Had a lovely time riding round the reservoir (short route, 17 miles which took us about 2 hours 20 mins, pretty much non-stop). Can hire for 2 hours or all day, which would allow for refreshment stops en route eg at pub in Manton. Would've liked an intermediate hire length- eg. 3/4 hours. Never ridden a tandem before, would've been more wary in summer when I imagine paths are much busier. Beautiful scenery. Finished off with tea/coffee and snacks at Cafe at Normanton car park.

Was ok. Had a wander round with hubby and dog, but not much happening. It was march tho, and no one around. ... see for your selves. Won't go back. Sorrounding villages and towns beautiful. Will return to rutland but not rutland water. £5 to park :o

Lovely place, we love it with the family and will carry on loving it year after year. Lots of parking, different walks, nature spots, children's activities, bike hire, pubs cafes. Lovely to take a picnic in the summer.

We were staying two nights in Oakham because we were interested in seeing Rutland and especially Rutland water. We hoped to hire bikes if the weather was good enough and to get a good idea of an area and county that had always fascinated us - the main attraction of course is Rutland water. We visited twice on consecutive days in February - one sunny, one wet.GoodThe sun shone the first day.At least we can say we've been.BadThe toilets were cleanBad.You can only park in the designated car parks - cost is £1.50 per hour. This is a visitor attraction rather than a place you can visit ie If you are driving, there no places you can stop with a view of the lake, not lay bays, no viewpoints - it's he car parks or nothing. don't expect this too be like the lake district.Because the landscape is flat there aren't really any views -- it's rather boring too be honest. You will see on the literature a view of the church - this is because it is the only thing to see!The bicycle hire was going to cost us something like £22 for two of us for two hours - we felt this was exploitative - bring your own bikes.There is nothing about the history. On the second day we visited the peninsula - the only interesting part of the area to our minds, with a beautiful little church and some interesting building in Hambleton. We also visited the visitor centre on the north shore of the lake - but there was nothing about the flooded village, we would have liked to have known why the reservoir was formed, who it serves, why the area was chosen was there any opposition etc. It's an interesting story but it is hardly touched upon - the whole place was vey disappointing.Having said all this, bear in mind, it was February, maybe there is more in the summer, and I'm sure the boat tri would make a difference to a visit.

Best by bike, but walking was good too. We stayed in hotel on the water's edge - very nice. Views and wildlife great - I'm not a birdwatchers but clearly a place where you would get good pickings

We parked at the North shore but found everything by the shore was closed. The Rutland Belle does not sail until Easter, that being a guess because the advertised timetable was dated 2014. We did find a cafe open and paid nearly £8 for two drinks and two lollies, we just made our exit under the hour for a £1.50 parking charge, otherwise it would have been £3, car parks don't have an out of season it would seem

Lovely day out for a summers day. The wise open spaces are great for those summer games and there always seems to be plenty of room. It's nice for a picnic or a BBQ. The only downside is that the parking charges are expensive

This place is beautiful for family days out or on your own. Brilliant for running and cycling. I'd highly recommend it.

The most beautiful place ever! There are wonderful walks all around the water and suitable for cyclists also. Great place for families to go to of all ages. I went with my daughter, son in law and grandchildren aged 6 and 9. My daughter and I walked and the others were on bikes and there are play parks for the children .

Lovely dam wall which is perfect for sledging, having 2 young children that get cold quickly meant paying £5 for parking would have been an absolute rip off, so we parked on the roadside on the southside near the dam, big mistake the money grabbing water company or local council has gone to extensive measures to make it almost impossible to reach the dam, high fences,locked gates, you name it, we eventually found a way but it is disgusting the lengths they have gone to to MAKE you pay to visit, what is a man made structure for supplying water, so in essence it should be free or £1 all day parking to cover costs not make some fat cats richer, utterly disgraceful.