A lovely place for a day trip (Bakewell in general)

Member Name: dippykitty

Product:	Bakewell in general
Date:	09/06/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty of touristy shops to browse through, quaint back streets give it a bit of an older feel

Disadvantages: On a nice day you might struggle to find a parking spot that isn't miles away unless you're early

A couple of weekends ago, we spent a lovely Saturday in the Derbyshire town of Bakewell. This is only about thirty minutes from where I live so it was conveniently located for a day out that didn't require us to travel too far to get there and back.

We arrived around lunchtime and had trouble finding a car park spot that was anywhere near the exit as lots of other people had had the same idea of spending the day in the sunshine there! Fortunately, there are several large car parks so finding a spot in general shouldn't be a problem.

Once we eventually parked the car, it was only a short walk down one of the quite quaint streets to get to the main road. Walking this road, we could immediately smell chips, and pinpointed the chip shop as being just across the road. On this road, there was a decent-sized Boots store, which I couldn't resist popping in and having a look around.

Bakewell's back streets look quaint as I've already mentioned, and they have a bit of a feel of the type of quaint back streets that you can find in Spain. These streets are full of gift shops and cafes and are much more tourist-orientated than the main roads through (one of which has the aforementioned Boots store). On one of the main streets, we found a card shop that was selling cards for half price and picked up a few bargains. There is also a rather large Co-op store along there too.

Stopping to buy some of the chips that we smelt earlier, this was the only real disappointment of the day. The chips had smelt very mouth-watering but were quite dry in reality. Perhaps if I had drowned them in salt and vinegar, they would have been more appetising! I can't complain about the price though as a rather large cone of chips only cost £1.60 which is quite a bit cheaper than I've paid in the past on holidays and the like.

Moving on, the next aim was to find a coffee shop. On one of the main roads was an ice cream shop that had a coffee shop above. It was a rather strange set-up as you had to climb a winding staircase of metal steps to get to the limited seating set-up upstairs and the staff had to carry your drinks and/or snacks up to you. The floor was almost transparent too, which meant that you could see everything that was happening below and probably vice versa. If you needed the toilet, that was a further few steps above the seating area.

We decided to take the scenic route back to the car park at the end of the day via the river. As this was a lovely, sunny day, this was very picturesque. An ice cream van was parked near to the river and we purchased two very delicious vanilla ice cream cornets with flakes that I would thoroughly recommend.

Overall, Bakewell was a really nice place to spend the day, especially if the weather is favourable. There are plenty of touristy shops that you can mooch around in and a good selection of cafes and coffee shops should you need to take a well earned rest from walking around. If you want to sample the famous Bakewell tarts, these were being advertised on boards outside most of the shops that sold food and drink. You can even nip into Boots or the Co-op if you've run out of something. The river is a lovely attraction if you want to sit by the side of it and just watch the world go by.

Summary: A lovely little market town