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The afternoon of Sunday 3^rd June will see a thousand boats gather on the river Thames in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It will be the largest flotilla in modern times on the river with rowing boats, working boats and pleasure vessels of all shapes and sizes beautifully dressed with streamers and Union Jacks, stretching for an estimated twelve and a half miles.

The event has proved extremely popular with three boats applying for every place. The pageant organisers and representatives from the river community were involved in the selection process which included considering safety, fitness-for-purpose and range of vessel type as well as exploring whether the vessel was of historical significance or had an interesting story to tell. At the end of 2011, organisers confirmed to applicants the lucky boats who will take part in this historic event. 

The Queen of the Lake, owned by Windermere Lake Cruises and Captained by Ron Walker, has been selected to take part in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. Queen of the Lake, a traditional Windermere wooden launch is one of the vessels listed on the National register of Historic Vessels which will be travelling in the flotilla.

Nigel Wilkinson, Managing Director, Windermere Lake Cruises said: “We are delighted that Cumbria will be represented at such a high profile, patriotic event which will inevitably strike a cord with the whole country as we celebrate her Majesty the Queen and her 60 year reign together.

“We are pleased to be working with the Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, Royal Windermere Yacht Club and the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club to showcase an iconic image of the Lake District, Cumbria, not just to the Royal Family but also to the Great British public and the wider world. We hope to be able to involve the wider Cumbria community in this project and to give some younger Cumbrians a day out that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”

Built in 1949, measuring 15.2 metres and able to accommodate up to 84 passengers Queen of the Lake is based at Ambleside and is in daily service from April to October carrying passengers on Windermere, England’s longest lake. She is no stranger to royalty, having carried HRH the Prince of Wales in March 2010 when he visited the Lake District.

Queen of the Lake will travel from Windermere to London by lorry on a specially designed frame, covering almost 300 miles, a distance she hasn’t covered since she travelled to Windermere from the Thames-side town of Molsey, where she was built over 60 years ago.

Alex Williamson, Boat Building Manager for Windermere Lake Cruises and Operations Manager Russell Bowden, will be leading the team down to London for the event while Windermere Skipper Ron Walker will Captain the boat on the day itself.

Every vessel will proudly take its place in the flotilla alongside Her Majesty the Queen and other members of the Royal Family aboard the Royal Barge, The Spirit of Chartwell. It will be a once in a lifetime moment for Queen of the Lake, her crew, her passengers and the Lake District, Cumbria as a whole, to be part of this glorious moment in our rich royal history.

Five of the region’s top accommodation providers have been made it on to TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards list.

Rampsbeck Country House Hotel (11^th), Gilpin Lodge Hotel and Lake House, (14^th) Overwater Hall (17^th) and Merewood Country House Hotel (18^th) all made it on the independent travel site’s prestigious ‘Top 25 UK Hotels’ list, while Ambleside’s Riverside Hotel made it as third in the ‘World’s best B&Bs’ category, moving up from its fourth place last year.

The annual list, compiled by the world’s largest travel website, TripAdvisor, is based on over 60 million reviews and opinions from travelers around the globe.

Ian Stephens, Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, said: “TripAdvisor is now a fundamental part of the tourism industry as it is based purely on independent reviews. The fact that five of the top accommodation providers are from our region is testament to our impressive offering – congratulations to the individual businesses involved.”

Overall as a region, Cumbrian businesses came second only to Devon which laid claim to the first-place winner and four of the top ten.

On Thursday 18th January, Lake District based Fidget Design and the Cedar Manor Hotel were presented with two awards at the inaugural UK Hotel Awards 2011, part of the International Hotel Awards, held at London’s glitzy Savoy Hotel.

At the event Alison Tordoff, owner of Fidget Design based in the Lake District, Cumbria, discovered that her company had won the highly coveted five star award in the Best UK Hotel Interior category, for its work at the Cedar Manor Hotel, Windermere.

As one of the highest scoring winners from the UK Hotel Awards, Fidget Design and the Cedar Manor were then judged against other winners from around the world to find the ultimate World’s Best in each of the 13 award categories.

To round off a perfect evening Fidget Design discovered, much to its delight, that it had also won the top accolade of the World’s Best International Hotel Interior, for its work at the luxury Lake District hotel Cedar Manor.

The Cedar Manor Hotel received funding through the Rural Northwest Tourism Connect project, funded through Defra and part financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, for the creation of its Coach House Suite. Rural Northwest Tourism Connect is administered in Cumbria by Cumbria Tourism. The project is raising business performance and driving up design and tourist accommodation standards in Cumbria’s serviced accommodation businesses.

Ian Stephens, Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, said: “For Fidget Design to win both the UK’s Best award and the ultimate accolade the World’s Best is a great advert for its work at the Cedar Manor Hotel. These awards actively demonstrate that the Lake District, Cumbria, is the World’s Best in every sense of the word, taking great pride in our accommodation provision and in the overall visitor experience.’’

Mr Stephens added: ‘’We are particularly pleased as the recent work undertaken by Fidget at Cedar Manor Hotel is as a result of funding provided by Cumbria Tourism through the Rural Northwest Tourism Connect scheme, which is highly successful and has already helped a number of our accommodation providers to raise their standards ensuring that we constantly improve and enhance the visitor experience and thereby maintain our position as one of the top destinations of choice in the UK.’’

Alison Tordoff, owner of Fidget Design in Windermere said, of the award: “I’m still in shock. It’s fantastic for both us and Cedar Manor that we’ve won two such prestigious accolades. To discover that we have won the award for the World’s Best International Hotel Interior is just amazing. Winning both awards shows that the Lake District is right up there in terms of design and in terms of the quality of our accommodation. We are all simply so proud that we have been recognised in this way.’’