I stayed in a single room (Room 7) in this B&B for 6 nights during 28/12/2011 - 3/1/2012. This is a small but warm, comfortable, sparkling clean and friendly B&B. By small, it has less than 10 rooms in this traditionally built and very old building. The single room is normal small compare to London standard. But the room has a picturesque window overlooking a lovely green garden, cathedral and mountains. And I know those double rooms are spacious. It is one of the cheapest B&B in Ambleside but the service, quality and food are excellent. For some large and tall guests, it may be advisable to book into double room so that you won't explain about the small bed in single room.

Also, by small, you can only park 2 cars at a time in the narrow back yard of this guest house. But the owner, Allan is more than happy to help you parking on the back street using some techque to avoid parking fee. To some, it may be inconvenient. But you certainly have a taste of what local daily life truly is. With communication, I did park there without moving for 2 days. For those who will drive out to other destinations during day time, it will be no problem at all. Although it is not as convenient as other larger hotels which have their own big car parks, I certainly do not complain this for staying just a few days.

The owner, Allan and Dianne, are lovely couple. They are very friendly. I enjoyed the after breakfast chat to start the day. They will recommend those lovely places according to your interests.

Dianne is a great cook! I tried nearly every item in their breakfast menu. The home made pancake with maple syrup is the best I have ever tasted in the world! I heard another guest having the same comment as me!

I saw one negative comment about the breakfast time. I think that guest has misunderstood. You can go down to the breakfast room from 8:30 - 9:00 am to enjoy your breakfast. Not to finish it in half an hour. I came down at 9:00 am every morning and finished my breakfast before 10 then chatted happily for 20 minutes. Once I was late, 9:15 am and it was no problem!

If you go to Lake District, Ambleside is the best town to base. Windermere is too commercial to me. Grasmere is fairy tale like but a bit remote and inconvenient. Kedal is too modern. Ambleside keeps its taste, very convenient to shop and eat, very handy to go north or south from there (it is already in the middle),

I have no hesitation to recommend this guest house to any travelers.

Having read the few negative reviews on the Rysdale my wife & I thought we should write our own review, We have stayed at the Rysdale for 4 times now, the most recent being the last week in October for 3 nights, As in the past our stay was very confortable, We stayed in room 2, we have previosly stayed in room 6, Both overlook the park & have lovely viewsover the hills we saw a deer on one occasion,, the rooms are very cleen with very large comfy beds & quilts, everything you need for a shower towels and hair shampoo & dryer etc, flat screen tv, tea & coffee maker biscuits & chocolates, The breakfast has a choice of cereal, fruit,followed by eggs (poached, scrambled, boiled etc) smoked haddock, american pancakes, vegetarian or full english (recomended) followed by toast, it sets you up for the day, Ok there is no parking but i dont think you can blame Allan & Dianne for that, We have always found free parking on nearby streets without any problem or the public car park around the corner doesnt charge the earth, ( A message to Allan & Dianne, THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER LOVELY WELCOME) Gary & Janet. Rochdale

Well what another wonderful weekend we have had at the Rysdale, once again our room was perfect and cleaned to a high standard (been our third time we knew it would be nothing but clean). We were remembered by Allan who once again showed us to our room and ran through the times of breakfast etc, Allan is also very knowledgeable about all the walks and told us about 2 great ones. Allan and Dianne were very understanding when we didnt arrive till quite late on the Friday evening as we got caught up in traffic from Gloucester.
What can i say apart from excellent in every way, we wont stay anywhere else now.

I'm in shock people have actually enjoyed their stay here. I found it to be a total disappointment. I was meeting up with some friends to go for a walk and only wanted to stay the friday night. Booked very late and was delighted to get somewhere but boy was i in for a shock. At £45 per night (above the quoted price on the website) i thought it would be worth it. I was shocked to be given a single (Childs) bed with a silly end piece on it in a tiny room. It was clean but the small single quilt left me exposed to the elements in the night. A bivvy off may have been warmer! The breakfast left was the best part and thats only because you can't really go wrong with a full english. I see someone else has noted the really short times for breakfast. 0830-0900hrs doesn't leave much room for change. Check out was a highlight. Also...NO CAR PARK. Be prepared to pay and display up the road if you want to walk around Ambleside....Trust me...stay somewhere else and enjoy your break!