Regular walkers in the Lake District will know only too well just how good it is to relax after a hard day in the hills.

It's a great feeling to get the boots off and look forward to the chance to soak aching legs and - if you were nominated to carry a rucksack full of emergency kit, wet weather gear and tonnes of unused food and drink - tired back muscles.

Once you're back in the land of the living, there's nothing better than sitting down to a first-class meal and a bottle of wine.

Follow that with coffee and a liqueur in front of a blazing log fire while you plan out the next day's trek and the world couldn't be a better place.

That scenario is waiting for visitors to the Westmorland Hotel, a few hundred yards off the M6 near Tebay.

With a three-star AA, RAC and ETC rating, it is ideally positioned as a jumping-off point to explore the huge variety of surrounding countryside.

To the east are the famous rolling Howgill Fells, a big attraction for walkers. Below them is Sedbergh, on the edge of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Then there is Penrith, 16 miles north of the hotel up the M6 and on the edge of the Lake District.

Head west and you are in busy Keswick, dwarfed by the imposing Skiddaw and Blencathra, both of which offering challenging climbs to the summits.

Alternatively you can drop down from Penrith to the quieter Ullswater and - if you're feeling particularly energetic - tread the well-worn paths up to the awesome Striding Edge and Helvellyn.

To the south of the Westmorland is Kendal, a few miles from Windermere, perhaps the more famous gateway to the Lakes. The hotel itself may only be a short distance from the M6 but you would be hard-pushed to know it. From the windows of many of the 53 bedrooms, you look out over rolling Cumbrian fells to hills in the near distance, and the hotel can provide details of several local walks.

The extension was opened by TV celebrity and botanist David Bellamy and houses the reception, 23 of the rooms and the Bretherdale Restaurant, which also has a window wall on to the fells.

Although the choice on the menu is a little limited, the food is beautifully cooked and presented and makes the tastebuds do somersaults. Not surprisingly the restaurant holds an AA Rosette award. Meals can be washed down with a selection from a comprehensive wine list.

The after-dinner coffee and drinks can be taken in the open lounge area which boasts a bar, comfy chairs and the welcoming open fire. After a good night's sleep, it's time to start the day with breakfast, which comes in a variety of shapes and forms, including Cumbrian sausages.

The design and decoration of the rooms and public areas as well as the outside of the hotel give it an Alpine or Norwegian feel, with pine woodwork polished floor boards a feature.

There are no leisure facilities, but with so much open countryside around, they are perhaps not needed as much as they might be at other hotels.

The Westmorland naturally caters for passing trade off the motorway and offers conference and wedding reception facilities.

But it also aims to provide good quality family accommodation for longer-stay visitors.

One word of warning - the hotel is not the easiest place to find, particularly at night, because it lies between junctions 38 and 39 on the Motorway and you need to keep your eyes peeled for the slip road to the Tebay West services.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.