We’ve been so looking forward to having you back! We know that lots of you have been itching to visit Keswick - thank you for holding off, keeping yourselves and our residents safer as a result.

With shops, restaurants, cafes, accommodation and other hospitality businesses now given the green light, our local business owners are excited to open their doors to you.

Whilst we'll be delighted to see you again, we do have a request; please be caring towards our town and the environment when you visit. Keep an appropriate social distance from others, wash your hands or use hand sanitiser regularly and pay attention to the regulations of individual establishments.

We've taken the opportunity to speak to some of the wonderful business owners in Keswick and ask them about their new COVID-19 regulations, their apprehensions, and what they're most looking forward to. Scroll through the photos and captions below to see what they said.

We're looking forward to seeing you. For information on visiting Keswick, including where to eat, stay, and explore, go to: www.visitkeswick.com

"Our guests will now be asked to sanitise in the porch before each entry, and wash hands before leaving their room. Breakfasts are all via room service now, check in will be outside, and check out and payment are all remote, so social distancing shouldn't be a problem. There is also a sign asking them to respect all Covid protocols when in Keswick , such as social distancing, respecting the environment, doing what retailers and pubs and restaurants ask of their customers... and being patient!

"Since lockdown, I've missed a regular income, human contact and a good natter. We're looking forward to helping people get out on the fells and get some fresh air and exercise and views after months of lockdown... and of course getting the business up and running again, and showing off all the decorating and renovating of communal areas we've done during lockdown!"

"Keswick businesses are very much looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the town. It’s just too beautiful to keep it all to ourselves and there’s so much to see and do here!

"We’ve all thought long and hard and put procedures in place; even changing the layout of our shops, cafes and bars in some cases, to keep everyone safe. As long as we respectfully follow the guidelines set out by each business, we can all once again enjoy eating, drinking and shopping together in the town and spending time engaging in outdoor activities that we’ve all missed so much.

"We’re a friendly bunch at the Keswick Cheese Deli and we’ve missed seeing our lovely customers that return time and time again, to say hello and pick up a wedge of their favourite artisan cheese and browse our locally sourced fine food produce. Our customers aren’t just from the UK, many come from overseas. We always like to surprise them with something new and unusual to try.

"Although our customers have been able to order online, wherever they are in the UK, there’s nothing quite like that face-to-face interaction. We are very much looking forward to welcoming familiar and new faces into the Deli again, as our beautiful town starts to wake up once more."

"Many of the recent visitors to the Lakes are first-timers and seemingly unused to the rural environment and things which we all take for granted, like driving on narrow roads.

"I would ask visitors to be patient and to follow the Country Code - which was in common parlance when I was a youngster but no-one seems to mention now.

"I know how lucky I’ve been, living in a beautiful place during the last three months. I’m looking forward to sharing that pleasure and helping to create exciting memories for people who will have been starved of those stimuli.

"Our instructors are all very keen to get back to work welcoming visitors to the forest and enabling people to live their lives adventurously."

"At the Lake District Wildlife Park, we have social distancing measures in place and we are asking visitors to be respectful of this and of each other. We would also ask visitors to make regular use of the hand washing and sanitising stations that we have around the Park.

"As a business, we are really looking forward to seeing people enjoying our animals again and making most of the open air and green space that we have at both the Wildlife Park and the surrounding areas of Keswick. We have a number of youngsters including a Zebra foal, a Dwarf Zebu calf, Tamworth Piglets, A Bagot Goat kid and Lemur babies. We are looking forward to sharing them all with our visitors.

"We have missed seeing our visitors having an enjoyable family day out, children playing on the adventure playground and smiling faces of people watching the antics of our gibbons, lemurs, meerkats, otters and other animals around the park. It has been very quiet!"

"We want people to come here and enjoy our wonderful walks with their dogs and we want to thank you for having the confidence to return to support our town.

"Whilst it might be repetitive to repeatedly read different businesses requests and procedures, please be patient with us as we’ve all had to develop our own bespoke procedures to suit our individual business.

"We are excited to get the buzz back in the town and see the place more vibrant again. We have been open throughout as an essential shop and we have been saddened seeing the town so lifeless.

"We have missed the hustle and bustle of our usual busy town and seeing smiling faces in our shop having come back from a good day's walk with their happy furry companions."