Britain on the Cheap

In a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, an incendiary team will light up the 84-mile route of Hadrian’s Wall on March 13. This year marks the 1600th anniversary of the end of Roman Britain in 410 AD, a huge turning point in British history.

The fire braziers will blaze from coast to coast in the north of England, with about 500 individual points of light. The first brazier will be illuminated at North East, with the line of light then making its way along the Wall to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria over the following hour. Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall is a flagship event of British Tourism Week 2010.

Travel season is heating up, and a London Pass is a good way to pop into more than 55 attractions, such as the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Windsor Castle and HMS Belfast. The pass also lets you skip to the head of the line at some of the most popular spots, such as the Tower, London Zoo, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace. You’ll also get a 128-page guidebook. A one-day adult pass starts at $60/£39, a child’s one-day pass, $42/£26. FYI — We’re linked you directly to London Pass’ ordering page using our affiliate link, which means that BOTC will get credit for telling you about the deal. If you’d like to order on your own, please go to www.londonpass.com

Save 30% when you book the Best Western Kilima Hotel, York, before March 31. The rate is $117/£78, including breakfast. The Kilima, a former Victorian rectory, has a Turkish steam room, an indoor swimming pool and fitness center.

An Easter bunny, chocolate eggs, spring flowers and a welcome glass of champagne await guests booking an Easter break at Combe House, a Grade I Elizabethan manor near Exeter. Two-night breaks taking in Easter Friday, Saturday or Sunday, April 2-4, start at $952/£590 for two people sharing a room, including a three-course, candlelit dinner with canapes both evenings. Combe House has two Master Chefs of Great Britain who source fresh local ingredients for their menus. In season, the majority of fruit, vegetables and herbs are from Combe’s own restored kitchen gardens.

Save half when you book at The White Swan hotel in the center of the historic market town of Alnwick, Northumberland, now throughout March. The Winter Warmer package at the 300-year-old coaching inn is $75/£49.50 per person sharing for an overnight stay with dinner and breakfast, a bottle of sparkling prosecco per couple and entrance to Alnwick Garden. The price saves $75/£50 on normal rates. Contemporary Alnwick Garden, just a stroll from the hotel, has one of the country’s largest water features. The White Swan is famous for its magnificent panelled and mirrored dining room taken from The Titanic’s sister ship The Olympic.

Save 20% on a cottage for two converted from listed farm buildings near the South Devon sailing center of Noss Mayo. It’s now $378/£252 for a week’s stay from March 13 and 27. The cottage is half a mile from the sea, and guests have shared use of a games room and hard tennis court.

For Mother’s Day at Lowry Outlet Mall, Manchester, manicures at J Crystal start at just $18/£12. A wash house treatment with Paul Mitchell products starts at $21/£13.50 at Fibre Hairdressing.

Two Cornwall cottages near the National Trust’s Cotehele estate have been discounted for one-week stays throughout March. Kingslea, a one-bedroom home with countryside views two miles from Cotehele, is reduced by a third to $216/£144 per week. Or only a woodland walk away from Cotehele is Comfort Wood Cottage, a renovated former barn on a small organic livestock farm. The contemporary-style home houses up to eight, now for $644/£398 per week, a $150/£100 savings. Pets are welcome at both properties.

Cotehele has a Tudor house, little modernized, and formally planted terraces, ponds and orchards in the Tamar Valley.

Are you infatuated with Emma, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility? Then the new Wayfarers’ Jane Austen walk through Hampshire may be for you. The walk, rated easy at six to 10 miles a day, will stop at Steventon, home to Jane’s father’s rectory; the village of Chawton, later home of Jane Austen and site of today’s Jane Austen Museum; and Oakley Hall, the 18th-century Manor House Hotel considered the inspiration for Mansfield Park. The trip also includes Winchester cathedral, Jane Austen’s final resting place, plus a song recital and a pre-dinner discussion led by a Jane Austen expert. Beginning in Steventon and ending in Winchester, the six-day walk is $3,595 per person, double occupancy. It runs June 27-July 2, July 25-30 and Aug. 29-Sept. 3.

Golfers can enjoy one night’s dinner, bed and breakfast and two rounds of golf at Abbotsley Hotel, Golf & Country Club, in Cambridgeshire for $95/£59, one of more than 1,500 venues from Your Golf Travel.com in its new 2010 brochure. Europe’s largest golf travel resource focuses on 52 resorts and 18 tour destinations in the UK, as well as 73 overseas resorts and hotels.