Britain on the Cheap

For the first time, Bournemouth had added a beach hut especially for kids to its lineup along Durley Chine beach, a  Blue Flag award winner. Bournemouth Tourism and the interior designers at IKEA Southampton designed the UK’s first beach hut interior specifically for children.

The traditional black and white chalet-style beach hut has been painted pastel green and white, and fitted out with a white IKEA kitchen and utensils, children and adult beach furniture, toys and child safety solutions from IKEA’S Patrull range. The beach huts rental starts at £55/$83 per week

Save more than 65% when your family shares a room at the Macdonald Berystede Hotel & Spa, near Ascot, Berkshire, or the Macdonald Frimley Hall Hotel & Spa, near Camberley, Surrey.

The Summer Sensations offer is £99/$153, down from £293/$452. The package includes full English breakfast for two adults and two children under five; breakfast for youngsters 5 – 12 years at the reduced price of £5/$8. The deal is good now through Sept. 5

Save 25% or more when you book at least five nights at St. Martin’s on the Isle in the Scilly Isles. The hotel, beside the sea on the island of St Martin’s, has reduced the cost of one night with breakfast and dinner to £150/$232, saving £50/$77, while children are £25/$39 per night with breakfast when sharing their parents’ room. The deal is good now through August.

The Felin Fach Griffin in Powys, Wales, is offering packages for families looking to explore the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains. Prices range from £695/$1,073 for a family of three in a family room for five nights, or from £975/$1,505 for four nights for a family of four in two rooms.

Prices include bed & breakfast, supper nightly and a packed lunch on one day. Supper includes up to three courses from the Griffin’s usual evening menu, or high tea can be organized for younger children from 5:30 p.m. There’s no extra charge for dogs, and dog biscuits and water bowls provided upstairs. Rates are good now through to early September.

Heading to London to visit the Queen? Or at least the Queen’s main residence, Buckingham Palace? TheatreBreaks will offer a summer promotion from July 27–Sept. 29:  £63/$95 for a three-course lunch at the Ritz, a glass of champagne and a tour of Buck House.

The Dartmouth Golf and Country Club in south Devon has unlimited  golf packages available for summer from £85/$130 per person, including accommodation. The package is for one night’s B&B with two days’ unlimited golf, based on a group of six. The club has an 18-hole Championship Course and its nine-hole sister-layout, The Dartmouth.

Stretching your pounds this summer? The Independent Hostels UK network has more than 300 houses, cottage and barns across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, some with family rooms as low as £30/$46 for a family of four.

In addition to the privacy of a multi-bed room, sometimes with a double bed, often en-suite, the hostels provide self-catering facilities, dining areas and other places inside and out where children are welcome to play.

Some examples in England:

• Gumber Bothy, a Sussex barn on the National Trust’s Slindon Estate just off the South Downs Way, with family rooms sleeping four at £30/$46, rising to £35/$53 for five.

• Friends of Nature, one of Europe’s oldest environmental groups, offers family accommodation in a Victorian cottage in the village of Earby, Lancashire, while at Austwick on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the Dalesbridge hostel has four-bedroom family units with private facilities; both are from £56/$85 per night.

• Palace Farm Hostel at Doddington in the North Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has rooms in converted farm buildings from £64/$97 for a family of four, including continental breakfast. Bikes are available to hire at £5/$7.60 per day.

Wales

• Old School at Trefin, a quarter mile from the coast within Pembrokeshire National Park, has family rooms from £48/$73.

• Llandudno Hostel in the heart of the Victorian seaside resort has a four-bunk family room at £68/$104 with continental breakfast.

Scotland

• Balintraid House, which looks out over the historic Cromarty Firth, has family rooms for four from £72/$109 per night.

• The Barn on Westray in the Orkney Isles has family rooms from £64/$97 for four sharing.

The London Dungeon is celebrating its 35th birthday in July and August with a 35-day “summer of scare.”  Get up early—or brave the spirits and stay up all night—for the Dungeon’s actual birthday on Aug. 2. The first 35 customers will get in free.

Love is in the air at Hampton Court Palace. Join King Henry VIII durng his “Honeymoon with Jane Seymour” July 24.

Imagine: Henry VIII has just married his third wife, Jane Seymour, and celebrations are underway to welcome his new bride to his favourite palace. The people of the palace will celebrate with falconry, fencing and archery, as a spectacular flotilla brings rival ambassadors from France and the Holy Roman Emperor along the Thames from Richmond.

The party will culminate in fireworks at 9:45 p.m.–and the palace will stay open until 10 p.m.

Focus Hotels has launched family value inclusive packages at each of its 10 hotels across the UK. The deal is £160/$233 for two adults and two children for two nights, including full English breakfast each morning, a light lunch or packed lunch to take on days out, and a three-course dinner in the evenings. Adults will receive a half bottle of house wine selection each with their dinner, while kids will be served unlimited fountain soft drinks. Guests can also use early check in and late check out, free parking and Wi-fi and use of any onsite leisure facilities. The deal is on until Sept. 5.

The Focus Hotels are Bowdon Hotel & Leisure Club in Altrincham, Foxfields Country Hotel & Suites, Blackburn; Woodhey House Hotel, Chester; Hatfield Oak Hotel, Hatfield, The Royal Hotel, Hull; Westone Manor Hotel, Northampton; The Hatherton Country House Hotel, Stafford; Madeley Court Hotel, Telford; Wigan Oak Hotel, Wigan; and Goldthorn Hotel & Leisure Club, Wolverhampton.