Britain on the Cheap

The Best Western Plus Castle Inn in Keswick is offering 50% off on two-night stays, for two people, from £34/$55 per person per night. The deal is timed to coincide with the Keswick Mountain Festival May 16-20, five days of dragon-boat racing, Canadian canoeing, kayaking, climbing, walking and activities for children.    

CIE Tours is offering $200 savings per couple on the land portion of any Scottish, English or Welsh tour of eight days/seven nights or longer, or any British/Irish combination tour when you book it with our roundtrip airfare. Book by May 31 and use code 053112VS100. CIE Tours also has discounts for younger and older [...]

Macdonald Hotels & Resorts has a 25% spring break deal across the UK,  now through June 4.  If you book a stay in April, you’ll also receive a cream tea for two, excluding Saturdays. Reserve a room by April 9, including dinner, and you’re eligible for early check-in or late check-out. And every room receives [...]

The Scottish Snowdrop Festival is popping up at more than 50 gardens across Scotland’s mainland now through March 18. You can marvel at more than 300 types of these dainty flowers, including a footpath sprinkled with snowdrops by a waterfall which inspired Robert Burns in Perthshire. There will be carpets of snowdrops at Culzean Castle [...]

All of the UK will be celebrating Charles Dickens‘ 200th birthday on Feb. 7, but the spotlight will shine brightest on his birthplace in Portsmouth. You can plan ahead for a free timed admission slot to the Charles Dickens Birthplace on both Feb. 5, an extra free day, and on Feb. 7. Both days will [...]

It’s easy to slip back a century or so for the holidays when you visit Blists Hill Victorian Town in the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, Shropshire. On Dec. 10-11 and 17-18, Blists Hill Town residents will be celebrating in 1800s style, with Christmas songs and stories, Punch and Judy and a magic show. Sing [...]

Guides will lead ghost walks at haunted Basing House in Old Basing, Hampshire, on the evenings of Oct. 28 and 29. Once the location of the largest private residence in Tudor England, Basing House offers layers of history dating back to the Norman Age. During the Civil War, Cromwell stormed the fortified building, leaving it [...]

Take your chances on the Ghost Tours Oct. 26 and 27 from the Discovery Centre in Winchester, Hampshire. The walk, £5/$8 pp, will start at 6:30 p.m. with tales of creepy happenings in the Discovery Centre itself, before heading on to find out more horrible histories in the Theatre Royal next door. The ghost of [...]

Free Halloween fun is afoot at The Red House Museum in Christchurch, Hampshire, a former Georgian workhouse. On Oct. 27, children five and older can discover a “Skulls, Skeletons and Skull Duggery” hands-on workshop. On Oct. 29, families can make Halloween lanterns, which they can take with them later on the spooky night Ghost Tour [...]

It’s been 25 years since the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire’s Severn Valley became a UNESCO World Heritage Sites—in the Class of 1986  along with Stonehenge and the Giant’s Causeway. Celebrate with the 25th Anniversary World Heritage Festival Sept. 24. The day unfolds from noon to 8:30 p.m. with a street market along the river banks, [...]