Britain on the Cheap

If you’re booking an overnight holiday shopping expedition in London, Octopus Travel offers hotels at every price point. Oxford Street, with major department stores and shopping outlets, has both ends of the spectrum: Piccadilly Backpackers, a trendy hostel from £61/$96 per room per night, while the newly re-opened Savoy starts at £661/$1,058 per room per [...]

Can’t wait for “Sex and the City 2” to unfurl on the big screen? SACO apartments is offering groups of four a girls’ weekend away in Birmingham for $372/£250, $93/£62.50 per person. The package includes one night in a two-bedroom apartment in the city, sleeping four, tickets for all four to see the new movie [...]

Want to check out the designers in Edinburgh and, of course, Scotland’s only Harvey Nichols? Superbreak offers a two-night B&B package—with a free dinner on the first night—for $200/£119.50 per person, per night at the Barcelo Edinburgh Carlton Hotel. Good weekends now till Christmas, based on two sharing.

Birmingham, England’s second-largest city with a million people, has long been a shopping draw. There’s posh shopping at Debenhams, Selfridges and the only Harvey Nichols outside London, but it’s more fun and affordable to mix it up at the little stalls hugging the Bull Ring in the city center. Named for medieval butcheries, the Bull [...]