Stylish new hotels
Small hotels full of character and ambience are popping up all over Britain. One of the most exciting openings will be in Liverpool, where visitors previously had to choose between a bland chain hotel or a guest house. In June, the ultra-hip Design Hotels (0800 169 8817) will open the Hope Street Hotel which started life as a Grand Canal warehouse with a Venetian-style palazzo exterior in the nineteenth century. Double rooms will cost from £115 for two, excluding breakfast.
August will see the popular Hotel du Vin chain (01962 850676) opening its sixth property, in Harrogate, and Edinburgh will gain a luxury boutique hotel next month with The Glasshouse (0777 600 3890), the latest addition to the Eton Group's portfolio. The facade is a 150-year-old church, which gives way to a modern glass building with two-acre roof garden and views of the city centre. Prices are from £175 a room for two, excluding breakfast.
England's most westerly hotel, on the tiny Scilly island of Bryher, opens next week as a 23-bed property after a complete refurbishment. The style is described as 'New England meets the Caribbean meets Cornwall', with four suites in a Cornish fisherman's cottage, two in a traditional-style boathouse and lots of art from the collection of owner Robert Dorrien Smith. It costs from £85 per person half-board a night plus transport by helicopter or boat from Penzance or by plane from a number of UK airports (01720 422947)
Hadrian's Wall path
Nearly 1,900 years after it was built, the wall that separated the Romans from the Barbarians becomes fully accessible as a public footpath. An 84-mile trail from coast to coast, starting at Segedunum Roman Fort near Newcastle and ending at Bowness-on-Solway west of Carlisle in Cumbria, opens on 23 May; previously, hikers only had access to a 15-mile section of the wall. Six days are recommended to walk the route comfortably and to allow time to visit forts along the way. More information on the trail and where to stay is available on 01434 322002 or www.hadrians-wall.org. The path is included in a new National Trails guide of England's top long-distance trails, including the Pennine Way and the Wolds Way.
Coming attractions
Scotland's Underwater Centre (01397 703786), opening in June in Fort William, will let you co-pilot a mini-submarine to the bottom of Loch Linnhe, diving from 45 to 80 metres. The three-and-a-half hour trip to see divers at work and explore seabed wrecks costs £150 per person based on two people with a trained submarine operator. The Underwater Centre is also opening a family aquarium with wrecks and oil rigs - visitors can watch deep-sea divers training from behind glass, or do a trial dive themselves for £45.
Staying north of the border, an underground warren of hidden streets from centuries past called the Real Mary King's Close has opened in Edinburgh. Visitors get to step into the home of a plague-ridden gravedigger's family as well as a grand sixteenth-century townhouse.
In London, the Churchill family's private quarters were opened up for the first time last week as part of the Cabinet War Rooms, including the former Prime Min ister's private kitchen and Mrs Churchill's bedroom.
Bath Spa revamp
The thermal waters of Bath have been used for more than 2,000 years for healing, relaxation and leisure, starting with the Romans and gaining huge popularity with the Georgians. Closed down in 1978, the baths are due to reopen in June after a multi-million pound facelift. Five buildings have been renovated and a new stone and glass construction added. Bath is the only place in the UK where people can bathe in natural thermal waters; it comes out of the ground at 45C and has to be cooled before visitors 'take the waters'. The spa will include four thermal pools, including a roof-top pool with great views of Bath's cityscape. There are no membership fees - prices to visit the spa start at £17 for two hours and go up to £35 for a full day, with complementary treatments starting at about £30 for 45 minutes. More information is available on 01225 477051 or www.thermaebathspa.com.
Cheap London deals
Though parts of Britain are filling up fast with tourists eager to stay at home during uncertain times, a dearth of US tourists in London has left many hotels with free rooms and big discounts on offer. Stay in one of London's top properties, the Metropolitan (020 7447 1000) in Mayfair, home of the Michelin-starred Nobu restaurant and the hip Met Bar, over the weekend and save £176 a night on the room rate, which has been cut to £195 B&B with a late checkout of 3pm. Superbreak (01904 644455) has half-price breaks at Le Meridien Grosvenor House Hotel for £49.50pp bed and breakfast in the second half of April. It also has stays in London's Savoy and Berkeley for £99pp B&B, a £50 saving off the brochure price on dates in April, May and August. And the Petersham in Richmond (020 8940 7471) has cut its two-night rate from £140pp B&B to £95pp throughout April.
Now is the time to get value-added extras to a hotel package - try the Halkin's (020 7333 1000) Hot and Spicy break for £295, which includes one night's accommodation for two with breakfast and dinner in its Michelin-starred Thai restaurant Nahm.
Family fun
Britain's first water-park hotel opens at Alton Towers on 1 June. Called Splash Landings, the 216-room hotel has everything from a shark cage lift to bubbling water fountains. The theme continues in the hotel's Cariba Creek Waterpark, with 15 miles of pipework and rides which propel guests through a million gallons of water, a hot tub in the rim of a volcano, and a bucket that intermittently tips 1,000 gallons of water over unsuspecting swimmers. A one-night stay at the hotel for a family of four midweek costs £220 half board, with two days' entrance to Alton Towers Theme Park as well as the water park, plus benefits that include a fast-track entry to some rides. More information on 08705 001100.
Center Parcs' Elveden Forest, which was gutted by a fire more than a year ago, is re-opening on 11 July. The Suffolk-based park has ditched its trademark dome for a piazza-style central area and a new food court. A three-bed villa sleeping six for the weekend of 25 July costs £660 self catering. Call 08705 200300.
Surfing UK
Britain's south-west coast is establishing itself as a hot new surf capital, and the sport is reeling in the girls. Ten years ago, 80 per cent of people learning to surf were men, but now 60 per cent of learners are women, a number set to rise further with the surf chick flick Blue Crush opening this month. Next week England gains a hotel offering a full package to surfers: accommodation, surf hire, tuition and shops. Surfed Out's Little Beach Hotel (01271 870398) in Woolacombe, North Devon, has B&B from £30 a night or all-inclusive surf weekends at £139. The 11-room hotel, which claims to be a cut above the usual grungy surf 'lodges', offers all the normal trimmings as well as surfboard storage, a wet suit drying room, board repair service, a sports massage therapist and flexible meal times.
On your bike
It's getting easier to pedal around Britain, with the country's network of cycle paths - now at 7,000 miles - growing every day. The next big addition this summer is the 280-mile Pennine Cycle Way, adding to a clutch of long-distance routes including the Devon coast-to-coast cycleway, the Celtic trail in South Wales, the Cornish way - running the length of Cornwall and a route from coast to coast in the north of England. A third of the cycle network is on traffic-free routes, taking advantage of everything from woodland trails to canal paths. The challenging Pennine route is being inaugurated with a seven-day cycle ride starting on 10 July from Derby to Berwick, staying at campsites and hostels along the way. More details are available from Sustrans, the Sustainable Transport Charity (0117 929 0888).
Exhibitions and events
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth I, and celebrations are planned all around the country by English Heritage. The splendour of the royal court will be recreated at five castles this spring and summer, starting at Dover Castle (17-18 May) and ending at Tilbury Fort in Essex (20-21 September). Another highlight is the exhibition Elizabeth at London's National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from 1 May to 14 September.
It is just one of a host of new exhibitions in London, including Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition starting at the Science Museum 16 May, with a collection of artefacts ranging from part of the ship's hull to passengers' clothes raised from the seabed 90 years after she sank. The British Museum is celebrating its 250th anniversary with an exhibition of London in 1753, the year it opened, running from 23 May to 23 November, and the Art Deco exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum runs until 20 July.
Outside London, an exhibition at Brodsworth Hall, South Yorkshire, opening on 15 April and running for three years will trace the history of chintz from its origins in India to its role in English properties. And 300 Fabergé pieces will be shown at Edinburgh's Palace of Holyroodhouse from 11 April to 12 October.
In Wales, readings, exhibitions and walks are planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of poet Dylan Thomas. More information from The Dylan Thomas Centre (01792 463980). You can even stay in a Thomas-themed guesthouse which opens in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, later this month, containing pictures and manuscripts of the poet. Rooms cost from £50 B&B (01994 427909).
Centre of activity
Scotland already has a good name on the adventure sports circuit... with the proviso that the weather probably won't be that good. From this summer, enthusiasts can practise sports ranging from mountain-biking to rock-climbing and keep dry with the opening of the Adventure Centre, set in the enormous covered Ratho quarry, about 10 minutes' drive from Edinburgh International Airport. It's not just for fanatics either - the centre will cater to all levels and all ages. It will house the largest rock-climbing arena in the world, with 2,400 square metres of artificial wall surfaces and the only covered climbs on natural rock anywhere in the world. An adventure assault course in the air - the Airpark - including Europe's largest suspended aerial rope rides, starts with participants wearing harnesses stepping off a precipice and dropping 120 metres. The quarry will also house a pool for scuba diving and restaurants and accommodation. The exact opening date has yet to be arranged but is expected to be in August. For more information, contact the Adventure Centre (0131 229 3919)
· More information is available on www.visitbritain.com, visitwales.com, visitscotland.com and www.londontouristboard.com.
