Travel: B&B breaks during the cold snap

Jan 16 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

AS the cold snap persuades people to stay by their own firesides, demand for short breaks in Britain could see a steep fall unless hotels, B&B establishments and holiday cottage operators make their terms more attractive.

But plenty are, including a few on our own doorstep.

Hey Green Country Hotel at Marsden offers dinner for £75 per couple, including drinks, with free overnight accommodation and a chance to explore its 15 acres of lakes and woodland.

In Haworth, deep in Bronte Country, The Old Registry offers bed and breakfast for £60 per couple through January – half the usual rate.

Hand Picked Hotels, a collection of 17 country house hotels across the UK, offers mini spa days from £70 for two, two-for-one spa packages from £99 for two guests or a five-day luxury transformer programme from £1,350. That price includes expert advice and rest periods between treatments.

Overnight detox for two at Norton House Hotel and Spa in Ingliston, Edinburgh, from £209, is available from Sunday to Friday until March 31.

In the centre of Salisbury, Millford Hall Hotel has a winter saver rate of £60 per room per night, including breakfast, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights until the end of February.

If you prefer a self-catering break, check out cottages4you which claims a range of options – including Sherborne, in Dorset, Whitby, and Cardigan Bay – all costing between £5 to £9 per person per night at full capacity.

Coach operator Shearings also needs steady demand to keep its hotels around the UK ticking over. Four nights all-inclusive in Morecambe from £109 per person including return coach travel is less than half the original brochure price with departures from January to March.

Snow permitting, true romantics might head for Falmouth in Cornwall, for a Valentine break.

Superbreak offers two nights dinner, bed and breakfast at the three star St Michael’s Hotel and Spa within four acre grounds from £199 per person, including champagne truffles and strawberries on arrival.

But if all the snow has given you a taste for the Alpines, skiing breaks until March could be quite a deal.

Even though capacity was cut back sharply this winter, ski operators still have lots of holidays to sell in quieter weeks either side of February half-term with the best deals for those who go at short notice.

Offers from Thomson ski companies include seven nights half-board in Kranska Gore, Slovenia, from £269, saving £230, ex-Glasgow/Luton into Salzburg on January 23 and seven nights half-board with free wine with evening meals at a four star hotel in Cervinia, Italy, connected to Zermatt in Switzerland. The £554 package, reduced by £155, includes flights into Turin ex-Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester on January 24, plus transfers.

STA Travel offers seven nights self-catering in mid-January in Andorra from £209, including flights and transfers, and in Meribel, France, from £179, on a similar basis.

For further information, availability and booking contact Hey Green Country House Hotel (01484 848000); Hand Picked Hotels (0845 458 0901); The Old Registry, Haworth (01535 646503); Millford Hall Hotel (01722 417411); Porth Veor Manor (01637 879572); Barcelo UK (0800 652 8413); cottages4you (0845 268 0760); Shearings (0844 824 6350); Superbreak (0871 221 3344). Ski Weekends (Thomson Ski (0871 971 0578 and www.thomsonski.co.uk); First Choice Ski (0871 664 0130 and www.firstchoice-ski.co.uk); The Alpine Club (0033 630 226215 and www.thealpineclub.co.uk).