Plan a short UK break online

Ticket office
On the topic of attractions and discounts, pre-booking tickets to attractions online can often save money and queuing.

For example, booking tickets to the Tower of London online through official website Historic Royal Palaces will save you £1 on every adult ticket or £3 off the price of a family ticket.

Other sites, such as 365tickets, allow users to buy tickets online and print them out.

If you are prepared to be flexible it’s possible to find significant discounts here. For example, visiting the London Dungeon after 3pm can save you half the ticket price.

You can also find discounted tickets at Lastminute.com. At the time of writing we were offered tickets to Madame Tussauds for £17 rather than the £22 charged at the official website.

The site also sells combined packages that include, for example, hotel fees and tickets to a theme park ­ but before buying be careful to check that you can’t get a cheaper price booking them separately.

We found that when booking tickets to Madame Tussauds on a Tuesday with an overnight stay at the London Plaza hotel the combined price was £263, but we found that by booking separately the two cost just £223.

If staying in one place does not do enough to get your heart racing, there are a number of sites dedicated to walking holidays throughout the UK.

For novices, Bed Searcher is a good place to start. Type in the postcode of a location where you’d like to hike and it will produce a list of walks and places to stay nearby.

The site also gives weather conditions and a range of hints and tips to help ensure you go prepared with the correct clothing and accessories. It even labels every walking route with a difficulty rating.

Holidays in the UK includes a search engine that provides a range of guided and unguided walking trails in Scotland, England and Wales. It links to other accommodation websites so people can plan their own itinerary.

Seasoned hikers can also visit HF holidays, whose tours include several routes each day to suit walkers of differing experience and fitness levels.

On yer bike
Those with preconceived ideas involving muddy boots and arduous mountain hikes may be pleased to know that some walking sites offer more relaxing al ternatives.

Foot Trails sells several hiking holidays with a difference, including those that allow holidaymakers to walk between luxury hotels.