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Tour the glassworks while you stay in Murano's first hotel, order drinks for the beach and the week's best deals
Take me there: Murano, Venice
The first hotel has opened on the Venetian island of Murano, the heart of the city's glass-making industry. LaGare Hotel Venezia was built in a glass furnace dating back to the 14th century. There are 118 bedrooms, and a restaurant and bar opening on to a courtyard, which serves some of the best Bellinis around. Look out for lamps and chandeliers designed by Venini, Murano's famous glass maker, and take a private tour of the glassworks. With its canals and narrow streets, Murano offers a peaceful and atmospheric escape from crowded St Mark's Square, which can be reached on a complimentary speedboat shuttle. From €196 per night (lagarehotelvenezia.com)
It's a good time to...hire a beach butler
All it takes is a couple of weeks of warm weather and suddenly we think we're in California. How else to explain the news that Blackpool has introduced its first "beach butler"? It sounds like the sort of thing you're more likely to come across in Santa Monica or the Maldives, but Tiffany's Hotel on Blackpool Promenade has started offering the service – whereby a hotel staff member will bring guests cool drinks and sandwiches at prearranged times as they sit on the beach – as a response to the recent heatwave (tiffanyshotel.co.uk).
A fancier version of this service is on offer this summer courtesy of the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Guests opting for the new Butler on the Beach package can sit back and relax while the butler sets up deck chairs, parasols and an iPod dock, and then tuck into a selection of either lobster and chips, a seafood platter or traditional afternoon tea, served with a bottle of champagne (from £200 per couple, devere-hotels.co.uk/the-grand). The butler is then on hand to fill up your glass with Pimm's, offer cold towels and come to the rescue with sun cream – or perhaps an umbrella. This is Brighton, not Santa Barbara, after all.
Give me a break: the week's best deals
Home Stay on the Isle of Wight during its annual Garlic Festival (17-18 August) for a gastronomic treat. Book a self-catering cottage at Niton Barns with Wightlink and get a 10% discount and free ferry travel. A one-week break departing on 16 August now costs from £268pp (based on four sharing a two-bed cottage), including car ferry from Portsmouth (wightlink.co.uk/greengetaways)
Away Take a short break on Jersey with Modern Hotels and get free evening meals and car rental thrown in. The offer is available from 11-31 August and then again from 1- 31 October at the three-star Mayfair and Metropole Hotels in St Helier, the capital of the Channel island. A three-night stay in August costs from £195pp, excluding travel (modernhotels.com)
