There has been a lot of noise about Beaverbrook, which opened its Garden House this year in 400 acres of Surrey countryside. This month the main neoclassical Victorian house opens, with 18 rooms and suites done out in antique furnishings and named after some of the estate’s most renowned guests, including Sir Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming. There’s a Japanese restaurant under the chef Taiji Maruyama of Nobu and Kiru fame. Rooms start at £225 a night (beaverbrook.co.uk).
Meet Lucy Worsley on a Rhine cruise
Take an eight-day Rhine cruise between Cologne and Lucerne in October on the MS Jane Austen and hear the historian and TV presenter talk on the famous author, as well as signing complimentary copies of her new book, Jane Austen at Home. The price, from £1,249pp, includes train travel (there is a supplement for flights) and seven nights’ full board, including excursions (0330 160 6422, thetimes.co.uk/lucy-cruise).
See Rwanda’s gorillas for less
New direct flights to Rwanda and an immediate doubling in the price of permits to see the mountain gorillas to $1,500pp were announced this year. However, the travel company Intrepid has permits for trips in 2017 at the old $750 price with a 16-day tour of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, including all meals and the permit, from £2,132pp. International flights to Nairobi are extra (intrepidtravel.com).
Stay in Edinburgh for the festival
If you’re still looking for somewhere to stay for the festival, the newly renovated Dunstane House has good availability, with “luxury wee double” rooms from £210 a night during August. The suites, though, are the ones to go for, with four-poster beds and roll-top copper-top baths. The 16-room William Playfair-designed Victorian townhouse is in the city’s West End (thedunstane.com).