Festive UK holidays: turn Christmas shopping into a treat Or head east for Shoreditch, which sits between Columbia Road Flower Market (columbiaroad.info) to the north and Spitalfields to the south (spitalfields.co.uk); both have great Sunday markets but lots of shops open daily; Spitalfields Traders" Market is open daily except Saturday. Portobello is much more than its extrovert Saturday antiques market (portobellomarket.co.uk); not only do many of its shops stay open all week, there is a grid of stylish eateries and boutiques along Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road. Notting Hill: English food around £25 for two courses at The Shed (theshed-restaurant.com). Great coffee and light food at Charlie's Café (Portobello Road; charliesportobelloroadcafe.co.uk). Soho: Lexington Street is packed with teeny eateries: vegetarians should queue (no booking) for Mildred's (020 7494 1634, mildreds.co.uk) and carnivores tackle the charcuterie boards at charming Fernandez & Wells (fernandezandwells.com). Shoreditch: Brawn (brawn.co) does a £25 set Sunday lunch or have coffee and cakes at Albion (albioncaff.co.uk) on the ground floor of the Boundary Hotel. What's on Unexpected Pleasure, the contemporary jewellery show at The Design Museum (020 7940 8790, designmuseum.org), December 5-March 3, £11, includes Sparkle the Dark Up! 6.30-10pm on December 7, with music, gifts and shopping. Matthew Bourne's spectacular Sleeping Beauty is at Sadler's Wells (0844 412 4300, sadlerswells.com) from December 4-January 26, £12-£52.50. The Christmas market along London's South Bank (Alamy) Two seasonal favourites return: Hyde Park Winter Wonderland (hydeparkwinterwonderland.com) runs until January 6 and is free to enter, though attractions such as the ice rink and circus cost £5-£9 children, £7-£13 adults. The Southbank Centre's Winter Festival (0844 875 0073, southbankcentre.co.uk/winter) runs until January 7 and offers shows, exhibitions, free music and a Christmas Market until December 24. London hotels Firmdale Hotels (firmdalehotels.com) have seven excellent London properties. Book fast for December: Doubles at the Dorset Square Hotel (020 7723 7874) start around £235. Z Hotels (020 3551 3700, thezhotels.com) have hotels in Soho and Victoria, small rooms, great value. Doubles in December from £75. The Asian chain Tune (tunehotels.com/uk) has no-frills rooms at four London sites: the Westminster hotel (south of the river near Waterloo) has doubles in December from £60. Bath Where to shop Bath Christmas Market (bathchristmasmarket.co.uk), which runs from November 22 to December 9, is a big deal. Some 140 wooden chalets, selling gifts and food, fill the precincts around the abbey and Roman Baths, and several other shopping streets. It can get very busy: but weekday mornings and evenings tend to be less crowded. Bloomsbury (15 New Bond Street; bloomsburystore.com) stocks design-conscious gifts, from Sixties phones to Penguin Books deck chairs and Tintin posters. A second store at 2 Quiet Street focuses on jewellery, bags and wallets. Prey (3 York Buildings, George Street) is a jewel of a shop selling wonderfully original accessories and gift items, and well-chosen women's fashion. My Small World (18 Little Southgate; mysmallworld.co.uk), in SouthGate shopping centre, is a delightful toy store for under sixes. Highlights include model hot-air balloons, wooden arks, puppet theatres, xylophones and toy cars made out of bamboo. Topping and Company bookshop (The Paragon; toppingbooks.co.uk) is, with its free coffee, expert advice, classical music and signed first editions, a civilised utopia - and an exemplary antidote to Amazon. Same Same but Different (7a Prince's Buildings, same-same.co.uk) is one of Bath's best foodie cafés. You can have a sandwich, a full meal or creative tapas (£4-£5 each), such as scallops wrapped in Italian bacon. Casanis (4 Saville Row; casanis.co.uk), a pretty and intimate, husband-and-wife-run bistro serving high-quality French/Provençal food, has good-value lunches: for two courses, £14.95 until December 12, then £18 for its Christmas menu. Vegetarian restaurant Demuths (2 North Passage Parade; demuths.co.uk) does imaginative and delicious things with vegetables: for two courses, lunch from £12.50, dinner from £21.95. There's ice skating in Bath this winter until January 6, on a rink in the south-east corner of Royal Victoria Park (bathonice.com). The Theatre Royal Bath (theatreroyal.org.uk) lays on reliably jolly and professional pantos each year. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs runs from December 13 to January 13. The Theatre Royal Bath (Alamy) The City of Bath Bach Choir (bathbachchoir.org.uk) will be singing carols in The Pump Room on the evenings of December 19-21. Bath hotels The Royal Crescent Hotel (01225 823333; royalcrescent.co.uk), centrepiece of Bath's most impressive Georgian crescent, is offering Christmas shopping break rates for Sunday-Thursday night stays November 22-December 9: for a standard double £205 b & b, including a glass of champagne on arrival, and mulled wine and mince pies in the afternoon. The Halcyon (01225 444100; thehalcyon.com) has compact but stylish bedrooms, a short stroll from the main shopping streets. In the run-up to Christmas doubles cost from £138 most nights, and from just £69 on Sundays, including continental breakfast. At Brooks Guesthouse (01225 425543; brooksguesthouse.com), bedrooms exude Victorian chic, and you can bank on a first-rate breakfast: doubles from £89 b & b. Edinburgh Start at Jenners on Princes Street - the matriarch of Scottish department stores; the retail paradise of George Street, a branch of Harvey Nichols and the fashion-forward boutiques of Thistle Street (thistlest.com) are close by. Fill your favourite foodie's stocking at superb Italian delicatessen Valvona & Crolla at 19 Elm Row and search for flying carpets at Nomad's Tent, an eastern bazaar of kilims, jewellery, textiles and more at 21 St Leonard's Lane. Lose yourself in a glorious warehouse of antique furniture and golfing memorabilia at Georgian Antiques (10 Pattison Street, Leith). A quick, warming lunch of smoky fish chowder, frites and a glass of wine is £7.50 at The Mussel Inn. 61-65 Rose Street. Enjoy deceptively simple, clever cooking at The Gardener's Cottage in Royal Terrace Gardens. Five-course set lunch or dinner costs £25 (thegardenerscottage.co.uk). Celebrate at Martin Wishart's The Honours on Castle Street, where the three-course festive menu is £38.50. (thehonours.co.uk). For a fabulously festive afternoon tea, try The Dome. (£24 for two; 14 George Street). For something a little cosier, head to the delightful Cuckoo's Bakery and Tea Room for the best cupcakes in town at 150 Dundas Street (cuckoosbakery.co.uk). Ride the giant wheel, ice-skate outdoors, visit a fun fair and two Christmas markets in Princes Street Gardens. Take a wintry walk along the Water of Leith and spot six Antony Gormley sculptures. (waterofleith.org.uk). Check out the biggest New Year's party in the world (edinburghshogmanay.com). Full list of events and attractions at edinburghschristmas.com. Edinburgh hotels For location (and a spa with stainless-steel swimming pool), try The Scotsman (0131 556 5565, thescotsmanhotel.co.uk). A special shopping package, with dinner and breakfast, a double room and a £20 shopping voucher costs £220. In buzzy Leith, climb the stairs to Wallace's Arthouse (0131 538 3320, wallacesarthousescotland.com), with comfortable, carefully styled rooms and the most engaging host in Scotland, a five-minute walk from three Michelin-starred restaurants. From £105 a night for a double room with continental breakfast. The Leigh Docks in Edinburgh (Alamy) Alexander's Rooms (07982 257638, alexanders-rooms.co.uk) in Morningside offers affordable charm on a small scale. From £69 a night for a double room with continental breakfast. York Head to Low Petergate for chic men's and women" fashion at Sarah Coggles, with labels including Lulu Guinness and Nicole Farhi. The streets around Swinegate and Grape Lane have some good independent shops, such as Priestley's Vintage Clothing; Vivien Westwood has a store here and Paul Smith and Mulberry are nearby. York's antique shops are mostly clustered around Stonegate; try The Red House Antique Centre, near The Minster. Two of the finest bookshops in the north are Little Apple Bookshop on High Petergate and Barbican Books on Fossgate, while Browns Department Store on Daveygate and Fenwick in Coppergate Shopping Centre are great places to tick off lots of Christmas shopping. York Designer Outlet, 10 minutes out of town (mcarthurglen.com/uk) has discounted items from a good range of stores. The Red House Antique Centre, York (Alamy) Melton's Restaurant (7 Scarcroft Road; meltonsrestaurant.co.uk) is one of York's finest - unpretentious, friendly and with reasonable prices. Lunch (12-2pm) and early dinner, two courses for £21; closed Sunday and Monday. Café no8 Bistro (8 Gillygate; cafeno8.co.uk) has a touch of the trattoria - it serves excellently executed, unfussy bistro dishes. Two-course set lunch from £14.50 The Hairy Fig (39 Fossgate; thehairyfig.co.uk) is a tiny deli and café serving reasonably priced but wonderful dishes including a superb Yorkshire platter of York ham, pork pies, chutneys and local cheeses. Average £12-£15 a head with drink. The Orb at York Minster See some of the world's most important pieces of medieval stained glass up close. A specially constructed dome allows visitors to view panels from the Great East Window (wonders.yorkminster.org). Festival of Angels The streets around Grape Lane and the Minster fill with ice sculptures, stalls, street entertainment and "guaranteed snow" on December 15 and 16; (yorkfestivals.com). York Christmas Farmers Market, December 15 and 22 at York Auction Centre (ylc.co.uk/farmers-markets) Open-air ice rink at York Designer Outlet (theicefactor.co.uk) from today until January 6. York hotels Middlethorpe Hall & Spa (Bishopthorpe Road; 01904 641241; middlethorpe.com), a smart country-house hotel, restored and run by the National Trust, and a benchmark for excellence. Two miles from the centre, with extensive grounds and an exquisite restaurant. Double rooms with breakfast from £199 a night. Grays Court (Chapter House Street; 01904 612613; grayscourtyork.com); a boutique hotel in a beautiful, Grade I-listed historic building in the shadow of the Minster; doubles with breakfast from £140 per night. Abbeyfields b & b (19 Bootham Terrace; 01904 636471; abbeyfields.co.uk); just 400 metres from the Minster, in a quiet street with parking, it strikes a perfect balance between affordability, location and quality. Doubles from £79 with breakfast.