THERE are some big savings around for families chasing UK breaks over Christmas and the new year. Hotels still have places, while thousands of holiday home owners want to get their properties heated in harsh weather.

Prices were sliding even before this week’s cold weather arrived.

With motorists nervy, prices could go lower, particularly during “Twixmas”

– the period between Christmas and New Year.

English Heritage, looking after some of the grandest and most historic addresses in Britain, has 20 per cent discounts on three-, four- or seven-day breaks at selected holiday cottages, saving up to £230. Cottages start at £498.40 (three days), £507.20 (four) and £927 (seven).

The choice includes Prior’s Lodge (sleeping four, plus a cot) at Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire, overlooking the ruins of the Carthusian monastery and ideal for long walks over the moors.

Sally Williams at the National Trust says: ‘‘Of 62 cottages available for Christmas breaks across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, some 60 have reduced prices by 15 per cent and the other two by 20 per cent.’’ National Trust options include an apartment at Greenway, a Georgian house high above the River Dart in South Devon, which was Agatha Christie’s holiday home from 1938 until 1959. She called it ‘‘the loveliest place in the world’’.

It accommodates ten people and is decorated as it was when the house was refurbished for “modern living”

in 1938.

Five nights from December 29 costs £1,482, a 25 per cent discount.

In Snowdonia, North Wales, National Trust lists Dyffryn Mymbyr Cottage, a restored 16th Century cottage with incredible views.

Crammed with original features, including an inglenook fireplace and wood-burning stove, low beams and wooden panelling, the cottage is located on a working upland farm and costs £516 for five nights from December 22.

Hoseasons deals include four nights in a caravan on a 100-acre park sleeping six outside Lymington, starting at £345 (saving £114) with the New Forest, plus Paultons Park and Peppa Pig, all on your doorstep.

In the Scottish Highlands, amid the lochs and mountains of the Trossachs, a lodge sleeping six for four nights from December 24 costs £990 (saving £248).

Close to York city centre, a Hoseasons two-bed apartment sleeping seven costs £324 (saving £36) from December 24.

  • English Heritage, 0870-333-1187, english-heritage.org.uk/holiday cottages; National Trust Cottages, 0 8 4 4 - 8 0 0 - 2 0 7 0 , n a t i o n a l t r u s t cottages.co.uk. Hoseasons, 0844- 847-1100, hoseasons.co.uk.