Text in the city

Ditch the historical for the hysterical in the elegant city of Bath and explore with a difference - all you need is your mobile phone.

A £4.99 Texting Trail pack from the city's tourist information centre (Abbey Churchyard, 01225 477 101) provides you with a map and a code card - all you need to receive text messages guiding you around the city's sights and attractions.

In the evening, try the Bizarre Bath comedy walk (no booking required) which leaves from the city centre outside The Huntsman Pub in North Parade and takes an irreverent look at life in Bath past and present. Cost is £5.

Stay at the friendly Francis on the Square Hotel in the heart of the city, currently offering a special summer rate of £50 per person per night with dinner bed and breakfast.

Macdonald Hotels, 0870 400 8223.

Girls on film

Make a magazine show of your weekend in a real TV studio at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford. Try out as a presenter, researcher, camera operator and studio producer. A professional director and vision mixer help run the show, and every member of the team gets a copy to take home. Cost is from £50 per person. 01274 203354.

Continue the theme with a stay at the country house Hollins Hall near the village of Esholt, used in the TV soap, Emmerdale. Rooms cost from £74, including breakfast.

Hollins Hall, Baildon, Shipley, Bradford, BD17 7QW. 01274 530 053.

Have a flutter

Give your eyelashes a workout on a weekend at the Flirting Academy Playshop with Peta Heskell, author of Flirt Coach (Thorsons £7.99). Peta and "skilled people experts" run sessions in dance, humour and self-help. It all takes place in a London hotel and the post-course party is supposedly unmissable.

The Flirting Academy, Unit 1,The Old Saddlery, 24 Church St, Hampton, TW12 2EG. 0700 4 354 784.

Weekend courses from £250.

Play your cards right

Look to the future with psychic Brian and his wife, at their small, traditional hotel in Bridlington, east Yorkshire where tarot readings and astrological charting weekends are a regular phenomenon. Hopefully you won't be told to call the whole thing off...

Tarot reading, £25; astrology chart, £25. Accommodation on a B&B basis from £20 per person per night. Dinner from £8.

Balmoral Hotel, 21 Marshall Avenue, Bridlington, YO15 2DT. 01262 676678.

Splendid isolation

Stay on your own island with complete self-indulgence - and where no-one can hear you sing in the bath.

Eilean Shona is tiny, privately-owned and set at the entrance to Loch Moidart on the west coast of Scotland between Mull and Skye.

Only two miles long and one-and-a-half miles wide, it is completely unspoilt: both cars and bikes are banned. A private motor launch ferries you across the loch to the island.

Rowing boats are available for free or a motor boat can be hired for picnics and trips to the white sands of Shoe Bay.

There are just five cottages on the island. Prices start at £395 for four. Ecosse Unique, 01835 870 779.

Want a bet?

It may not be Las Vegas, but for those who want to try their luck on the roulette table or yell "two fat ladies!" in a game of bingo, the Isle of Man glitters. Head for the Hilton Hotel and Casino in Douglas. There's a casino, cash bingo and 150 slot machines, plus a leisure club offering an indoor swimming pool, spa, sauna, steam room and gymnasium for recuperation after a gamble.

A three-night weekend break taken between June and September costs £295 per person, based on two sharing. Price includes return flight from Gatwick and accommodation with breakfasts. Tickets available from Everymann, 0870 889 0806.

Anyone for tennis?

Hours of tennis, stunning Surrey parkland, luxury accommodation and use of the leisure facilities after a tough set... what more could a group of girlies want? There's also a Sunday mixer match where you can chat to and thrash fellow players.

The Grand Slam Tennis Weekend at Foxhills Club and Resort costs from £210 per person for two nights, and includes dinner in the award-winning restaurant. Foxhills, 01932 704 500,

Sail into the sunset

Emulate Ellen MacArthur with a weekend on the Norfolk Broads. Norfolk Broads Direct have a fleet of easy to handle, comfortable cabin cruisers, which sleep from four to 11, allowing you to explore the waterways, sunbathe or moor up at the plentiful waterside pubs and restaurants.

Boats sleeping four cost from £381 for three nights over a weekend in May and June (£427 in August), while the largest, sleeping 11, costs £511 for three nights in May or June (£650 in August). with Norfolk Broads Direct, 0800-917 3206

Or if you're not quite up to Ellen's standard, why not try a learn to sail course on the Broads instead?

Three-day packages with a Saturday start cost from £275 per boat, or £68.75 per person, based on four sharing. Royal Yachting Association courses start from £55 per person, based on four people on a non-certificate course, or £65 per person for a Single RYA module. The courses take two to three days to complete.

Blakes Holiday Boating, 0870 22 00 766.

Riding high

Ride, relax and wreak havoc while enjoying a cottage break on the Devon/Cornwall border next to an equestrian centre and paintballing course.

A private riding lesson costs £18 per hour; a hack along country lanes and woodlands £15. For experienced riders, a two-hour cross-country ride taking in a private parkland estate with some jumping is £28.

The paintballing course features a purpose-built village with forts and bridges. £25 buys you 300 shots of paint (enough for a four-hour-long battle) and all necessary equipment.

The four high-quality and well-equipped cottages, converted from barns near Launceston are available from Toad Hall Cottages 08700-777345. Each sleeping four, they cost £175 for three nights in May, rising to £323 in July/August. Late availability only.

Great catch

Apparently, women make the best anglers: certainly, they have caught some of largest fish. Ladies keen to sock it to the boys should head for Wye Lea Country Manor and take one of their courses. Aimed at the beginner, but also providing guidance for the more experienced, the three-night breaks - under the tutelage of an experienced ghillie - are available until July 19 and cost £405 per person.

For two people sharing and fishing together, prices includes luxury cottage or apartment accommodation with full English breakfast and three-course a la carte evening meal, and three days of game fishing (including hire of professional tackle, services of a ghillie and use of a boat with outboard motor).

And for the record -the largest salmon caught at Wye Lea weighed in at a massive 31.5lbs, measured 43.5 inches long and had a girth of 23.5 inches!

Wye Lea Country Manor, Herefordshire, 01989 562880.