The Lily Pod at Nest and Loaf

A hot tub on the deck, two miles from Abergavenny

The Lily Pod is at Nest and Loaf, on the B4233 at White Horse Farm a couple of miles from Abergavenny. It sleeps two, with a bunk that folds down out of the wall for a third. Guests on Booking.com score it 9.7 out of 10 and mark the location 9.8.

Inside

One long room with a wall of glass at the end of it. The bed is beside the sliding doors, made up in gold and cream with mustard cushions, so you can lie there and look at the field. There is a grey two-seater sofa with the fold-down bunk built into the panelling above it, a television on a light oak unit, striped curtains at the side window and downlights in a white ceiling. A photographic mural of a beech wood runs down one wall.

The worktop and the wet room

A curved cream worktop holds a round stainless sink and a microwave set into an oak-fronted overhead unit, with a mirror splashback behind and a wooden crate of tea and coffee things on the side. The shower room is the pod’s own — oak-effect panelling, a shower behind two sliding glass doors, a WC, a basin and a chrome ladder rail — with a narrow window above the cistern.

The deck, the tub and the lounge

A broad timber deck with a rope-and-post handrail runs out from the sliding doors, with two green folding recliners on it and a cedar barrel hot tub, wood-fired, with its stainless flue at the end. In front of that is buttercup pasture, hedgerows and a wooded hillside. There is also a separate open-fronted timber building on the site, with a heavy beamed roof and roof lights. Inside are sofas and rattan armchairs round a coffee table, a run of kitchen units with a sink and a microwave, a bistro table and a bar with stools. Hanging baskets are strung on the posts. That is where you sit when it rains, and it is a good deal better than being shut in a pod for the afternoon.

Abergavenny Museum

The museum in town is free and better than it needs to be. Abergavenny Museum sits in the grounds of the ruined Norman castle, in what was a hunting lodge built by the Marquess of Abergavenny, and it has been open since 1959. Inside there is a Victorian kitchen, a saddler’s workshop and a traditional grocer’s shop set up as they were, along with the story of the town from prehistory onwards. It opens eleven until four most days except Mondays and Wednesdays — worth a quick check before you set off. The castle grounds are open daily, so the walls and the view are there even when the doors are shut.

Getting here

The B4233 runs into Abergavenny in a couple of miles, and there is a station in the town, which makes this one of the few places round here you can reach by train. Monmouth is about seventeen miles east.

Good to know

How many does it sleep? Two, with a fold-down bunk for a third.

Is the hot tub private? Yes, on your own deck, and it is wood-fired.

Is the shower room inside? Yes, in the pod itself.

Can I cook? There is a sink and a microwave in the pod, and a second kitchen in the shared lounge, but no hob or oven.

Is there somewhere covered to sit? Yes, a shared timber lounge with a kitchen in it.

Is there a television? Yes, on an oak unit beside the bed.

How far is Abergavenny? About two miles.

Is there a railway station? Abergavenny, on the Newport to Hereford line.

What does it cost? From around £143 a night for two.