Boat Inn, Pennalt

Right on the bank of the River Wye and a stone skim across the water from England down one of the sinuous back-of-beyond little lanes typical of the Wye Valley, the idiosyncratic stone-built Boat Inn dates from 1650. It nestles besides a Victorian former railway bridge, now pedestrian only and coaxing visitors from the car park (in England!) over the Wye to Wales and the watering hole. The interior is small but cosy, with an amazing timber-framed bar, rustic wood tables and chairs and a wood-burning stove. But the appeal lies primarily outside, in the tranquil river-facing terraced garden tumbling down the adjacent hillside: with its waterfalls, wildflowers and surrounding woods, it is very conducive for sipping one of the pub’s fantastic range of ciders in.

Courtesy of the two-room apartment above the pub, you can extend your stay at this pocket of bucolic bliss overnight. A fully-equipped kitchen gives guests plenty of self-sufficiency (and does not include breakfast) but stays (on weekday lunches and lunch and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays) can be sustained by the hearty pub grub, which runs to baguettes, baked potatoes, baked camembert, burgers several curry options, teas, coffees and cakes.  

The Wye Valley is the domain of pootling country motorists, walkers, angers, cyclists and kayakers and is one of a dwindling breed of taverns you can still rock up at on a boat, so these activities and the nearby handsome county town of Monmouth should keep you occupied pre- or post-pub. But perhaps the best thing to do is just to sit, on a clement day, on one of the Boat’s benches, absorbing the amiable riverside goings-on: passing boats, passing waterbirds… that kind of thing.