Glamping with hot tubs
in Shropshire

Shropshire has a talent for being missed, and the glamping is better for it. The county leans against the Welsh border. Its south and west rise into the Shropshire Hills National Landscape: the Stiperstones ridge, the Long Mynd and the quiet valleys around Clun and Bishop's Castle.

This is walking country first, with paths leaving straight from the villages. Ludlow anchors the south with its Norman castle and a food reputation that outruns the county, and Clee Hill stands over the town.

The north plays it slower. Below Whitchurch and Market Drayton the land flattens into dairy farms and hedged lanes, and around Ellesmere it turns to open water, a cluster of glacial meres that passes for Shropshire's lake district. Neither half is wrong; they just suit different weeks.

Standalone stays, small rural sites and a village campsite

Glamping breaks here start with the company question. At one end are huts and pods with a corner of a field to themselves: some with wood-fired hot tubs, some with enclosed gardens, a couple with both. One stands just over the Staffordshire line, worth knowing when you set the sat nav.

At the other end sit the small farm sites, two to four stays sharing a view and little else. The pods named after the hills are here, with the treehouse alongside. So are an adults-only pair on a working farm up north, a wood-fired pair in the hills near Oswestry, and two pods up the Corvedale from Ludlow.

The exception is Aston Shepherd Hut, which sits at the top of Wayside campsite in Aston on Clun.

Plenty of these stays are dog-friendly, the treehouse included. Decide how much company you want first; it narrows the list faster than anything else on this page.

Hot tubs first, then the small print

The wood-fired hot tubs here belong to huts and pods, and the one at Wilderness Lodge burns logs. Either way, you usually do the heating yourself. Load the firebox, light it, top it up, and count the soak at the end as earned.

At Cherry Pod the hot tub is a paid optional extra, ready on arrival or ready to light.

Every hot tub here is the stay's own, set in its garden or on its patio or deck.

The rest of the small print is kinder than glamping's reputation. No stay here shares a bathroom, and walk-in showers are the norm. Heating is confirmed for the whole list, the fact a winter hot tub break rests on, and log burners turn up from hut to lodge.

Two smaller things deserve a look. A few of the beds sit on mezzanines, up a ladder or winding stairs; check you are happy with the climb before you book. And every stay here is self-catering with a kitchen, so plan a shop on the way in. Neither is a reason to hesitate, just better known on booking day than arrival day.