Where: Magdalen Chapter, Magdalen Street, Exeter, EX2 4HY. 01392 281 000. chapterhotels.com. Located in central Exeter, near the cathedral, Gandy Street’s individual shops and the historic quayside.

What: Award-winning hotel with 59 individually designed bedrooms, restaurant, bar, spa, meeting rooms and private dining.

Anything else: Complimentary mini-bar, wi-fi and access to fitness room and pool. Use of iPad2, library and walled garden. REN toiletries.

Cost: Rates start at £125 per double room per night, on a bed and breakfast basis.

Offer: One night getaways: With full English breakfast and £40 towards dinner. From £149 for two (December 11 to 23).

THERE are a lot of great things about Magdalen Chapter – voted City Hotel of the Year 2013 by Food and Travel Magazine.

Some would rave over the institutional chic vibe of the former eye hospital, with its striking artwork and individually-designed bedrooms; others the delicious British seasonal cusine prepared in an open kitchen by Devon Life’s Chef of the Year 2012 Ben Bulger and his team; or the stylish bar where you can sip a cocktail.

But for me the hands-down most fabulous thing was the inside-out pool, pictured below. The inside pool, with mood-lighting and a wood-burning fire, has jets of water to massage away the cares of the day at the touch of a button.

That was pretty good but what topped it was going through the opening to the outdoor pool.

Swimming at night in light rain, in November, with steam coming off the warm pool water might not be everyone’s idea of bliss but it ticked all the boxes for me.

Back inside there were warm robes and fluffly towels waiting to snuggle up in and – as we were told at check-in – no one minded if you wandered back to your room in them.

That – and the fact the staff were smartly dressed in black and white while wearing comfy sneakers on their feet – summed up the whole ethos of Magdalen Chapter.

Although super smart and sophisicated, the hotel isn’t a bit formal or stuffy.

Service was friendly and helpful and the use of an iPad2 was a nice touch. Don’t get too excited by the thought of a free mini-bar – ours consisted of a couple of bottles of water, three cans of soft drinks, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of lager. But that’s still a lot more than you get in many hotels.

And it’s testimony to how comfortable the bed with its Egyptian cotton linen and feather down duvets and pillows was that even the lure of that pool didn’t get me up early enough for a pre-breakfast swim.