Nothing says vacation more than a pristine pool of aquamarine water sparkling like diamonds in sunshine, perhaps rippling ever so gently in a light breeze, with an infinity edge that melts into the surrounding seascape, mountain range or pastoral sprawl. Whether taking a dip to feel refreshed on a blisteringly hot day or submerging to warm up in chilly environs, the effect is the same: sublime bliss.
Knowing just how much a perfect pool experience can add to a holiday, we scoured the globe to find the most spectacular examples at both urban boltholes and ultraremote retreats, from a stunner set amid powdery white-sand dunes to one set inside a 14th-century fort and another on the roof of a former grain silo.
Below, find our favorite dreamy hotel pools around the world.
Related: The best hotel pools in the US
The Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Truly vast, the lagoon-style swimming pool at this Playa del Carmen resort within a 640-acre nature reserve isn’t just an amenity but the focal point of its design, the starting point of which is the ancient Mayans’ concept of the universe. There’s an infinite feel to the field of water that represents a sacred source, and references nearby cenotes and mangroves, with lots of tropical plants surrounding it. Besides the swim-up bar, the watery oasis features hammocks, a sun shelf with loungers, and breezy cabanas that seem to float atop it.
Rates at The Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai start at $626 or 88,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
Regent Phu Quoc, Phu Quoc, Vietnam
Water is like a ribbon connecting all parts of this sophisticated yet laid-back island resort with the ocean surrounding it. Sitting alongside a UNESCO-designated World Biosphere Reserve, it has a friendly, shallow children’s pool and a photogenic adults-only rooftop pool, plus an infinity-edge Health Club option and extensive reflecting pools holding bright orange koi. But the piece de resistance is undoubtedly the colossal Ocean Club Pool, which feels the size of multiple football fields. It’s flanked by multitudinous daybeds and cabanas from which guests can click a button to order pizzas and seafood from Ocean Club restaurant, through whose glass walls guests can see Long Beach and the aquamarine sea.
Rates at Regent Phu Quoc start at $355 or 60,000 IHG One Rewards points per night.
The Silo Hotel, Cape Town
The rooftop swimming pool at this Victoria & Alfred Waterfront boutique hotel is the definition of incomparable. Hovering 187 feet above Cape Town, its panoramas are as irreplaceable as its architecture, which consists of a historic 20th-century grain silo that was reimagined by Thomas Heatherwick into the conjoined Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa and the African art–filled, 28-room Silo Hotel. The vibrantly glamorous interior design is as exhilarating as the experience of swimming or floating on beanbags in the long T-shaped infinity pool with one glass side under an exposed concrete colonnade, looking out to Lion’s Head, the ocean and iconic Table Mountain.
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Rates start at $1,235 per night. We hope that since The Silo Hotel is part of Mr & Mrs Smith, it will eventually be bookable on Hyatt points. For now, we recommend booking at The Silo Hotel through our partner Skylark to enjoy elitelike benefits and on-property credits.
Miramonti Boutique Hotel, an SLH Hotel, South Tyrol, Italy
Northern Italy’s exceptional beauty is captured and framed by the unique four-season infinity pool at Miramonti, a Small Luxury Hotels of the World property on the Tschoggelberg plateau. The 52-foot body of water starts out cavelike, underneath a lovely timber ceiling and between rugged stone walls, the layered mountain view like that of a telescope at the end. With 89.6-degree Fahrenheit salt water, it’s as healing a place as it is jaw-dropping, the scenery opening up as swimmers emerge under the open sky and make their way to the edge, with the Merano basin splayed out below. The hotel’s even warmer onsen pool is unmissable, too.
Rates at Miramonti Boutique Hotel start at $491 or 110,000 Hilton Honors points per night.
Rosewood Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan
The placement of a beachside pool to enhance, not take away from, the ocean is a delicate proposition and Rosewood Miyakojima’s architect Piet Boon nailed it. At this new island resort in Japan’s tropical Okinawa Prefecture, each of the 55 villas has its own generous private pool backdropped by the East China Sea, but the large main pool just above the beach is perfection, bleeding into the water so indelible the color has its own name: Miyako Blue. With nothing but sand, shells and coral on the beach, there are zero distractions from the gorgeous colors and watery heaven surrounding cushy overwater daybeds plus lounge chairs and cabanas where it’s easy to spend all day sipping spritzes and noshing on delectable Japanese and Italian cuisine.
Rates start at $1,130 per night. We recommend booking at Rosewood Miyakojima through our partner Skylark to enjoy elitelike benefits and on-property credits.
Six Senses Fort Barwara, Rajasthan, India
If you’ve never swum around inside a 14th-century fort, it’s highly recommended. This restored and reimagined piece of Rajasthani historical architecture is palatial, with a sense of grandeur that seeps into every experience. That’s especially true when it comes to the nearly 1,900 square feet of swimming pools that are at the hotel’s center. Both day and glowy night, the giant turquoise pool and covered jetted hot tub festooned with scalloped arches create an enchanted feeling, and there’s even a secret lap pool with a grottolike vibe and tiny starlike lights in the ceiling. Pro tip: It’s well worth emerging from the water for a poolside champi Ayurvedic head massage.
Rates at Six Senses Fort Barwara start at $476 or 70,000 IHG One Rewards points per night.
Related: Most luxurious Six Senses resorts across the world
One&Only Mandarina, Nayarit, Mexico
The main pool at this Riviera Nayarit escape with an extraordinary ambience — thanks to ancient trees — is not your basic ocean-view lagoon. It’s high in the sky, some 187 feet above the seascape, and comprises two long cantilevered lap-length pools crossed in a sort of crucifix. One end juts into the dense jungle treetops and the other one seems to hover over the ocean, so any way you swim you’re immersed in a pretty breathtaking situation. Making it even lovelier is the fact that servers circle the daybeds with gratis tasty little bites and sweet treats throughout the day.
Rates at One&Only Mandarina start at $819 per night.
Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, Thailand
Only guests of Aman’s newest hotel — an urban retreat standing tall in the middle of Bangkok yet surrounded by lush green — have the privilege of experiencing the magic of its 82-foot-long pool that seemingly spills over onto the city below from the ninth floor. Up that high in the midst of the skyline, there’s a beautiful breeze that kisses the surface of the salt water and rustles the leaves of Bangkok’s third-tallest tree, which pops up through a large elliptical void in the building. The sampong tree has a canopy that provides shade and a fairy-tale effect on the aquamarine surface that arches around it. The shallower and warmer sections at the ends of the pool make it super friendly for all ages, whether it’s laps or lounging that’s the goal, and delicious food and drinks are offered by anticipatory servers, too.
Rates at Aman Nai Lert Bangkok start at $1,218 per night.
Related: The most exciting hotel openings of 2025
Cali Mykonos, Greece
Elegantly undulating like a stream around the raw cliffside atop which it perches, the swimming pool at Cali Mykonos stretches 427 feet (the longest on the island) and feels like an almost infinite link between land and the horizon. It’s up to 26 feet wide at some points, narrower at others, directing views toward Kalafatis Beach and the hotel’s private port. Filled with heated seawater, guests are in effect swimming in a cozier version of the Aegean Sea, while getting to admire the wondrous sapphire body of water as they do.
Rates start at $735 per night. We hope that since Cali Mykonos is part of Mr & Mrs Smith, it will eventually be bookable on Hyatt points. For now, we recommend booking at Cali Mykonos through our partner Skylark to enjoy elitelike benefits and on-property credits.
Kisawa Sanctuary, Benguerra Island, Mozambique
Once you see the Indian Ocean that laps at the snow-white sands of Mozambique’s Benguerra Island, within a national marine park, it’s hard to imagine any other body of water could matter. But somehow the central lagoon pool at the 741-acre, eight-residence paradise of Kisawa Sanctuary manages to both elevate and complement it. Set atop a high point amid dunes on the island’s southern tip, near the Natural Wellness Center (the spa), the curvaceous, organically shaped swimming hole acts as an extension of the salty water below and the brilliant blue sky. The experience is as peaceful as it gets, thanks also to the fact that each residence has its very own large zero-entry pool backdropped by clear turquoise views, too.
Rates start at $5,435 per night. We hope that since Kisawa Sanctuary is part of Mr & Mrs Smith, it will eventually be bookable on Hyatt points. For now, we recommend booking at Kisawa Sanctuary through our partner Skylark to enjoy elitelike benefits and on-property credits.
Hotel Krallerhof, Leogang, Austria
The Hadi Teherani–designed swimming pool at Hotel Krallerhof, on a plateau in the Salzburg region, is so epic that the idea of planning an entire trip to Austria around it isn’t unreasonable in the least. The showpiece is a 50-meter (164-foot) infinity pool that emerges from the gracefully sloping Atmosphere spa building and is integrated seamlessly into a natural bathing lake for a pool-inside-a-pool experience. On the outer edge are lounge chairs and umbrellas on circular lily pad–esque wooden platforms, and there are also whirlpools and a cold dipping pool. As glorious as the whole thing is during summer, it cuts an even more compelling profile in winter, when only snow surrounds the long pool, glowing pale blue in an all-white landscape and letting off steam.
Rates at Hotel Krallerhof start at $820 per night. We hope that since Hotel Krallerhof is part of Mr & Mrs Smith, it will eventually be bookable on Hyatt points.
Castello di Reschio, Umbria, Italy
Mirrorlike and magical, the rounded pool just outside the historic walls of Castello di Reschio’s circa A.D. 900 castle is billed as an optical illusion and it truly feels like one. Sunken into the grassy lawn, the zero-edge pool’s shiny surface reflects the aged ramparts, sky and umbrella pines flawlessly. The hotel, consisting of just 36 rooms, is open to all, and little ones are welcome to splash around in the pool, but the serenity it exudes makes a person want to simply recline in the lounge chairs that face it and soak up the beauty of life in the Umbrian countryside.
Rates at Castello di Reschio start at $959 per night. We hope that since Castello di Reschio is part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, it will eventually be bookable on Hilton points.
Como Laucala Island, Fiji
Each of the 25 uberluxe villas at this remote Fijian private island resort has its own dreamy pool with a natural shape for secluded swims. But the most eye-catching option of all is most definitely the main lagoon pool that takes up 21,500 square feet of real estate behind the beach with a plethora of intimate cabanas and daybeds and features the most photogenic pool imaginable sitting on top: an 82-foot-long glass-sided lap pool. Fantastical is one way to describe the watery playground that feels as though it should have mermaids inside frolicking. In their absence, guests get to play their own games and pose underwater in the pool for indelible snaps.
Rates start at $6,100 per night. We recommend booking at Como Laucala Island through our partner Skylark to enjoy elitelike benefits and on-property credits.
Raffles Jaipur, India
In a country with an excess of glamorous hotels, this one is at the top of the heap, and its rooftop pool is rightfully extravagant. With scalloped keyhole arches and leopard sculptures on the sides, white marble steps up into it, and a long infinity edge along its length, the radiant blue pool looks out to the rolling Aravalli hills and a pink Hindu shikhara among them and feels made for royalty. It’s the focal point of the sizable rooftop, with its chattris and fountains and Mediterranean restaurant. Just as enjoyable as dipping into the alluring pool is relaxing like a queen or king in its sumptuous, fabric-draped cabanas with prolific pillows and attentive service.
Rates at Raffles Jaipur start at $295 per night. The Raffles brand is part of Accor, meaning it participates in the Accor Live Limitless loyalty program. Members can earn points on stays when booking directly with Accor.
Related: Raffles and Fairmont CEO on growing hotels with soul in the Americas and beyond
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