A well-placed infinity pool, and the water seems to blend into the horizon. At the top of a skyscraper, on the edge of a cliff or over a tropical gorge, these pools have become destinations in their own right. Here are the most spectacular hotel infinity pools in the world.
Alila Uluwatu and Hanging Gardens, the Balinese illusion
In Bali, the art of the infinity pool reaches new heights. At Alila Villas Uluwatu, the pool extends to the edge of a cliff, a hundred metres above the Indian Ocean. Further north, in Ubud, the terraced pool at Hanging Gardens of Bali, voted the most beautiful pool in the world by Condé Nast Traveller, seems to cascade into the jungle above the Ayung gorge.
Marina Bay Sands, swimming above Singapore
It is the most famous in the world. Perched on the 57th floor, at an altitude of nearly 191 metres, the infinity pool at the Marina Bay Sands SkyPark is the longest high-altitude pool on the planet, approximately 146 metres long. Reserved for hotel guests, it offers the dizzying impression of swimming in the void, facing the skyline.
Suspended in the void
Some pools defy gravity altogether. In Dallas, the Joule’s pool juts out more than two metres over the street, including its glass wall: passers-by can see swimmers overhead. In the Italian Dolomites, the Hotel Hubertus’s Sky Pool, twenty-five metres long, projects twelve metres above the ground, facing the mountains.
Facing the sea, from the Amalfi Coast to Mykonos
The seaside offers the most beautiful postcards. In Ravello, on the Amalfi Coast, the elliptical pool at Belmond Hotel Caruso is suspended more than 350 metres above the Mediterranean, one of the most photographed in the world. In Mykonos, the Cavo Tagoo pool blends into the Aegean Sea, with floating wooden terraces and a bar with your feet in the water. In Switzerland, in Adelboden, the Cambrian’s heated outdoor pool remains open in winter and summer, facing the Alps.
Excess: the largest pool in the world
And then there is absolute excess. In Chile, the San Alfonso del Mar lagoon, over a kilometre long, held the Guinness World Record for the largest swimming pool in the world for a long time. Filled with filtered seawater from the Pacific, it is not strictly a hotel infinity pool, but an engineering feat reserved for residents of a seaside resort.
Swimming in the sky
From a Singapore tower to a Bali cliff, these pools share the same magic: that of water that seems to have no edge. Luxury, here, is contained within a horizon line.
