Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia

The pool

• 57th-floor infinity pool
• Center City + Delaware River
• Laps possible
• Adults-only hours

Why it's on the list

The highest hotel pool in the region — a 57th-floor infinity edge atop Philadelphia's tallest tower, where you swim toward the drop with Center City lit sixty stories below and the Delaware River beyond. Adults-only early and late, and long enough for actual laps.

The stay

The Four Seasons is the outright splurge — it occupies the top floors of Philadelphia's tallest tower, and the 57th-floor pool is the reason people book it rather than an amenity they discover later. You're in Center City with the whole downtown underneath you, walkable to the business district and a short ride from everything else. At $$$$ it's the most expensive stay in the city and it knows it — worth it if the view is the trip, hard to justify if you mainly want a pool and a bed.