Sky & Swim · Notable Pools
A short list of hotel pools we couldn't leave off — ground-level and waterline stunners that break our one rule and earn the exception.
Alan Faena's maximalist monument to another era — the pool runs at garden level between the hotel and the sand, with direct beach access, flanked by candy-striped cabanas that are gloriously over the top. Not a rooftop, but one of the most theatrical pools in the country.
An adults-only bayfront hideout on Belle Isle where the infinity pool meets Biscayne Bay at grade, wrapped in gardens with a full hydrotherapy circuit alongside. Not rooftop — waterline — and that's exactly the point of it.
The pool sits at the water's edge on Lady Bird Lake with downtown Austin's skyline cresting above the treeline — a heated lakeside infinity pool, not a rooftop one, looking straight out at the Congress Avenue Bridge and the bats that pour off it at dusk. Day passes available.