Summer is finally here, so it's time to head to your favorite watering place to cool down—and visitors to hotels have quite a range of options. Some hotels are creating pools that recreate the seaside experience, complete with sand and artificial waves. Others are designing pools that blend into the landscape, evoke history or recreate nature. Here are some top hotel pools with unique design twists.
The brand-new Sunset Beach at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona gives visitors to the desert resort a taste of the seaside. Sunset Beach is the largest of the resort's six pools at 6,900 square feet, including 830 tons of white sand. The pool is entirely zero-edge entry with a white sand beach, a swim-up bar and splash pad.
At the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, the Beach and Moorea Beach Club 2,700 tons of sand, a 1.6-million-gallon wave pool and 100 cabanas, day beds, bungalows and villas.
The pools at the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain blend into the landscaping and look out over the Sonoran desert. Minimalism and simplicity are the name of the game here, and nature takes the lead.
The Garden of the Gods pool complex at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas is a destination in and of itself. Seven outdoor pools provide a range of options for different kinds of guests seeking different experiences—from swimming to sunbathing to just relaxing in a cabana. Like everything else at the resort, the design is inspired by Ancient Rome, so keep an eye out for statues, mosaics and sleek columns.
If you want to swim indoors but keep that outdoor vibe, the pool at the Langham Sydney has a ceiling designed to look like a night sky—perfect for appreciating nature from a climate-controled environment.