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7 of the world’s best infinity pools to add to your bucket list
- Freya Bromley
Published: July 28, 2026 at 10:06 AM
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Go for a dip with a view of the jungle, skyscrapers or rolling blue sea
If you’re anything like me, a good pool is a non-negotiable on holiday. I like a swimming experience that feels totally unique to where I am whether that’s a British beach, Balinese jungle or a Hong Kong city skyline.
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An infinity pool takes that one step further: it dissolves the boundary between you and your destination, so you’re not just relaxing on a sun lounger admiring a view but floating inside it. The best examples make the pool feel almost incidental like a sheet of glass that lets your surroundings take over.
Here are seven of our favourites, from a suspended swim above the Dolomites to a cliffside pool over Lake Como.
For more travel inspiration, check out the best UK spa hotels or the 12 best hotels for a sun-soaked Mediterranean getaway.
7 of the world’s best infinity pools
Hotel Saltus, South Tyrol, Italy
Best for mountain views
Perched above Bolzano in the South Tyrolean village of San Genesio, Saltus is a hotel built around the peace and quiet to be found in the forests. On arrival, I was told there’s ‘no rushing in the mountains’ and that suited me just fine. Days unfold around forest walks, wood-fired saunas and swimming with a panoramic vista over the Dolomites.
The best view can be found at the 17-metre infinity pool which is heated year-round. Slip in as the sun drops behind the peaks and the water seems to pour straight into the mountains beyond. Afterwards, warm up in the hay sauna, a fragrant, herb-scented addition that's become one of the hotel’s signature rituals or go to bed early so you’re ready to join a morning forest-bathing session designed to slow your thinking. Saltus is a retreat that believes more time in nature will leave you feeling more empathetic and creative.
The bistro is full of local, seasonal delights. And no one will blink twice if you have apple strudel for breakfast. Thoughtful details are found everywhere (velvet slippers in the room, games to play in the foyer), and it all comes from the care of the same family: sisters Nadja and Claudia Mumelter and their mother Hedwig, who run the hotel together. These family touches give Saltus a warmth rarely found in hotels this design-led and makes it a natural pick for a solo reset or a trip with your own mother or sister in tow.
Doubles from £380 per night. Check availability at hilton.com, booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com
Kerry Hotel, Hong Kong
Best for harbour views
Set on the Kowloon waterfront in Hung Hom, Kerry Hotel trades Hong Kong’s usual high-rise density for open water and sky. It's a five-star hotel with a laid-back, art-filled energy – imagine raw concrete, a botanical courtyard and floor-to-ceiling glass – but the real draw is an uninterrupted, sweeping view of Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong Island skyline beyond.
The 25-metre outdoor infinity pool makes the most of it, positioned so the water appears to run straight into the harbour itself with cargo boats and skyscrapers shimmering on the other side. Arrive at dusk when the skyline lights up or swim laps in the morning before it gets too hot.
After your swim you’ve earned breakfast at Big Bay Café. Try the Hong Kong-style French toast, a cha chaan teng classic of milk bread stuffed with peanut butter, deep-fried until golden and topped with butter and condensed milk. The hotel sits right by the Hung Hom ferry pier which makes it a perfect base for exploring. Hop on the ferry to Central on Hong Kong Island and it’s a short walk up to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, home to a small, free zoo.
Doubles from £140 per night. Check availability at booking.com
Photographer: Kevin Kaminski
Villa Làrio, Lake Como, Italy
Best for lake views
Lake Como has always represented cinematic glamour. It’s the same sun-bleached, old-money romance you see in The Talented Mr Ripley or Slim Aarons’ iconic 1983 photograph of the pool at Villa d'Este, all crisp white sun loungers and glassy blue water. That reputation comes at a price: in high season, Bellagio and Varenna heave with day-trippers and the water taxis queue like buses. Villa Làrio, tucked into the quiet village of Pognana Lario just a short drive from Como town, is a hidden escape.
It’s genuinely peaceful with thankfully little reason to leave once you’ve checked in, so you get an Italian holiday without the crowds. Its 18 suites are split between Il Palazzo, a 19th-century lakefront villa, the cliffside Pavilion suite and a scattering of garden rooms, all set within two acres of private grounds. It feels more like a private house party than a hotel, albeit one with impeccable Italian styling and bright orange sun loungers contrasting with green-blue water.
Its infinity pool is the standout, positioned beside the cliffside Pavilion suite so it appears to hang between the rock face and the lake below – and I’d argue it’s the best lake view in Como. Order an Aperol spritz from Casa Làrio, the hotel’s informal bar and bottega and watch the wooden boats crisscross the water as the light turns gold.
Come evening, dinner at Villa Bianca makes a beautiful spot to eat, with the lights of villages along the far shore flickering into view. This is a hotel built for couples rather than families and the setting truly is made for romance.
Suites from €950 per night. Check availability at booking.com
Wild Coast Tented Lodge, Yala, Sri Lanka
Best for safari and sundowners
On Sri Lanka’s wild southern coast, where Yala National Park’s jungle meets the Indian Ocean, Wild Coast Tented Lodge is unlike anywhere else on this list. Its 28 'tents' are shaped like giant boulders, arranged along the sand in the pattern of a leopard's paw print. Next door is a park that's home to one of the highest densities of leopards on earth.
Days here are split between dawn safari drives tracking elephants and leopards, and long, ‘do nothing’ afternoons by the water. The freeform infinity pool curls around the open-air Ten Tuskers bar, so you can swim up for a drink between laps or drift towards the dune-set lounge as the sun goes down.
Sundowners here change every evening (my favourite is the scotch bonnet cocktail) and are to be enjoyed on the sand dunes, watching dusk settle over the ocean with a jungle soundtrack of birds and cicadas. Once the sky darkens, the lack of light pollution makes this one of the best spots in Sri Lanka for stargazing. This is a resort for wildlife lovers and honeymooners searching for somewhere that feels a world away.
Lodges from £812 per night, including accommodation, all meals and drinks and a resort ranger-guided game drive per night stay. Check availability at booking.com.
Credit: Nomadic Resorts
Carbis Bay Estate, Cornwall
Best for a British beach day
Just around the headland from St Ives, Carbis Bay Estate has been in the same family’s hands for generations and it shows in the way the place is run: unfussy, warm and geared towards long lazy days in nature rather than showy extras. The 125-acre estate has its own private Blue Flag beach (a rare thing in Cornwall) plus beach lodges, cottages and a main house hotel dating back to 1894 when it first opened to Victorian holidaymakers.
The outdoor infinity pool is the estate’s best-kept secret, its edge dissolving into a sweeping, panoramic view of St Ives Bay with the town's rooftops and the sea beyond. It’s surrounded by Cornish wildflowers and is full of butterflies.
Chef Tom Sellers of the two Michelin-starred Restaurant Story has opened MOR, a new restaurant named after the Cornish word for sea. The menu is built around the rhythm of the coast and its seasons, following Tom’s sell-out 2019 pop-up here. It’s a great base for families (there's a kids' club and watersports on tap) as well as anyone after an old-fashioned British beach holiday with a serious food upgrade.
Doubles from £320 per night. Check availability at booking.com
art'otel, London
Best for a London rooftop
Sixteen floors above one of London's most recognisable landmarks, this Jaime Hayon-designed hotel turns a swim into a proper night out. Battersea Power Station's four white chimneys rise up right alongside the rooftop, giving what might be the most dramatically London-brutalist backdrop of any pool in Europe. The hotel itself leans into the maximalist art direction throughout – expect bold colours and playful design.
The heated infinity pool comes with a hot tub at one end and a soundtrack of Latin and house music pumping from the speakers. It’s more club than spa and best enjoyed with friends. Book a lounger and order sangria pitchers and tapas from JOIA, the restaurant helmed by chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, of his two Michelin-stared eponymous restaurant. Non-guests can still get a taste via an aqua aerobics class or an aqua SUP pilates session (yes, that’s on a paddleboard, in a pool with skyline views thrown in). This hotel is perfect for a city break with a party edge or anyone who wants proof that London can do rooftop glamour too.
Doubles from £190 per night. Check availability at booking.com or radissonhotels.com
Kayon Valley Resort, Bali
Best for a jungle view
Just outside Ubud, on a jungle ridge above the sacred Petanu River, Kayon Valley Resort delivers the treetop infinity pool fantasy without the five-star price tag. The resort is small and low-key, made up of a cluster of pool villas set among rice terraces and rainforest. It's 10 minutes from central Ubud so is close enough for day trips to temples and rice paddies, yet remote enough to feel truly immersed in jungle. Kayon Valley is run with the kind of personal service Balinese hospitality does so well.
The infinity pool is the main draw, perched high on a ridge so it appears to hang above the valley below where rice fields and the jungle canopy stretch out in every direction, with barely a building in sight. Order lunch at the open-air restaurant next to the pool deck (which shares the same 180-degree view) and watch the light shift over the valley through the afternoon. Go for the bebek betutu, duck slow-braised for hours in a paste of turmeric, galangal and chilli until it falls off the bone, or the nasi campur piled high with smoky sate lilit, crunchy fried peanuts and a fierce spoonful of sambal matah.
It’s a stunning, lower-cost alternative to Ubud’s ultra-luxury resorts, best for friends or couples on a budget who still want that suspended-in-the-jungle photo.
Doubles from £120 per night. Check availability at booking.com or expedia.co.uk
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Authors
Freya Bromley
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