Dip into Luxury

Guests of the Alila Ubud resort gaze out over the Ayung River Valley from their perch in the hotel’s award-winning pool, tucked away in the foothills of Bali.

Over 400,000 people journey each year to Iceland’s Blue Lagoon to bathe in its cool blue geothermal seawater, world-renowned as a natural tonic for the skin.

Designed to emulate a classic Indian palace, the Oberoi Udaivilas offers a view of Lake Pichola, as well as suites with their own private pools.

Guests of the Ritz-Carlton Beijing, Financial Street, find respite from the goings-on of the business district in the hotel’s massive indoor pool where, while taking a dip, they can view cinema-style projections of classic black-andwhite films.

From the gentle waters of the infinity pools of St. Lucia’s Jade Mountain Resort, visitors have breathtaking views of the twin peaks of the Piton Mountains, recently designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

At the south end of Bondi Beach, wedged into the rocks, an Olympicsize seawater pool improbably juts out into the breaking waves of the Tasman Sea. Fittingly, Bondi is the Aboriginal term for “water breaking over rocks.”

The Portuguese town of Leça da Palmeira is home to the Leça Swimming Pools, a 1960 pool complex beautifully woven into coastal rock formations and featuring a labyrinthine network of changing rooms and unobstructed ocean views.

he pools of the Cabo San Lucas Westin nestle among the cliffs jutting out over the Sea of Cortez, flanked by the hotel’s pastel columns and arches.

Maremma Region, Tuscany
At Western Tuscany’s Terme di Saturnia Spa & Golf Resort, delicate veils of steam rise from the thermal waterfalls fed by local hot springs – the result, according to legend, of a lightning bolt hurled at the Earth by Saturn, the Roman god of the harvest.