Forget about trendy restaurants and lounges, the pool is the new hot spot at U.S. hotels. Not only can you lounge poolside with a cocktail in hand, indulge in luxuriant massages in your own private cabana, and swim up to floating bars while listening to music underwater, but, you can return at night for the hottest party in town. Miami started the wet trend with its sexy nighttime sanctuaries and now you can enjoy the same sultry poolside scene at hip hotels across the country – even in Aspen! Dive in at one of .
In a city where pubs, sports, and restaurants form the heart of the social scenes, the Colonnade gets top marks for daring to break the mold. Not only is it the only hotel in town to boast a rooftop pool, it’s also the only one to offer spectacular city views from its deck loungers.
While you can’t officially swim in the pool at the center of the San Francisco Fairmont’s basement Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar, the tropical Hawaii setting, complete with simulated thunder and rain storms, Pacific Rim cuisine, and glorious Mai Tais make this spot a must-see.
Whatever scene exists at this five-star Hawaii resort is all about the pool – the Wailea Canyon Activity Pool, to be precise, which is quite possibly the ne plus ultra of hotel pools worldwide.
Only in Vegas can you play a hand of blackjack in your bathing suit. The Hard Rock’s rocking pool oasis lets you party all day and night, wet or dry, in a seven-acre playground with its own palm-shaded sandy beach.
In a city that invented the hotel pool-bar scene, this spot, on the rooftop of designer Todd Oldham’s South Beach hotel, easily ranks as our local hands-down favorite.
The hotel pool-bar scene finally has a toehold in New York, at the Meatpacking District’s brand-spanking-new Gansevoort Hotel.
As if Miami wasn’t sexy enough, the chic new Raleigh Hotel has just upped the ante, by mixing updated Art Deco style with the most stunning pool in Miami Beach.
If ever there was a reason to visit Aspen outside of ski season, this is it. The Rockies’ newest, sleekest hotel offers views of craggy mountains, not beach or sand, from its stunning poolside bar, 39 Degrees.
Jet-setters flock for a cocktail by the pool at Sunset Boulevard’s funky Standard, where an outdoor blue-astroturf-covered pool deck morphs into a hip hang out after dark.
A top hang out for the see-and-be-seen set, this downtown San Diego outpost of Rande Gerber fame has the city’s choicest pool and hottest beach scene.
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