Online - August 13, 2005

Pool Hopping

The World’s Best Pools

And so August lulls us into yet another sweaty stupor. Too hot to do much of anything except jump in and out of a pool. So we went hopping around the globe to find the best of them.

Best View: Perivolas, Santorini — a minimalist chic infinity pool perched on an Aegean cliff. Views include white-washed villages, bougainvillea, and a submerged volcano.

Ultimate Urban Oases: A four-way tie among the Hotel Arts in Barcelona (Miami meets Frank Gehry), The Berkeley in London (dig the Hyde Park views), Harbour Plaza in Hong Kong (oh, those city and harbor scenes), and Hotel Habita in Mexico City (see, be seen, and soak on the roof).

Special-est F/X: Hotel Unique in Sao Paulo, an inverted building (four rooms on the second floor, 30 on the top) where the rooftop pool is colored a rich crimson.

Best Old-School Style: Hotel Ritz Paris, the ne plus ultra, complete with Louis XIV gilt, enormous robes, and more fashion editors than you’d ever want to talk to. Honorable mention: The Beverly Hills Hotel. Make like a mogul — take a meeting in your own cabana.

Scene-iest: On the West Coast, the Hollywood Roosevelt in L.A. Forget the Chateau. The A-list is now canoodling at this renovated Tinseltown legend. On the Cote d’Azur, the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes, where credits cards are not welcome, but teeny bikinis and the Cannes crowd are.

Splashiest Splurge: North Island, Seychelles, a luxurious eco-island where access to the stunning free-form pool starts at $3,100 per night.

Cheapest Thrill: Dip or sip at Manhattan’s new Hotel QT, where the lobby pool (all 10 feet by 15 feet of it) is situated in the middle of the bar. (DJ nightly, of course.)

Cheaper Still: Bude Sea Pool in Cornwall , a saltwater pool in a charming Victorian setting.

Best Snacks: In the East, the Indian kathi roll with mint chutney at Udaivilas in Udaipur, Rajasthan. In the West, high tea sandwiches at Carlisle Bay in Antigua.