Lodore Falls, so-called for its location right next to its
namesake higgledy-piggledy waterfall, is a must-visit for those who
appreciate hiking, wild swimming and luxurious, man-made pools in
equal measure. It looks out over Derwentwater, a serene spot to
make a splash and not to chilly either if you visit in late summer.
The hotel’s heated hydrotherapy pool is as magical on a blue-skies
day as it is a rainy one, when puffs of steam float on the water’s
surface, adding to the craggy scenery’s palpable melodrama.

City-centre hotels with open-air pools get gold stars in our
books. What could be better after a long day in town than a
refreshing dip before heading back out for dinner? The King Street
Townhouse’s pool is a slate-grey cave, carved into the hotel’s
seventh floor and looking out over the pointy spires and iconic
clock tower of Manchester Town Hall. The pool forms part of the
hotel’s spa offering, along with a glowy steam room and an ambient
“relaxation area”, so leave your racing-stripes at home and order a
ginger tea (or a spritz) instead.

The Scarlet sells itself as “an eco-hotel for grown-ups”. That means relaxation
rooms slung with hovering, adult-sized nap cocoons, an Ayurvedic
spa and a seriously special restaurant which serves the sort of
seasonal curiosities that would be lost on younger palates (sorry
kids). Nowhere is its do-good, feel-good ethos better demonstrated
than in the pool – a cradle of fresh saltwater, naturally filtered
by reeds, which looks out over the regular swill of surfers cutting
shapes on Mawgan Porth’s Enid Blyton-perfect beach.

The pool at this 18th-century farm turned millennial summer
hideout is quite something. It’s an exercise in bucolic perfection
which spills out of a rickety-looking (though unmistakably
zhuzhed-up) old boathouse and into the rolling, grassy surrounds of
rural Oxfordshire. As any Soho House group veterans
know, the emphasis here is on having a good time. Clad in timber,
scored by golf buggy taxis and with more sporting activities than
you can shake a racket at, it’s about as close you can get to an
American country club without leaving home turf.

Newquay isn’t quite the hotspot it once was, but
stylish hotels such as Watergate Bay, which is just a short scooch
along the coast, offer exciting glimpses of what it could become.
Self-styled epicureans should hunker down for this hotel’s food
offering alone; it has five restaurants (yes, five) but only 71
rooms, meaning you have your pick of local Cornish fare and
ocean-view tables whatever the weather. As for the pool, this is
the real deal – a long one for both lapping and lounging – cornered
by a floor-to-ceiling glass partition which collapses onto the
cliffside.

If Hambleton Hall was a person it’d likely be a glamorous
grandma, the type to clutch her pearls and heat-brush curl her
hair. It’s a charming and eminently well-to-do hotel, albeit a
little old-fashioned for our liking. Regardless, its pool is like a
precious relic from the past. Cosseted away from the Victorian house by a red-brick rood screen interwoven
with trailing flora, it’s a timeless English beauty simply begging
to be painted in loose puddles of watercolour.

A 20m-long garden swimming pool inlaid with chequerboard tiles.
Would you expect anything less refined from Beaverbrook, Surrey’s foremost country house hotel? This pool is
like a Slim Aarons photo come to life, set among meticulously
clipped lawns and lined by two faultless rows of snow-white
loungers, punctuated by taut canvas parasols. Though the outdoor
pool is a relatively recent addition to the 150-year-old mansion,
it’s just the sort of place you can imagine Beaverbrook’s legendary
former guests (Liz Taylor and Jean Cocteau, being two) flopping out
on a balmy summer’s day.

Okay, so this pool doesn’t exactly fly under-the-radar. In fact,
it was the very place where the infamous Profumo affair started,
but you’d be hard pressed to find a better place to splash around
this summer. Bucolic yet bougie, the tufts of lavander, singing
birds and blooming garden that frame the pool are enough to tempt
us outside the M25 for a day spent perfecting our butterfly stroke
(read: dipping our toes in between tanning rotations).

This newbie is set to be London’s hottest hangout this summer. Designed in the seventies by Sir Frederick Gibberd, 180 House has just undergone a major refurb. On the 9th-floor you’ll find it’s south-facing rooftop pool with its floor-to-ceiling windows that offer impressive 360-vistas over some of London’s biggest landmarks. After you’re done soaking in all the city’s visual splendour, head to the bar for a picante. Yikes. We’ve become a Soho House meme.