Paris, France
Hôtel Molitor Paris
Paris swam here first. Molitor opened in 1929 as a public pool complex on the western edge of the 16th arrondissement, a short walk from the Bois de Boulogne and Roland-Garros. Art Deco galleries ringed an open-air basin for summer and a covered one for winter.
The pools shut in 1989. In the years that followed, the empty shell turned into a canvas for graffiti artists, and that chapter was not erased when the site reopened as a hotel in 2014. Street art still runs through the building. Rooms sit in the galleries above the water, and both pools are back in use.
Venice, Italy
San Clemente Palace Kempinski
An entire island goes with the hotel. San Clemente lies in the southern lagoon, a short boat ride from St Mark's Square, and the property covers all of it. Its oldest buildings began as a monastery, and a historic church still stands at the centre of the complex.
Here the art is mostly architecture. Brick façades, cloisters and a long line of lagoon views set the mood, after a restoration that took the island through its later institutional years and back to hospitality. A shuttle boat runs to the city. Gardens and an outdoor pool fill the space between the buildings.
Cape Town, South Africa
Ellerman House
Bantry Bay climbs steeply from the Atlantic, and Ellerman House sits high on that slope. The Edwardian mansion dates from the early twentieth century. Terraced gardens step down towards the coast road, and most public rooms look straight out to sea.
Walls matter more than views, though. The hotel holds one of the larger private collections of South African art, running from nineteenth-century landscapes to contemporary work and hung throughout the rooms guests actually use. A separate contemporary gallery extends it, and a wine gallery covers the Cape's vineyards in the same spirit.