Laps Of Luxury
Inn Spots With Inviting Pools.
by Suzy Banks
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Courtesy of Cibolo Creek Ranch | |
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CIBOLO CREEK RANCH, Shafter (in West Texas; between Marfa and Presidio on U.S. 67; 915-229-3737, 866-496-9460, fax 915-229-3653). It's not the biggest or the fanciest hotel pool in the state (although it's very nice), but it must be the most remote. (The closest airport with scheduled commercial flights is 237 miles away in El Paso.) This isolation translates into spectacular, star-studded nighttime swims that no big-city hotel can offer.
THE FAIRMONT DALLAS (1717 N. Akard Street, in the Arts District; 214-720-2020, 800-441-1414, fax 214-720-5269). The antithesis of the kidney-shaped pools abhorred by lap swimmers, the Fairmont's heated Olympic-size number, on the third-floor terrace, gives it to you straight, with nothing but crisp ninety-degree angles as far as you can paddle. Diversions include admiring the equally angular rooftop gardens and watching jets zip by overhead.
FORT CLARK SPRINGS MOTEL, Brackettville (in southwest Texas; in the gated community of Fort Clark Springs on U.S. 90; 830-563-2493, 800-937-1590, fax 830-563-2254). You don't come here for the modest motel rooms in the former barracks; you come here because motel guests can enjoy the private community's emerald treasure, the third-largest spring-fed pool in the state. Set beneath centuries-old oaks, this stunning pool is fed by Las Moras Springs, which gushes millions of gallons of 68-degree water a day.
HILTON EL PASO AIRPORT (2027 Airway Boulevard, 915-778-4241, 800-445-8667, fax 915-779-1276). Hike the four flights of stairs to the top of the Texas Twister—at 211 feet, the longest open-flume hotel water slide in the U.S.—for a view of the Franklin Mountains and a corkscrew ride down into the drink. Palms, pines, willows, and Italian cypress grow around the slide, shielding it from the desert sun. Two other pools give more-sedate swimmers ponds of their own.
THE HOUSTONIAN, Houston (111 N. Post Oak Lane, north of the Galleria; 713-680-2626, 800-231-2759, fax 713-680-2992). If you crave serious aquatics in a woodsy, country-club-like setting, the Houstonian is the place for you. Free classes in everything from water fitness to aqua therapy are held in the three heated outdoor pools.
HYATT REGENCY HILL COUNTRY RESORT, San Antonio (9800 Hyatt Resort Drive, off Loop 1604; 210-647-1234, 800-233-1234, fax 210-681-9681). Landscape designers did a dandy job of recreating a Hill Country water paradise. A gently flowing canal for tubing leads from a shaded, natural-looking pool to a pond with a sandy beach, all surrounded by limestone outcroppings and native vegetation. The only thing missing is blue lips (the water is heated).
PORT ROYAL OCEAN RESORT CONDOMINIUMS, Port Aransas (6317 Texas Highway 361, 361-749-5011, 800-242-1034, fax 361-749-6399). As if taunting the Gulf, just across the boardwalk, this unabashedly over-the-top water world sports four whirlpool spas and four connected free-form pools with a swim-up bar, a swim-up grill, and a twisting water slide.
THE ST. ANTHONY, San Antonio (downtown at 300 E. Travis, 210-227-4392, 800-996-3426, fax 210-227-4391). Ply the heated waters of the blue-tiled pool on the sixth-floor terrace of this historic 1909 hotel and soak up urban views of the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, the Tower of the Americas, and businesses on the south bank of the River Walk.
THE WARWICK HOTEL, Houston (5701 Main Street, in the Museum District; 713-526-1991, 800-223-6800, fax 713-526-0359). The terrace around the egg-shaped second-floor pool is bedecked with lounging marble nudes, enormous potted palms, and bougainvillea trees. Hollywood with a hefty dose of Liberace, this is a pool where you swim without getting your hairdo wet and recline on your chaise in a gold lamé wrap and high-heel sandals with silk flowers on the toes.
THE WESTIN LA CANTERA RESORT, San Antonio (16641 La Cantera Parkway, off Loop 1604 near Interstate 10; 210-558-6500, 800-228-3000, fax 210-558-2400). At this posh resort you can flop from one of the six curvaceous pools into the next like a fickle frog. Just be careful where you jump when you get to the one on the edge of the cliff, which affords a great view of golf-coursed Hill Country.
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