“Private pool” is one of the most elastic phrases in hotel booking. It can mean a heated pool long enough for a morning swim, a plunge pool you cross in two strokes, a pool shared by the villas of one compound, or water that is yours alone but in full view of a garden path. The difference decides whether you swim or merely cool off, and in whose view. Photographs rarely settle it, since they are taken from the one angle that shows neither the neighbours nor the scale. A few precise questions before you pay will.
Four things the phrase can mean
The first is a true private pool: part of your villa or suite, used by nobody else, long enough for a few strokes. The second is a plunge pool, a small and often unheated basin for cooling off, which many hotels list under the same heading. The third is a shared pool, in a villa compound or along a row of pool access rooms whose terraces step into common water. The fourth is a pool that is yours alone but overlooked, by a path, a restaurant terrace or the villa above. A search filter may treat all four alike.
Jetwing Vil Uyana near Sigiriya keeps the first two apart in its categories. The ten Forest Dwellings, built of earth and stone on two floors, each have their own swimming pool and a walled courtyard; the Garden and Paddy Dwellings come with plunge pools. If swimming is the point, book a Forest Dwelling, which also gives you two floors of shade. For birdwatching from a deck over the lake at dawn, a Water Dwelling suits better, and the Paddy Dwellings are the quietest at night.
Size and heating, in numbers
Ask for length, width and depth in metres, not adjectives. As a rough guide, a pool under four metres is for cooling off, six metres allows a few strokes, and only from about ten metres can you swim lengths. Depth matters too: a plunge pool you can stand in up to your shoulders is a different thing from one you sit in. Then ask about heating. In the tropics the water is rarely cold, and a small pool in full sun can be too warm by late afternoon; in the Mediterranean or at altitude, an unheated pool is cold outside high summer. If you travel early or late in the season, ask for the water temperature in writing.
Zuri Zanzibar shows what a full length private pool looks like. The Ocean Front Three Bedroom Villa is the one villa at the resort with its own 12 metre pool and a private stretch of sand, adds a jacuzzi, and suits a family or friends travelling together. The resort lies on the west-facing shore of Unguja at Kendwa, so the evenings belong to the sunset, which the front row Ocean Bungalows face directly. January and February bring the warmest, calmest sea; April and May are the long rains, when part of the island shuts.
Orientation, shade and who can see in
Which way a pool faces decides when you use it. Facing east, it takes the morning sun and lies in shade by the afternoon; facing west, it is warm late in the day and catches the sunset, along with the strongest heat. In the tropics the midday sun stands high, so shade from a pavilion or trees counts for more than the compass. Walls that keep the neighbours out also keep the sun out for part of the day, and the pool with the widest view is often the most exposed. Ask which way it faces, how many hours of direct sun it gets in your month, and whether anyone can see in from a path, a terrace or an upper floor.
At Alila Villas Uluwatu every villa stands on its own with a private pool and a daybed pavilion, set in terraces along the Bukit cliffs. The higher category mainly buys position: the Uluwatu Pool Villas on the upper terraces have the widest ocean view, while the standard Pool Villas are identical inside but see the sea only in a frame. The dry months from May to September bring the clearest sunsets; go down to the cantilevered Sunset Cabana beside the cliff edge pool half an hour before the light turns, since it cannot be reserved.
Children and the water beyond the pool
A private pool has no lifeguard, and its edge is a few steps from the bedroom. With small children, ask whether the pool can be fenced or covered, whether the terrace doors lock or carry an alarm, how deep the shallowest part is, and whether you can see the water from the sitting area. Check the edge too: beyond an infinity edge or a raised deck there may be a drop. Then look past the villa, because many pool villas stand on a beach, a lake or a reef, and the open water is often closer than the pool.
At Kandolhu Maldives the sea is part of the question. Twenty-four of the thirty villas have a private pool, and the Ocean Pool and Deluxe Ocean Pool Villas stand over the reef edge with a ladder straight into the water, so the deck offers two kinds of water at once. Children are welcome from the age of eight, there is no kids club, and the island is clearly set up for couples. The six Beach Villas have no pool but open onto the sand and face the sunset; with the house reef a few strokes from the beach, they suit anyone who would rather swim in the sea.
The questions that settle it
Send them before you pay, and ask for the answers in writing, ideally with a site plan:
- Is the pool used by this villa alone, and is that true of every villa in the category?
- How long, wide and deep is it, and is it heated in the month of travel?
- Which way does it face, and how many hours of direct sun does it get?
- Can it be seen from paths, neighbouring terraces, upper floors or the beach?
- Can it be fenced or covered for small children, and do the terrace doors lock?
- How often is it cleaned, and at what time of day?
Ask, too, for a photograph taken from the pool towards the neighbours. It tells you more than the brochure shot taken the other way.
