Pool
In the USA, a hotel pool is the norm in the Sun Belt and the exception in the old northern downtowns. Of the 1,587 stays on this site, 1,075 in 57 cities have one (8.7/10 on average, 597,891 reviews). In Orlando all 30 have a pool; in Glendale, near Phoenix, 29 of 30; in Jacksonville 29 of 30; in Miami and Tampa 28 of 30 each; in Las Vegas 43 of 46. In the dense centres it flips: 4 of 29 in Washington, 3 of 23 in Detroit, 6 of 27 in San Francisco, 7 of 30 in Boston, and in New York a single one I can confirm. So choose the city before the hotel. If the pool is the reason for the trip, Florida, Arizona, Texas and Las Vegas give you dozens to choose from. In New York, Washington or Boston you are picking among a handful, and the neighbourhood matters more than the pool. In Manhattan, that single confirmed pool is at Trump International New York (8.9/10, 800 reviews), 1 Central Park West by Columbus Circle: a heated indoor pool next to its spa. The Residence Inn Times Square, sometimes listed with a pool, has a pool table, not a swimming pool. Las Vegas has the most pools and the trickiest calendar, because the big Strip decks are seasonal. Fontainebleau Las Vegas (8.9/10, 3,332 reviews), the most reviewed stay with a pool in the city, opens its pool season in March; in autumn it closes its large Oasis deck, and the smaller Legacy pool is the one that stays open when the weather allows. Between November and February, do not book a Vegas hotel for the pool you saw in summer photos: check which of its pools is named as open for your dates. In Honolulu, 26 of 29 stays have a pool, but a Waikiki pool is not always a beach pool. Halepuna Waikiki by Halekulani (9.1/10, 3,008 reviews) has an infinity lap pool and a hot tub on its eighth floor, open to hotel guests only, from 8 a.m. until sunset according to the hotel. It faces the ocean from above, a block back from the sand. If you want to walk from your lounger straight into the sea, pick a hotel on the beach itself rather than one with an ocean-view deck. The indoor pool question matters most in cities with real winters. In Colorado Springs (25 of 30), Drury Plaza Hotel Colorado Springs Near the Air Force Academy (9.5/10, 652 reviews), on InterQuest Parkway, has both an indoor and an outdoor pool plus a hot tub. In Omaha (20 of 30), Embassy Suites by Hilton Omaha Downtown Old Market (8.4/10, 406 reviews) has an indoor pool in the Old Market district. In Tulsa (20 of 30), Hyatt Regency Tulsa Downtown (8.6/10, 449 reviews) has both an indoor and an outdoor pool; the big pool deck at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, in Catoosa, is outdoors and depends on the weather. Oklahoma City has the best winter surprise. Of its 31 stays, 21 have a pool, and the Omni Oklahoma City Hotel (9.1/10, 759 reviews) puts a heated outdoor pool on its third-floor roof terrace, above Scissortail Park, with a fireplace beside it. It is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and stays open all year, so you can swim outdoors in January, while the poolside cabanas are only offered from early April to early September. It is not an indoor pool: on a windy winter evening, the walk from the water to the door is the cold part. In St. Louis, 14 of 21 stays have a pool. Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis At The Arch (9.2/10, 3,696 reviews), under five minutes on foot from the Gateway Arch, has an indoor pool and two whirlpools: my pick for a winter weekend with children. A rooftop pool? None here that I can confirm: Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark has a rooftop lounge, but its pool is indoors; the St. Louis Union Station Hotel has a seasonal outdoor pool. The Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis, not among these hotels, has its heated pool and hot tub on the eighth-floor Sky Terrace. One federal rule helps when you compare pool hotels. Since 12 May 2025, the Federal Trade Commission's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees has required hotels and booking sites to include mandatory fees, resort fees among them, in the first total they show you. A pool resort in Las Vegas, Orlando or Honolulu should therefore no longer reveal a mandatory fee only at the last step of the booking; if one appears there, the listing is not following the rule. My verdict. For a pool between November and March, I would choose Florida, southern Arizona or Honolulu over Las Vegas, whose largest decks close for the winter. For children in a cold month, the indoor pools in Colorado Springs, Omaha or St. Louis do the job, and Oklahoma City, with the Omni's heated rooftop pool, is the one cold-winter city on this page where I would swim outdoors in January. For a city break in New York, Washington or Boston, I would not choose a hotel for its pool at all: there are too few, and the right neighbourhood will shape the trip far more than a swim.
