The Best Hotels With Pools in Lisbon, Portugal

Check in at this slick urban hotel, and you can pick the view you want from your minimal-modish room: the striking city or the outdoor pool, trimmed with wooden decking, smart loungers and a vibrant vertical garden. Explore more, and you’ll find an indoor pool in the sleek spa, which is also home to a sauna and gym. Just off the Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon’s cobblestoned main boulevard, you’ve got high-end shops to browse for gifts – or maybe an outfit for dinner, if you’re tempted by the perfectly presented Portuguese cod in the hotel’s Restaurante Luz.

There’s water, water everywhere, at this very-now tower hotel, with its sculptural sail, wowing guests with an envy-inducing location on the shores of the wide River Tagus. Through glass walls, the 176 red-and-black-toned rooms and suites let in that view or glimpses of the nearby Parque das Nações. Head up to the top-floor wellness centre to splash in the indoor pool, admiring the river, or switch off in the hammam, massage chairs and whirlpool beds. Your excuse for gorging on those Portuguese breakfast pastries? A long water’s-edge walk afterwards, taking in restaurants, hotels and local life.

Soothing, light-filled rooms in shades of silvery greys and white are the seduction at this funky little check-in in Praça Duque de Saldanha, a 5-minute walk from Avenida da Liberdade, with its luxury-label stores. (On which note, if you’re here for a splurge of a weekend, consider booking the two-storey Duplex Suite, which has a kitchenette and sleeps three.) Up on the roof, there’s a striking slimline swimming pool with views over Lisbon to take in as you breaststroke, working out your day’s sightseeing route. Even if you’re stuffed after your buffet breakfast, be sure to call by the landmark Versailles pastry shop, in a 1920s mansion, for a creamy-sweet pastéis de nata or two.

On a hillside overlooking the cinematic sweep of the city is this modern, box-shaped boutique hotel – a must-book for anyone keen to discover the well-heeled residential district of Príncipe Real. Rooms mirror the exterior materials (white render, oak cladding) with posh Bang & Olufsen TVs and Hermès unguents for cosy evenings. The hotel really comes into its own in warmer seasons: after you’ve breakfasted on cured meats and ambrosial miniature custard tarts, you can dip in the sliver of outdoor swimming pool running alongside the restaurant. Here, if only once during your stay, book a table to dine on delicious shredded stone crab.

Right by Avenida da Liberdade, the swishest avenue in Lisbon, this boutique hotel is more of an urban resort, from its naturally lit gym to its indoor pool (your cue to power-off the pastries.) There’s a lovely spa with a sauna, a turkish steam bath and treatment rooms for two – although bedrooms are relaxation cocoons in themselves, bathed golden by clever lighting and colours. While you’ll want to step out in such a fine neighbourhood, may we suggest you dine in once or twice? The bistro serves inventive “bistronomy”: black scabbardfish fillet (with a crust of tomato, onion, olive and cornbread and with a white butter sauce and potato trio crisps) is a mouthful in more ways than one.

In the Portuguese capital, the cool Corinthia brand delivers a ceiling-beamed, light and airy indoor heated pool space; it shares the limelight with an enormous spa that’ll pamper you rotten. Its aqua circuit, based on ancient hot and cold bathing rituals, offers a host of aquatic experiences, including a hydrotherapy pool, sensory showers and an ice fountain. It’s the perfect conclusion to a steamy gym session – and a prelude to evening cocktails at the al fresco Soul Garden restaurant and bar. That just leaves a night of comfy slumber in your room with a city or leafy park view, depending on which of the 23 floors you’re on.

The city’s once-unloved Parque das Nações area has come up in the world, with funky, futuristic glass-and-steel architecture, bars and restaurants now gracing the banks of the Tagus. This place underlines that fact, with its smart blue- or red-hued rooms and checkerboard headboards. The indoor pool with a hot tub soothes feet needing some TLC after pounding the cobbles of Lisbon. Call the lift to the hotel’s Sky Bar for snap-worthy views over a beer or cocktail. And, when you step out next time, take the tram – perhaps up to the castle overlooking the city for more photogenic moments.

We love the gentle blue mood to this restored 18th-century pile: from the powder-blue façade to the shades of the subterranean swimming pool with jets, backed by a vintage-style mural of Victorian bathers and loungers. Contemporary enters as sleek modern lines amid period fittings and photos. Wood-panelled and -floored rooms ooze chocolate tones, and Juliet balconies reveal the stretch of tree-lined Avenida da Liberdade. There’s no restaurant, but – before you head out for dinner – complimentary port is offered at the bar. Breakfasts are banquets, where you’ll find fresh pastries, fruits, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs waiting for you.

This contemporary hotel has youthful stylings: urban art, cool lighting and a 24/7 restaurant doing fusion treats a la cod risotto. The location couldn’t be better: it’s near historic central Marquês de Pombal Square, handy for the metro or walking itineraries. The 129 rooms come in two categories: Cool and Super Cool, with statement walls, sky blue or as yellow as a Portuguese custard tart. Tablets control lights, curtains and temperatures, and opening hours are utterly guest-centric: the fitness centre, pool, steam room and sauna (with city views) and sensation showers are open round the clock.

The heated pool at this slinky modern hotel might be inside, but it’s light and airy given its glass cocoon and lounger-lined sun terrace. It’s no after-thought either – easily long enough for luxurious lengths. Saluting the contemporary agenda, rooms (some with city-view balconies) roll out groovy greys, blacks and creams, alongside polished wooden floors, white-linen beds and tall cream headboards. The central Avenida de Liberdade, with endless bars and restaurants, is a tourist attraction in itself – but head out to the bohemian Bairro Alto for a different vibe.