…the water’s lovely. With summer just around the corner, luxury hotel guide Mr & Mrs Smith selects five romantic getaways where the pools are a star attraction

photography by Adrian Houston

Astra Apartments and Suites
Santorini, Greece

FLY TO Athens
POOL Infinity pool with a bar and a spectacular view of the caldera, or volcanic crater. Several of the suites have their own Jacuzzi or small pool
ROOMS 16 apartments, 10 suites
RATES €200–€710,including breakfast
OUR FAVOURITE ROOMS Numbers 302 and 304 are the most private suites, one with a Jacuzzi the other with a private pool; 5 and 9, meanwhile, are the best superior apartments

Mrs Smith and I are enchanted by Santorinian wine. Let’s face it: when a free bottle is left in your hotel room, it’s often only suitable for clearing troublesome plugholes. Yet when we opened our complimentary Assyrtiko we found nectar in a bottle. As introductions to accommodation go, it was a good one – who could ask for more than a stylish room with a world-class view and a seriously good bottle of wine to help us enjoy it?

If you’re of a like mind, you’ll love this boutique abode. Hugging the island’s postcard-perfect cliffs like a pretty limpet, the apartments provide a level of satisfaction that would be surprising in a five-star hotel, let alone a hideaway perched on a quiet corner of a Greek island.

With high white ceilings, arty ornaments and candles on every available surface, this is a room to spend some time in. We were so entranced that on our first night we chose to forsake the restaurants of Oia and instead called out for a delivery. Hummus, pitta, meat and all manner of meze appeared a little later, along with another bottle of that fine Santorinian wine.

At this point we made an unfortunate mistake. Just outside the bedroom sits a private pool: in the daytime, a locus of luxurious joy. The sun’s beating down, your skinny white body is crying out for respite, and right there in front of you is a cool, clean waterworld all of your own. Perfect. At 1am, however, it’s a freezing plunge pool. Take my advice and do the baby-bathing elbow dip first. If nothing else, it’ll save you waking up the neighbours with your yelps.

Our equilibrium was restored by a fine breakfast delivered to our room at no extra charge. While serving yoghurt, bread, cheese and fruit juice on the private terrace, our waiter tactfully ignored the mezze remains and glasses sitting around the edge of the pool with Jeeves-like aplomb. Clearly, slightly sozzled guests who fancy a bracing midnight dip are nothing new to him. Thanks again, my friend, and sorry about the floating wine bottle.

Like all the best holidays, Astra had us wondering how we could possibly haggle ourselves a longer stay. In truth, though, Santorini and the Astra apartments should remain a place for temporary visitors, because no one could live with this level of spiritual uplift all the time – perfect happiness can only be savoured in small doses. SCOTT MANSON

La Coluccia
Sardinia, Italy

FLY TO Rome or Nice (then ferry to Sardinia)
POOL Set in landscaped grounds a few metres from perfect beaches
ROOMS 45, including classic, garden-side, and superior/seaside rooms
RATES €120–€450 per person, including breakfast and dinner (minimum stay of six nights June to mid-September)
OUR FAVOURITE ROOMS 53 and 54 have panoramic views out to sea and are not overlooked 

La Coluccia’s big selling point is its proximity to some world-class beaches, so it’s understandable that even the biggest rooms are pretty compact. Perhaps most guests don’t spend much time in their rooms, but this was our honeymoon. Happily, the sleek design – in minimalist blacks, whites and greys – the luxurious bathrooms and our balcony, with its glorious sea view, more than made up for the lack of acreage.

We began our first full day on Sardinia with breakfast on the terrace, looking out over the glittering sea. We were here to relax after the stress and excitement of our big day. Before we’d finished our coffee we’d already decided that this would be a holiday of sublime inactivity.

We ate lunch at the hotel nearly every day, mainly owing to a sense of lazy satisfaction with staying put, but also because the food there was so delicious. During our stay, we had fresh lobster, sea bass and outstanding local sausages from the poolside barbecue. We would sleep off our rosé-tinted lunch, sprawled and satisfied in some semi-sheltered cove, before returning for the four-course tasting menu and some very good cocktails later on. At night, the pool is lit up and La Coluccia provides the coolest, calmest backdrop you could wish for.

Sardinia itself feels like one great big area of outstanding natural beauty, but La Coluccia, one of very few boutique hotels on the island, does everything so well that honeymooners won’t regret sticking around here for most of their stay. This is luxury on a medium budget with superb service. It’s not hard to imagine returning for more sun, sea and seclusion further down the line. Anniversary treat, darling? BEN SOWTON

Can Simoneta
Mallorca

FLY TO Mallorca
POOL Large pool and cliff-top Jacuzzi. The hotel also has private access to a secluded cove where there’s a bathing pool cut out of the rock
ROOMS 18, including six suites
RATES €235–€410, including breakfast
OUR FAVOURITE ROOMS Ask for a sea view. Two of the suites and two of the doubles have terraces 

We found out before we set off for Spain that our cliff-top hotel, Can Simoneta, was originally built around 140 years ago as a house for a monk who’d been prescribed a course of seawater treatments for an unspecified medical condition. As soon as we arrived we realised this was one brother who knew how to choose his location.

Just an hour’s drive from Palma airport, we found ourselves standing on the edge of a cliff, gazing and sighing at the spectacular views of the Mediterranean.

This was the perfect place to contemplate the wonders of God’s creation – or, in my case, to get up to some thoroughly un-monkish frolics with my own Mr Smith.

The house is high up on the cliff, and a staircase was cut out of the rock so the monk could saunter down and take an amazing, secluded bath – like a natural Jacuzzi – carved straight out of the rocks on the beach at the foot of the stairs.

Of the hotel’s two imposing stone houses, the building closest to the cliff is the one to ask for. Its suites are exceptional, with muslin-draped four-poster beds, large windows to let in the summer breeze and, of course, those sea views.

For anyone looking to escape the natter and nonsense of the everyday and unwind in a spectacular and soul-soothing environment, this is a very fine retreat indeed. In fact, you could say it’s just what the doctor ordered. ALISON CHOW

Hostellerie de Crillon le Brave
Vaucluse, France

FLY TO Nice
POOL Outdoor heated pool with panoramic country views
ROOMS 32
RATES €170–€650, excluding breakfast
OUR FAVOURITE ROOMS Room 33, aka La Tour, is a large suite on two levels with rolltop baths and a superb view. Room 32 has an open-plan living area, bedroom and bathroom, plus a vast shower room built right into the wall of the old citadel. 

Our boutique castle hideaway, L’Hostellerie de Crillon le Brave, is perched high on a hillside on the southern flanks of Mont Ventoux, which reigns over this part of the Vaucluse like a lost Alp.

Our room, in La Maison Reboul (the rambling property occupies half a dozen mellow stone houses, connected by secret paths), was private, rustic but elegant, and one of the biggest doubles we’ve had the pleasure of staying in. The shower room was the best surprise of all: it occupies the 12th-century tower and has a window like a tunnel, at the end of which you can see a burst of light, a haze of green vines and the distant hillside.

As Mr Smith headed to the pool, I read on one of the leafy terraces hedged by a bank of herbs (wafting their scent obligingly). I decided this was my second favourite spot – I saved the Terrasse Ventoux, my number one, for the evening’s apéritif.

There was always someone on hand to bring us a glass of Côtes du Rhône by the pool or in our room, but the warmest welcome came from Patrick Gaillard, the establishment’s amiable director, who greets every guest and gives the genuine impression that nothing is too much trouble. We found ourselves feeling more relaxed than we thought we knew how; this is our kind of mountain. JULIET KINSMAN

La Fuente de la Higuera
Ronda, Spain

FLY TO Málaga
POOL An outdoor pool set in a walled garden
ROOMS 11
RATES €135–€280, including breakfast
OUR FAVOURITE ROOMS Room 10 has the best private terrace. Room 5 is a junior suite with beautiful views over the valley. Spacious room 2 is the honeymoon suite

We were instantly smitten with La Fuente de la Higuera. It’s a rather stately converted 18th-century olive mill set into a hillside, with views over to Ronda and the surrounding rugged sierras. The gardens are just as impressive: a soft, lush contrast to the craggy mountains around them, forming a well-watered oasis around a swimming pool. The glorious setting meant our hopes were high for a fabulous room, too, and we were not disappointed. We walked into a beautifully cool, calm living room with an eclectic mix of furniture, including comfy wicker chairs and antique leather loungers. Further into our suite we found a generous bedroom, with canopied beds and doors opening onto a lavender-filled garden, plus a huge bathroom with the kind of cool stone floor that’s exactly what you want under your feet on a baking summer day.

A little weary from some sherry-fuelled shenanigans, we felt La Fuente de la Higuera came into its own. The garden is the ideal place to laze around reading, taking an occasional swim when the heat gets too much. Indeed, we did little except relax, enjoy our surroundings, eat the hotel’s excellent home cooking, and chat to our friendly Dutch hosts, Pom and Tina.

We atoned for our laziness the following day by visiting Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra, two of the famous ‘white villages’ of Andalucía, and going hiking in the Parque Natural de la Sierra de Grazalema. The pleasure was all the greater because we knew that, by squeezing some culture and physical activity into one day, we’d be able to lie by the pool for the rest of our stay with a clear conscience. RHYMER RIGBY

Excerpts taken from Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection: European Coast & Country (€30) www.mrandmrssmith.com

Fly me there… Sterling flies to Mediterranean destinations from Copenhagen, Stockholm Arlanda, Gothenburg, Oslo and Billund. www.sterling.dk for details