Image via Complex Original
Swimming pools are meant to be relaxing, tranquil, and maybe even awe-inspiring. In these hotels' attempts to create pools that push the envelope, however, serene becomes startling and soothing pools are traded in for nerve-wracking experiences.
These vertigo-provoking swimming pools are placed as high and precarious as possible, and although they’re sure to create some memories, whether they are good or bad is based on your degree of bravery. Take look and see if you have what it takes to swim in one of the The Scariest Hotel Pools in the World.
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Block H
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Designer: Kohn Pedersen Fox
Block H, a skyscraper designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox is estimated to be complete by 2016. The plan includes rooftop gardens as well as an infinity pool projecting out of the 1,200-foot high structure two thirds of the way up. It's safe to say that once the building is complete, the number of vertigo sufferers is bound to skyrocket.
Hilton Auckland
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Designer: HBO+EMTB
Acting as the focal point of the Hilton Auckland's stark white façade is its glass walled swimming pool. The pool protrudes outward, cantilevered about 1,000 feet from the structure that connects the two main towers. Precariously suspended above the ground, this may not be the idyllic area of leisure you imagined.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel
Location: Bayfront Avenue, Singapore
Designer: Safdie Architects
The Marina Bay Sands Hotel's swimming pool sits atop 57 stories in the building's aptly named Skypark. This infinity pool overlooks the busy streets of Singapore, while the infinity edge creates a gravity-defying effect reserved for the brave at heart.
Singita Sasakwa Lodge
Location: Singita Grumeti, Tanzania
Designer: WATG
Just imagine lazily wading in the Singita Sasakwa main pool only to look up and see over two million animals making the journey of a lifetime. When visiting during the summer months, prepare to be audience to the famed Great Migration. Although it is a glorious spectacle, one cannot help but replay scenes from The Lion King, which had less than cordial encounters with large groups of animals.
San Alfonso del Mar Resort
Location: Algarrobo, Chile
Designer: Crystal Lagoons
San Alfonso del Mar resort is the home to the world's largest swimming pool. This 19-acre pool holds 66 million gallons of water supplemented by the Pacific Ocean a few feet away. In addition to it's overpowering surface size, swimmers used to the maximum depth of five feet may find San Alfonso del Mar's depths of up to 115 feet quite unnerving.
Golden Nugget
Location: Las Vegas
Designer: Landry's, Inc.
After one night at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas you'll be swimming with the fishes, literally. The main pool whirls you down a three-story waterslide into a transparent tube that puts only a few inches between you and their huge shark tank.
Hyatt Capital Gate
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Designer: RMJM
The Capital Gate leans 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, making it the most precariously leaning building in the world. Located at the halfway point of the 35-story mammoth, the Hyatt's infinity pool over looks Abu Dhabi's illustrious skyscraper-filled cityscape.
Okura Prestige Bangkok
Location: Bangkok
Designer: Palmer & Turner Thailand
The Okura Prestige Bangkok's swimming pool hovers 25 stories above the hectic city with arresting views of the Bangkok skyline. The pool's optical illusion of jutting off into infinity can be a bit menacing for those visitors suffering from acrophobia.
The Joule
Location: Dallas
Designer: Architexas
Stretching out eight feet beyond the hotel's core structure, The Joule's swimming pool allows swimmers to bathe on the edge of glory in the literal sense.
Sky Condo
Location: Lima, Peru
Designer: DCPP
A plan by Mexican firm DCPP Arquitectos, the Sky Condo's swimming pools take cantilevered design to the next level. In the architects' plans, these precariously perched pools show no sign of guardrails or safety precautions. Maybe the architects omitted them, or they maybe prefer living life on the edge.
Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao
Location: Pudong New Area, Shanghai
Designer: Chan Sau Yan Associates
The Holiday Inn Shanghai may possibly be the scariest pool in existence. Fabricated using toughened glass, the pool juts out of the top floor of the 24-story hotel. The glass bottom allows its swimmers to look down onto the busy streets of Shanghai and vice-versa. Seems calming enough, just as long as you don't look down.
Homestead Resort
Location: Midway, Utah
The Homestead Resort in Utah allots its guests the opportunity to plunge into a geothermal spring 10,000 years in the making. Dubbed the Homestead Crater, visitors can swim in what seems like an extraterrestrial cavity cut and pasted from the moon.
Intercontinental Dubai
Location: Dubai, UAE
Designer: Select Group
Intercontinental Dubai's plexiglass swimming pool leaves little to the imagination of the onlookers below. With its totally transparent edge the swimmers' heart rates are sure to rise as high as Dubai's legendary skyscrapers.
Bishan Residential Complex
Location: Bishan, Singapore
Dessigner: Safdie Architects
Connecting the two towers of the Bishan Resident Complex is the Sky Habitat, a fitting name for a bridge that spans 50-meters and is 38 stories off the ground. The habitat includes an infinity pool as well as rooftop gardens. With an estimated completion of 2015, the Bishan Resident Complex will provided a extravagant living space as well as a bit of vertigo. Even though this pool doesn't exist yet, we had to include its death-defying bathing experience on our list.