The rocky flat-topped Table Mountain gives this South African city its iconic skyline — and the pool at the One&Only resort here frames it perfectly. The property is technically urban, but the setting feels as escapist: The pool is situated on a landscaped private island and you’ll find views of the harbor and the mountain everywhere you look, while still being close enough to the buzz of the V&A Waterfront to hit restaurants, shops, and nightlife when you tire of the scenery. If that’s even possible.

Yeah, you’re in the desert, but that doesn’t mean you should be deprived of an infinity pool. This one, sprouting in the middle of the Negev Desert about two hours from Tel Aviv, overlooking the 200-million-year-old Ramon Crater, is the most luxurious kind of oasis any desert wanderer could wish for.Guests of the hotel can can sign up for camel treks, jeep drives into the crater, and cycling excursions, but if you ask us, there’s no real need to stray from the water hole.

While you’re cooling down in the lodge’s gorgeous infinity pool, you can watch elephants do the same at their own watering hole just a few meters away. Poolside drinks, picnics in the bush, hot-air balloon rides over the plains, locally inspired massages using Tanzanian baobab oil and a traditional Masai baton, and of course game drives through Serengeti National Park are also all yours for the asking. But you’ll have to get out of the pool first.

This new addition to Venice opened in May on the private island of Isola delle Rose. After taking a 20-minute private boat ride to the resort, guests can wander through a garden filled with olive trees, take classes at the onsite cooking school and wine academy, pamper themselves at the largest spa in Venice, or chillax by the pool. Seeing as this is Venice, though, a hotel would have to go above and beyond to wow visitors with any water feature. The JWM succeeds with an infinity pool on the rooftop that lets the 360-degree view of Venice (including St. Mark’s Square) shine.

The design of this small modernist gem is breathtaking to begin with: a main hall that’s all angles and curves of glass and titanium, six detail-filled casitas with hand-painted floors and flowering roof gardens, plus an impressive international art collection. And then there’s Playa Vik’s amazing cantilevered granite infinity pool, which seems to hang out into the heavens itself — an image that clearly occurred to the designers, because at night, the pool lights up with a star map of the southern hemisphere.

In some ways, Greece is all about the colors: that deep, deep blue of the ocean, the crisp white of the buildings, and an otherworldly light that seems to only exist only in these isles. And that’s exactly what you get at the Grace Hotels’ Santorini outpost. Take in the caldera cliffs and cerulean ocean view from a suite with a pool terrace. There are several options, but the top of the line is the Villa, a two-bedroom, two-bath mini mansion with its own pre-stocked kitchen, wine cellar, cigar bar, outdoor fireplace, and private pool.

Set amid 22 acres of pine and cedar trees at the foot of the Himalayas, this Oberoi resort is all about communing with nature. Walk through the forest, raft down the river, bike through the mountains, practice yoga and meditation, or just lie back in the infinity pool (and hot tub), gaping at the insanely stunning mountain range around you.

The name of this hotel is apt: it sits on a 45-degree slope overlooking Ubud’s dense jungle. The infinity pool is possibly the most famous aspect of the entire place, and rightly so. It’s a duplex with a waterfall between the two levels, and has a flowing free-form shape that echoes the area’s rice paddies, as it juts into the surrounding greenery. Not special enough? Book the Romance Under the Stars dinner experience and dine on a floating antique wooden deck on the lower pool.

The whole point of an infinity pool is to make the barrier between manmade pool and mother nature disappear — the illusion works well at the St. Regis Princeville, where the 5,000-foot swim spot is surrounded by tropical greenery and seems to blend right into Hanalei Bay. Plus, when the water is still (a rare treat since the pool is open 24 hours), you can see Makana Mountain in its reflection.

The infinity pool at this Tuscan retreat overlooks a hill of lavender and bluebells, with rolling fields and the village of Montalcino in the distance. The resort was founded (by fashion scion Massimo Ferragamo, no less) on the grounds an 800-year-old estate, using the ruins of a castle and a medieval church, several restored farmhouses, and the remains of farming village called the Borgo. It offers a cooking school, an organic kitchen garden, a spa, a Tom Weiskopf–designed golf course, and a winery.

Anantara’s eco-conscious Maldives escape on Baa Atoll (a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) is a collection of individual villas with gorgeous private pools surrounded by the most beautiful blue-green ocean. And yet, the hotel didn’t skimp on the main infinity pool, where a staff of Sunshine Butlers provide pre-stocked iPods, five-minute massages, and sunglass-cleaning services. Post pool-time, take part in the Coral Adoption Program, in which guests help transplant coral onto a reef (afterward, you can watch your adopted batch grow online). Then cap off the night with dinner in the resort’s underwater restaurant.