A balcony plunge pool is a small private pool on your own balcony or terrace: the water at the edge, the view beyond it, and nobody else in it. We list a few dozen of them now, nearly all in the Greek islands, and you can book them straight from this page.
When we first wrote this guide we didn't have a single one we could stand behind. That has changed. As our listings grew across the Cyclades and the rest of the Aegean, more and more of the suites we checked turned out to have the pool outside on the balcony rather than tucked into the room. They're below, best rated first. The catch is geography: if you want one outside Greece, the choice is still thin.
What a balcony plunge pool really is
A balcony plunge pool is a small, deep pool built into your own balcony or terrace. It isn't for lengths. It's for cooling off after the beach, floating with a glass of something cold, and watching the light change over the sea while you do absolutely nothing. Some are heated, a few have jets, most are a couple of metres across.
The word to be careful with is balcony. A shared rooftop pool is not a balcony pool, however good the photo looks. Neither is a garden pool shared between three rooms. The real thing is private, on your own outdoor space, and used by no one but you. Every suite in the list below has the pool on the suite's own balcony or terrace.
Where you will find them
Mostly where hotels are stacked up a cliff. Santorini has by far the most: suites cut into the cliff, level after level, each with its own small pool and the sea below. Mykonos and Paros come next, then a scattering across Milos, Naxos, Crete, Corfu and Kefalonia.
Outside Greece they're rare. We list one on Lake Garda at Sirmione and one in Protaras on Cyprus, and that's about it for now. If you're set on Italy or Spain, a private terrace hot tub gets you most of the same feeling, and our balcony hot tub guide has those.
What to check before you book
Read the room name on the booking page, not just the hotel name. Most of these hotels have several room types, and only some come with the pool. Look for wording like 'with private plunge pool' or 'with outdoor pool' on the exact room you pick.
Ask whether it's heated if you're travelling outside July and August. An unheated plunge pool in May is bracing, which is lovely for about four minutes. And check which way the balcony faces: in Santorini, a caldera view means sunset, which is the whole point.
Suites with a plunge pool on the balcony
Each one has a private plunge pool on the suite's own balcony or terrace. Best rated first. Prices are from our latest rate check, and you book on Booking.com.
