The Raleigh Hotel's bodacious pool is a Miami classic, perhaps the Miami classic. Built for Esther Williams, it's curvaceous, sensual, and for hotel guests only. But, by all means, sneak in. The future of the pool is bright, albeit mysterious, now that Tommy Hilfiger is planning a huge restoration/renovation of the hotel.

When Andrez Balazs, the Zeus of boutique hotels, decided to expand his Standard Hotels to Miami Beach, who knew the local variant would be better than the L.A. original? The pool, at the far end of a surreal garden, is certainly one for the gods. Plus, there's a full spa, with hammam, and if you're a local, with no need to get a room, you can buy a day pass too. Of course sneaking in is still fun.

Among South Beach pool scenes, WET, which is what the W's set of pools is called, is a a little younger and more bohemian than the Setai's, a little wilder than the Delano's, perhaps a bit more sedate and significantly more cultured than the Shelborne's, about half the age of the Ritz Carlton's.

The Fontainebleau's grounds, including its series of pools, cabanas, lawns, terraces, and other resort activities, have been designed, built, used, and then ripped out and completely done over three times in its history. This third incarnation is very see-and-be-soon, and was built at about the same time as the latest towers.

The Vagabond Motel's central piece-de-resistance, its large, blue swimming pool with dolphins and a mermaid made out of tiles swimming about, is back to its original splendor thanks to developer Avra Jain. It's scheduled to be open in the coming weeks.

Ian Shrager's white palace, the Delano Hotel, is famous for its tableau of a baroque garden table and chair in the very shallow end of its long pool. The hotel is still in its prime, decades after being one of the early major boutique hotels to establish itself in South Beach, with the poolside scene playing a staring role.

Soho Beach house is an old English private club for modern creatives in our subtropical beach resort. The pool is very, oh, akin to that which might be found at an English expat's midcentury modern flat in Barcelona or the Caymans.

The Shore Club calls itself "An Art Deco labyrinth of gardens and alcoves in the heart of South Beach", which is quite accurate. Designed sort of like a Moroccan pleasure garden, or an Egyptian lost oasis, the Shore Club is a babylonian garden on a ziggurat of levels connected by stairways, reflecting pools, loggias, dense plantings, and plush outdoor furniture.