Why this guide exists, and the rules that don't bend.
Blue Water Hotels is a curated guide for open-water swimmers — built in the spirit of Michelin or Tablet Hotels, but focused on one thing: whether a hotel actually delivers a great swim.
Most travel guides treat "near the beach" as good enough. We don't. A hotel that requires a shuttle, a long walk, or a scramble through a marina isn't on this list, no matter how good everything else about it is. Every hotel here was checked against four non-negotiable rules before it earned a place.
Direct access to open water, or under five minutes on foot. No transfers, no long treks. Most hotels on this list are literally direct — step out, and you're in the water.
A real, unobstructed swim route. Not boxed in by a marina or a breakwater. We check what's actually swimmable from the property, not just whether there's sand nearby.
Water worth swimming in. Sometimes that means clarity, and you can see the bottom ten metres down. Sometimes it means the opposite: cold, dark, and the kind of water people get addicted to. What it never means is water you would rather not be in.
A hotel worth staying at, water aside. Not necessarily luxurious — just a place we'd genuinely choose to stay.
This guide is put together by Mauricio Prieto and Susan Moody. Most of their swimming is just for the love of it — wherever the water is good, wherever they happen to be. Susan was captain of the Princeton University swim team, and their shared love of swimming eventually led them to open water. Together, they've crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, completed an English Channel relay, and swum the 28.8 km from Cozumel to mainland Mexico as a family with their daughter, Carolina. They've also attempted the Sea of Cortez — a crossing no swimmer has ever completed — theirs called off by the boat captain due to a storm, within reach of the finish.
Mauricio handles the water — testing access, route, and clarity in person. Susan handles the stay — deciding whether a hotel is genuinely worth the trip, water aside. A hotel only makes this list when both agree.
This guide started on the Costa Brava, researched cove by cove, and grew from there — verified through guest reviews, local tourism data, official water-quality records, and in a number of cases, Mauricio, Susan, or a friend in the water taking the photos themselves.
There's no star rating here to second-guess. If a hotel is on this list, it already passed. That's the whole idea.