Stateline — Lake Tahoe, USA
A private beach on the clearest big lake in North America, cold in the way swimmers travel for.
The lodge stands on Lake Tahoe's south shore with a private sandy beach and its own pier in front of it, door to water a walk across the lawn. Entry is a gentle wade-in over sand, and from the beach the shoreline runs open in both directions, an out-and-back as long as the cold allows. Tahoe's clarity is famous, visibility measured in tens of metres, and the water is cold in the way this guide's readers travel for: it peaks around 20 to 21°C (68 to 70°F) in August, with June to September the realistic season, and wind-driven upwelling can drop it sharply overnight. Swim in the morning, when the lake is glass; afternoons bring a chopping breeze. Give the pier and its charter boats a wide berth, go in gradually rather than diving, and remember the lake sits at 6,225 feet, which adds its own fatigue.