12 hotels with the best lazy rivers to beat the heat and float away
Editor's note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.
Sometimes a hotel is simply a "home base" where you can recharge after a long day exploring your chosen destination. Other times, the hotel is the destination, or at least part of it.
Rather than a launchpad for pursuits beyond the lobby doors, some hotels serve as a literal jumping-off point into a long, meandering lazy river where you can float until your fingers and toes prune (or until the lifeguard tells you it's time to get out).
There are hotels with lazy rivers on the West Coast, the East Coast and everywhere in between. TPG found the best of the best to ensure your next vacation is a splash.
Westin Kierland Resort & Spa — Scottsdale, Arizona
Like a mirage in the desert, the Adventure Water Park at Westin Kierland Resort & Spa will quench your thirst for fun and relaxation. Guests can access two pools (including one only for adults), a 110-foot-long waterslide, a FlowRider surf simulator and a 900-foot-long lazy river.
Related: The best family pool complexes at US points hotels
The best way to experience this lazy river is on your own private island. Yes, really.
The Tommy Bahama Relaxation Reef sits on a private cove in the lazy river, and it's designed for groups of up to 12. This island cove comes outfitted with lawn chairs, a daybed, an umbrella, a dining table and, of course, specially reserved tubes for your group. (There's also a larger private area for groups of up to 20).
That type of luxury comes at a price — an $800 rental fee plus a $250 food and beverage minimum. However, it's doable on a budget if you split it with a few friends or family members. There is also ample complimentary seating throughout the park. Smaller cabanas and premium seating rentals are also available.
Room rates here start at around $180 or 41,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa — Lost Pines, Texas
Just 30 minutes east of Austin in Texas Hill Country, the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa lets you get away from it all without getting too far away from it all.
The resort spans 405 acres of pristine countryside and, yes, there are plenty of pine trees among the foliage. At Crooked River Water Park, you will find the resort's 1,000-foot lazy river. It winds around waterfalls and shady trees and connects to many other water park features.
Related: Deciding Between Hyatt Lost Pines and Hyatt Hill Country resorts
From the lazy river, you can access a zero-entry pool with a sandy beach, an adults-only pool, a float-up bar, shaded seating areas and a waterslide.
Room rates start at around $350 or 17,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
The Grove Resort & Water Park — Orlando
The Grove Resort & Water Park is surrounded by the orange groves of Central Florida, and it's only 10 minutes from Central Florida's most famous attraction: Walt Disney World.
Accommodations at this condo-style property feature all the comforts of home but with a massive water park you surely don't have in your backyard. The Surfari Water Park has a huge main pool, two waterslides, a dual FlowRider surf simulator, a kids splash pool and a 695-foot winding lazy river. Tubes are provided, and life jackets are available to rent for $5.
Rates start at about $200 per night.
Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa — San Antonio
Similar in styling to Lost Pines but situated on 300 acres of secluded ranch land in the San Antonio area, Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa is another family-friendly spot. Guests can go for a bike ride, hit the hiking trails or float along a lazy river.
The resort has a 5-acre water park with a lazy river designed to mimic an authentic river tubing experience. The 950-foot-long Ramblin' River is lined on both sides by shady trees, and the bottom is painted black to look more like a river than a pool.
Also at the water park, guests can surf on a FlowRider simulator, cruise down a two-story waterslide, splash in the kiddie pool or cool off in various other pools, including one with a zero-entry beach area.
Rates start at around $225 or 17,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
Disney's Yacht Club and Beach Club resorts — Orlando
There's no shortage of amazing pools at Disney World, but Stormalong Bay — the pool complex shared by Disney's Yacht Club Resort and Disney's Beach Club Resort — offers something that no other Disney World hotel pool does: a lazy river.
Related: Magic at every budget: These are the best hotels at Walt Disney World
All told, Stormalong Bay encompasses 3 acres of water park fun. In addition to the slow-flowing lazy river, there are hot tubs, a whirlpool, a 230-foot-long waterslide, a shipwreck-themed kids splash pool (with a smaller waterslide) and multiple pools, including one with a kid-friendly sandy play area.
Room rates at either of these two resorts start at around $700 per night.
Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa — Kauai, Hawaii
The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa is a beautiful beachfront property on Kauai's south shore, and it's one of TPG's favorite award redemption hotels. This hotel is just steps from the ocean, but the beach is better suited for surfing than swimming.
If you want to swim, plan to spend your day at the hotel's water playground. It has multilevel pools, a 150-foot waterslide, a sandy saltwater lagoon and — you guessed it — a lazy river. It doesn't go in a true loop, but we'll let that pass because of the waterslide, lagoon and more.
Room rates start at around $800 or 25,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
Marriott Marquis Houston – Houston
The Marriott Marquis Houston is smack dab in the middle of downtown and bills itself as an "urban resort experience." The hotel's 530-foot lazy river may not be as large as what you'd find at more expansive resorts, but it's certainly the only one that allows you to float across the entire state of Texas in less than 30 minutes.
You may not notice it while floating along, but the hotel's sixth-floor rooftop lazy river is shaped like the Lone Star State.
A hot tub, infinity pool and plenty of lounge chairs surround the geographically accurate waterway. Or, you can retreat to a cluster of cabanas and covered areas available for rental.
Room rates start at about $215 or about 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa — Kapolei, Hawaii
Aulani sits at the intersection of a traditional Hawaiian vacation and a Disney theme park vacation.
Just like at the Disney parks, there are characters to meet, Mickey-shaped waffles to eat and more than enough activities to fill your day. But, like any good visit to Hawaii, there are also opportunities to kick back and take in the tropical scenery on the beach or at the pool.
Aulani doesn't have just one pool. There's an infinity pool overlooking the beach, two splash zones for kids, a family pool with a slide, a private saltwater snorkeling reef, four whirlpool spas and the Waikolohe Stream lazy river with two waterslides and water features that will soak you (if you aren't already).
Room rates start at around $600 per night, though you may save money by renting Disney Vacation Club points.
Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa — Bonita Springs, Florida
The Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa is near the beach but is not technically a beachfront hotel. The resort runs a daily boat ride to nearby Pelican Landing, a semiprivate island with beach access for hotel guests, but you don't have to island-hop to get your swim on.
Related: 10 private-island resorts you can book with points
This Gulf Coast resort is home to a 3-acre water park with five waterslides, multiple swimming pools with areas for adults and families, a hot tub and a 900-foot lazy river. The water park is designed so that you can glide down one of the waterslides and keep on floating along the lazy river when you hit the bottom.
Room rates start at around $240 or 17,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
MGM Grand Las Vegas — Las Vegas
Anyone who has been to Las Vegas knows how easy it is to become so enthralled with what's inside the hotels and casinos that you forget what day it is. However, it's worth stepping outside the MGM Grand to chill out at the hotel's 6-acre pool complex.
Related: Here's what you should know about the new MGM Rewards program, especially if you're a Hyatt elite
You'll find four swimming pools, three hot tubs and a quarter-mile-long lazy river. There's not much along the lazy river to shade you from the relentless Vegas sun, but there are pool chairs with umbrellas scattered throughout the complex. Or, you can rent a cabana or daybed for the day.
Room rates start at about $70 per night.
Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort — Orlando
If you immediately think the best Universal Orlando hotel amenities are at the higher-priced hotels, think again. There's only one hotel at Universal with a lazy river: Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort. It's one of two resorts (along with Universal's Aventura Hotel) in the Prime Value category, only one step up from the park's least-expensive hotels.
The entire property is themed to look like a retro Florida beach resort — and that includes the two pools. One has a slide built into a tall, white dive tower. The other has a lazy river surrounded by palm trees, waterfalls and colorful vintage-style pool umbrellas.
Related: These are the best hotels at Universal Orlando for 2022
The resort does not provide tubes for the lazy river; you can float without one, bring your own or purchase one at a small shop near the entrance. Kids also have access to complimentary life jackets.
Room rates average about $160 per night.
Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center — Aurora, Colorado
Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center is only 30 minutes from Denver., and like all Gaylord properties, it's built under a glass atrium that brings the outdoors in. Within one of those atriums, guests will find an indoor/outdoor water park called Arapahoe Springs.
Both the indoor and outdoor sections are open year-round, but some features, including the outdoor lazy river, are only open seasonally. There are also indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs, two indoor waterslides and one outdoor waterslide.
Room rates start at about $284 or 31,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
Bottom line
When you stay at a hotel with a lazy river, you don't have to leave the property to visit a water park. You also get the added bonus of free entry (though in most cases, the hotel is probably recouping that in the resort fee).
Hotel pools are a dime a dozen. Hotel lazy rivers are where it's at.
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