One of the HomeExchange GOLD properties in Palo Alto California
Hotel pools are full of other people’s children and other people’s children’s pool toys. A villa with an infinity pool is yours for the duration of your stay. The trompe l’oeil effect has an electric thrill: poised on the edge of a disarming vista that feels almost otherworldly, and expanding your horizon both figuratively and metaphorically.
There’s a villa on South Africa’s Eastern Cape that offers a 180˚ view of the Indian Ocean. The feeling of anonymous insignificance in a landscape too large to comprehend simply adds to the pleasure. The villa itself is stark and astoundingly architectural but somehow it’s the infinity pool – which is ultimately a clever ditch filled with water – that captures the imagination. On the Gold Coast, there are whispers of a contemporary Asian villa whose master bedroom opens onto its expansive infinity pool, which hovers like a desert mirage. Villa Las Clementinas in Costa Rica overlooks a canyon which the owner describes as the Costa Rican equivalent of the Grand Canyon – ‘minus the tourist traps – there are none in our area’. Gazing into infinity demands an unobscured view.
Access to these homes is strictly controlled by HomeExchangeGOLD, a speciality service for the most discerning of holiday makers (who simply will not holiday without the promise of the perfect pool). HomeExchangeGOLD offers the opportunity to live like a local and stay for free, with a catalogue of 5* homes, provided with staff and even the owner’s car (Porsche 911, anyone?). And it comes with its own further layer of specialism: the infinity pool, the superlative feature of the truly luxurious villa. C