The Lay Out: 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge /  by Rae Witte

The 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge pool is probably my favorite in New York. Yes, it is small, but when the girls say sizes doesn’t matter, it’s because sometimes you can do a lot with a little.

Located directly on the East River in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge has just under 200 rooms including 29 suites. Checkout is at noon, as it should be universally. The property’s industrial look is designed with loads of reclaimed materials and an impressive amount of live, extremely well-kept plants. Each room even has live plants in addition to their own filtered water faucet and a yoga mat and foam roller.

There’s a fitness center, spa with your typical massage and facial services and their restaurant and rooftop bar and lounge, in addition to everything in Dumbo.

Yet, on what you came for, their small but mighty pool.

To start, there’s unobstructed views of the greatest city in the world. Somehow laying out at the 1 Hotel’s pool affords serenity even as you’re overlooking lower Manhattan which is anything but. You can also see the Statue of Liberty, endless jet skis and sailboats without anything blocking the sun until it’s nearly set. The. Vibes. Are. Really. Good.

Some of the expected hotel house music soundtracked the pool, but there was also music from Sza, Jorja Smith, Groove Theory, Jill Scott and (my fave) Cleo Sol.

The food is primarily really light raw bar options, a couple small apps and share plates. I ordered fries even though they weren’t on the menu. (Someone next to me had them.) They have three options — plain, spicy and truffle. The watermelon marg was delicious, but I don’t know that any poolside cocktail in as acrylic glass deserves to be $29. I had the Tuna Bowl too, and it was delicious.

Oddly, there seemed to be a substantial uptick of kids after 4 pm, but after 6 no children are allowed. For such a small pool and so much sun after that hour in the summer, I loved this. Especially because the pool is open from 8 to 8.

There was a decent amount of people on their laptops earlier in the afternoon (me, included). The crowd seemed to be in the 30s and 40s range, primarily tourists (non-derogatory), and they have a pool specific host manning the reservations, chairs and giving 10 minute reminders to when the pool turns to adults only. There were a couple small groups of friends, a bunch of couples and only one other solo sunbather. Everyone was obviously trying to make sure to get their pool pics as the view is hard to overlook, but it wasn’t too intrusive of anyone’s time relaxing. It wasn’t pretentious, but it also wasn’t an overly chatty group like you’ll find at some hotels or whenever there’s a bunch of cruise ship couples. The tweens caused the most commotion and it was very short-lived.

While it makes access more challenging for everyone else, the pool is currently for registered hotel guests only. For the room rate, I’d be annoyed if I was getting bumped for a ResortPass time slot and I think it upholds the high standard of the hotel. At the 1, pool size doesn’t matter between the view, sun, host managing the seating and the food. It’s my number one recommendation for visitors that want to be in New York and still have some hotel pool time.

Hannah Walhout's Wellness Check: A Hotel Gym Built Over Italian Ruins /  by Rae Witte

Via Radisson Collection, Roma Antica’s Instagram

While I’ve been to plenty of hotels pools and prioritized checking out all of the amenities when available, just serving what I like would be a disservice when there are so many well-traveled, high taste friends of SS.

Hannah Walhout is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor covering the crossection of food, travel, design, style, and sustainability. She started her career at Food & Wine and have worked in and around food media ever since. Most recently, she was in-house at Travel + Leisure.

I love when there’s a great story behind something whether it’s a piece of art, the history of a building or some notable TKTK that took place underfoot. Hannah’s recommendation seems to have a that lore behind it.

About the gym at the Radisson Collection, Roma Antica in Rome, Italy, she writes:

“The backstory is just so fun to me — during work on the hotel, which opened this past June, the construction team discovered part of a significant Roman ruin. To be fair is not an entirely uncommon occurrence for building projects in Rome, but still. My understanding is that they were working on the basement when they started to uncover part of the Porticus Minucia, a site where Roman plebeians of the first few centuries CE would go to collect their free ration of grain. It's actually kind of a significant find, I think — archaeologists were able to get a more complete understanding of the site's original layout, and they eventually created a digital 3D model and a video explaining everything, which you can see in the hotel's gym, along with part of the ruins themselves (visible through the glass floor right under the treadmills).

The gym itself is pretty small and, well, it's a gym, so there's only really one main thing to do there. But even if you're not working out it's worth a peek.

Whenever I'm around ruins I like to challenge myself to really imagine what it was like when they weren't ruins—I try to visualize people standing there, visualize them really being people, like people today are people. It's sometimes hard for me to understand time, especially when we're talking multiple millennia, and it's easy for me to slip into assuming that people back then were so, so different, that nobody will ever live the way that we're living right now, which is just not true. So, I would recommend watching the video [in the gym] and getting a sense of what that space once looked like, and then trying to connect that image with the rocks and bricks under your feet.”

(The reels above and below feature some of the video and the gym, and the photos at the end of post show some of the hotel.)

Subscribe to Hannah’s un-self-conscious and weird food musings on her Substack Stream-of-Consciousness Restaurant Reviews.

The Lay Out: Virgin Hotel NYC's Pool /  by Rae Witte

Just south of Herald Square and north of Flatiron in Manhattan, Virgin Hotels opened their NYC location in early 2023. The thoughtfully laid out rooms make it easy for two people to get ready a the same time (showers are separate from toilets and separate from the vanity) and work remotely.

Programming like live music, a SoFar Sounds residency and weekly picnics at Madison Square park are on the hotels summer schedule. And, apparently there’s a new penthouse cocktail bar called The Riff Raff Club opening September 5. (Didn’t I stand on the couches at a place called Riff Raff in the city over a decade ago? Likely.)

The also have a really nice gym (which you’ll be able to read more about in a story I’m writing for work) and an Exhale Spa with a sauna, a snow room and a hammam that I think I need to go back for.

Just like the gym and yoga/barre room, the pool has an incredible view of the Empire State Building. My favorite thing about the my time spent at the pool was the view of all the good art deco architecture from my lounge chair. Granted, you can see great deco buildings in Miami, but it’s not usually five stories up and including the Empire State Building. I also loved that they had a huge bowl of paper fans next to the self-serve water cooler. (They were liquor branded. Whatever, though, I love a paper fan to fan myself poolside.)

I went for the 12:30 reservation slot on a Wednesday and there were lots of solo or small groups of women, mostly via ResortPass, from what I overheard or they told me. Unexpectedly, Virgin Hotels pool most concentrated bunch of the not-at-all subtle fake boobs I’ve ever seen in New York, almost Miami-esque, tbqh. There was only one mom and tiny daughter, and a couple more kids came with their parents later in the day, closer to 3:30/4. It also seemed a lot busier around then. The gays were out in groups and the very rare, occasional golden retriever boyfriend was there. (I think there were two all day and I stayed into the evening reservation slot. One fitness couple and the other was a Manhattan King Of Queens duo dupe.) There was one, singluar very hot man there — think Lenny Kravitz but tall, giving model — that spent the entire time on a phone call.

The music primarily consisted of that hotel pool house music, except they played an old N.E.R.D. song and my personal song of the summer, LL Cool J’s “Who Do You Love?” (I’m not brat? Sorry.)

Need to know:
The stone patio is HOT, almost too hot for bare feet in the sun. I wore these little Mary Jane Salomon’s because I parked in Kips Bay and walked 15 min to the hotel, and I wish I had sandals for the pool. Duh, I know. (Sandals in the city just aren’t for me, but they would’ve been nice at the pool.)

Hotel guests needs to make reservations to use the pool. For non-hotel guests, you can get a 4-hour reservation on ResortPass for $80 plus a $40 food & bev minimum Monday through Thursday, and $100 plus an $80 min Friday to Sunday. I don’t the the earliest rez has the food min.

Where to sit:
Your best bet is to get a seat you like, and if you want to be in the sun, sit on the edge of the pool and follow it around. When I was there, I sat at the southwest corner and by 2:30 the sun was behind a building for a little over an hour. That’s just what it is at a pool in the middle of Manhattan.

What to order:
They have Sweet Chick available, which seems like a safe bet. The smashburger is a great option and if you want something lighter, the lobster roll is pretty good. The chips that came with it were really good. The poké bowl was kind of forgettable. It’s a great option for a pool menu, but it just wasn’t flavorful or substantial enough for my tastes. I obviously had the piña colada, and I’d recommend you do too. I tried the frozé at the opening party a couple months back and that was good too. The prices made the $40 minimum fairly easy to hit, an entree and a drink plus tip get you there (and probably over).

Also, FYI: The servers and staff were really lovely.




Mark Sabino's Wellness Check: An Unexpected Airport Hotel Respite /  by Rae Witte

While I’ve been to plenty of hotels pools and prioritized checking out all of the amenities when available, just serving what I like would be a disservice when there are so many well-traveled, high taste friends of SS.

Mark Sabino is a New York City-based product designer and cultural critic. (He just offered his thoughts for my last story about how taste impacts our love lives). And, his ads for Mark Sabino Designs are better than anything I’ve seen from an agency or in-house team out there right now.

When traveling, he said one of his biggest priorities is that the area he chooses to stay is walkable and affords him easy access for things to do and see. “I hate feeling trapped in a hotel room, and having even a convenience store or something nearby helps with peace of mind in case there's some type of problem that randomly arises,” he told me over email.

I love functional recommendations most — beyond simply, “this is good.” Mark’s is by definition an unexpected, hidden gem. He says:

“The thing that I keep returning to, that sticks out the most in my memory isn't even a hotel I planned on booking. A few years ago, on my way back from Italy, I had around a 12 hour layover in Zurich because my flight got delayed for some reason. Rather than trying to survive in the terminal for that long, I bit the bullet and just booked a room for the night in the Hyatt Regency connected to the Zurich airport. I'd be able to get a decent night's sleep before the long flight home, and I wouldn't have to worry about my stuff getting stolen, or finding an outlet to camp out next to.

I expected the American standard of a hotel airport. Dank, cigarette perfumed, dirty rooms. But I got the exact opposite. Clean sheets, fluffy bathrobes, free slippers, and all the swag I could ask for in one night of sleep.

The amenity I remember the most though was the large, central outdoor area in the center of the hotel, connecting the rooms to restaurants, shopping, and a Design Within Reach in case you needed an impulse Noguchi coffee table for your trip home. This sprawling middle ground turned out to be a series of hiking trails which snaked around mini hills, all with the real Swiss mountains looming in the background. There were plenty of well-designed chairs to relax on, as well as a large fountain at the peak.

This outdoor area is my favorite hotel amenity ever. An emphasis put on relaxing, fresh air, and going for a quick hike all contained within an airport hotel. Nothing like this could ever exist in America because our values just aren't the same. This wasn't a destination resort, it was quite literally made for travellers in transition from one place to another. Business class commuters on their way to the next country. But yet it felt so overwhelmingly human that it's forever stuck with me.”

You can follow Mark here on Twitter, here on IG and subscribe to his newsletter here. You can also buy his clothes. This bike jersey I wear constantly is from him.

Quality Control: I Found My Summer Scent In The Shower /  by Rae Witte

Last fall, I made my way down to the Cayman Islands for work. After some unnecessary organizational obstacles, I got to my destination — Palm Heights Grand Cayman. I wrote a first person travel diary for Dwell’s One Night In series you can check out here, and I’m positive I’ll be doing a Wellness Check and/or edition of The Lay Out about it, but right now we’re talking about my summer scent.

I arrived with straight hair, and I really love the waves the humidity brings it, but after a killer abs and glute class with former Olympic gymnast Ellie Downing at the Palm Heights Athletic Center, I had to wash my hair even thought I’d be heading directly back out into the heat.

Within the PH suites, Costa Brazil is the brand behind the shampoo, conditioner and moisturizer. You know how scent can take you back to a time, place and energy? I set that trip in stone with this shampoo and conditioner combo.

Much to my dismay, as I was soaking up the sun that afternoon full of piña colada on the beach I found out the Costa Brazil had ceased production. DISCONTINUED. Disappointed is an understatement. My hair smelled better with every dip into the ocean or pool. Ultimately, I ended up doubling back to buy shampoo and conditioner after I left property but was still on Grand Cayman. The hotel had a tiny back stock, but what they had seemed to be the end of it. I couldn’t find it anywhere online.

Months later, I went to a press day for an agency I worked with and low and behold Costa Brazil is their client and is back from the dead. And, their Sunlight Body Oil and Aroma In Oil brings me back to that good place every time I put it on. The brand describes the scent as “spicy wood, crushed leaves and tropical flowers” and is “inspired by Breu, a natural resin from the Amazon.”

As I was only operating with the shampoo and conditioner which is best used in the summer for my hair when I let it air dry curly, I found some similar scents. Hume has a body oil in Amber Woods and Boy Smells’ Woodphoria held me down. If you’re into woody scents, these are great options.

Here’s the one (in both the scent and the sun oil), but the two and the three are good are good alternatives and make for a nice little rotation.

Wellness Check: 25hours Zürich Langstrasse Sauna And Shower /  by Rae Witte

For me, the next best thing a hotel can have after a pool or jacuzzi is a sauna. Much like anything else, all saunas are not created equally. Often times, within city hotels they’re tucked away in some windowless section of the building adjacent to the gym leveraged only by one random old guy. (We know the glamping joints are little cabins and barrels out in the wilderness.)

But, not at 25hours Zürich Langstrasse within Zürich’s city center.

Despite being astoundingly similar in website, logo and hotel design, 25Hours properties do not share ownership with TheStandard (as far as my research found), yet it’s kind of giving TheOtherSideOfThePondStandard.

With two locations in Zürich, the 25Hours Langstrasse location is situated in the once-red light district of the city close to the biggest train station.

Unlike those dungeon-y (derogatory) saunas, 25Hours Lanstrasse’s is located on the top floor of the seven-story hotel, and it was hotter than your average. I had to remove my jewelry and I don’t typically need to. The spacious stadium seating sauna is the centerpiece of an aesthetic-over-function gym. The room faces a glass wall overlooking the train that cuts through the city beyond a small terrace and unobstructed city views. Just outside of the sauna full length lounge chairs look out to the same view. And, of course, behind the sauna are two (very) open air showers.

The Swiss are serious about their saunas, and honestly, Americans could afford to take notes. (Although, I’d want to note that it is co-ed and the co-eds participated in the sauna in varying degrees of nudity — bikini to butt ass.) There are plenty of conflicting reports to the health benefits of saunas. I find that simply sweating it all out (literally and figuratively), does a lot for me. My skin always feels better, I think I look better, I sleep better, and most importantly, it relaxes my mind and body.

I didn’t opt to shower at the sauna because the rooms’ showers were very, very sexy. Similar to the sauna upstairs, the shower in my room was large, floor-to-ceiling enclosed glass (reader, there wasn’t any sort of draft and it didn’t steam up my entire room). With both a rain shower head and a handheld, you can go full everything shower or just wash the bod and preserve your hair. (See a video of the room and shower in the below IG post.)

For those that may not like the idea of being fully exposed, a curtain separates the raised “bedroom” portion of the hotel room and shields your shower time from the window’s view.

While the bed was firm as hell (a little too hard for my liking), the spacious room also had both a huge full length, floor to ceiling mirror and well-lit vanity mirror at the sink.

So, what did we learn here? We should always be on the look out for floor-to-ceiling glass (mirrors, showers, windows, VIEWS), and perhaps, a baseline shower and sauna doesn’t cut it when there are very sexy (and functional) ones out there to make for a better time spent at a hotel.

I used the sauna so much during my stay, it made me want to prioritize having easier access to one at home at some point in my life. In the meantime, I’ll continue to make it through winter with a lot of time spent in my HigherDOSE sauna blanket.

The Lay Out: Susurros Del Corazón /  by Rae Witte

The infinity pool at Susurros Del Corazón’s five-bedroom villa, Sol.

About 45 minutes from the Puerto Vallarta Airport in Punta De Mita, Mexico, Auberge opened up a new property in November 2022 – Susurros Del Corazón. 

Inspired by 1960s Acapulco, the mid century modern build has huge circular windows and stonework throughout the resort’s 59 rooms and suites and 30 villas. Although it’s still resort-y, it manages to beat the big box allegations and all-inclusive formulaic hotel commonness.

Three pools cascade down to an 1,850 square foot private beach with unobstructed views and plenty of direct sun, which is what we’re here for – the lay out. And, they’re designated for different energies, one is meant to be for families and kids, another for adults only and the final prioritizes relaxing. 

I put a lot of weight in the way things feel – emotionally, mentally, physically, perhaps even spiritually. The texture of the tiles of the pool felt divine, even luxurious, in a way I’ve never really considered it could. Kind of like a song that pops up on shuffle and just enhances whatever it is you’re doing, these deep blue tiles strikingly offset the neutrals of the resort and allow the tropical landscape to stand out. They. Feel. Expensive. 

Much like the tiered layout of the three pools (think Wi-Fi signal emblem from an aerial view), each one has a bit of stepped seating perfect to lounge partially submerged in the water, which is my favorite part of the experience. Yes, there are private cabanas, plenty of lounge chairs and one pool even has three canopy beds, but enjoying a couple piña colada on the graduated step is peak relaxation. Two of the three pools also have circular seating, sort of like the pool’s version of a conversation pit.

In addition to the resort pools, Susurros Del Corazón’s villas each have private infinity pools. (There’s a video here in my IG reel.) During my time there, we stayed in their expansive 7,885 square foot, five-bedroom, six bathroom casita with an additional living room area and two sets of washer and dryers. The roof had an extra outdoor kitchen, dining and lounge area with a jacuzzi that overlooked the cliffs, but it was floor to ceiling, sliding glass doors that open from the main living, dining and kitchen space (and in the second floor bedrooms) to the combo infinity pool and jacuzzi that takes your breath away. Same tiles, same intentional seating, just this pool offered us complete privacy and the freedom to listen to the latest Tems project that released during our stay on loop. 

Where to sit:
The best way to enjoy Susurros Del Corazón is barefoot with a cup of their cinnamon spiked, Mexican coffee at the villa’s infinity pool sitting on the divider between the jacuzzi with the waves rolling into the cliffs below and your girlfriends floating on the tubes beside you. However, nearly any seat at the pool or beach offers plenty of sun and an umbrella for when you need a break. 

What to order: 
I love a good piña colada and theirs is great, but they also offered the virgin version, known as a piñata, for anyone cutting back or simply sober. Ceviche and candied mango are the perfect poolside snacks. 

Why you should go: 
Luxury, peace, and it’s still new enough to be a really attractive blank slate. (And, it’s not overrun by TikTokers or cruise couples.)

The Soft Serve, A Long Overdue Home For Pool Reviews /  by Rae Witte

The Soft Serve is a newsletter full of recommendations for those that want to treat themselves well. A (long overdue) home for pools reviews, hotel bathtubs with the right view and public settings with a late night playlists served soft from Rae Witte.

Like matchmaking for amenities and things that feel good – if need that, you’ll love this. If you’re curious about this, try that, order this, sit still and read this, etc.

I’ve been working as a freelance journalist covering travel, style, wellness, sex, dating, tech and a little bit of future of work since 2016. I’ve prioritized making a life that feels good and finding ways for work to fit into that and support that, and while this newsletter/blog/tiny corner of the internet that Elon Musk hasn’t ruined isn’t for that, it is to highlight all the feel goods I’ve found along the way.