The pool at Apart Hotel Alex seen from under an overhanging tree, the yellow arcade to the left and the Ionian beyond the deck

02The terrace

Two pools cut into a flagstone shelf above the bay.

The deck is the reason to be up here. The long pool runs out towards the water with a shallow end and nothing but sea past its far lip; the small one sits beside it for children. Loungers and umbrellas stand on the flags, and the bar is under a canopy at the end.

The arcaded elevation above the flagstone deck with the long pool in front and the small round children's pool beside it — The long pool and the small one

The water, in short

PoolsTwo, both free
Long poolInfinity, with a shallow end
Small poolA children's plunge pool
SeasonBoth are seasonal
At the waterLoungers and umbrellas
At the end of the deckThe pool bar

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The deck, end to end.

Wooden benches with cream cushions under the pool bar's canopy, looking across the water to the arcade and the ridge behind — Under the canopy at the pool bar

The children's pool in the foreground with a yucca beside it, the long pool behind and the mountains across the valley — The children's pool, and the ridge across the valley

The pool deck framed by overhanging leaves, the arcade and its wrought-iron rails on the left, open sea at the end — The deck runs out towards the water

A fringed parasol and two loungers on the flagstone deck with the yellow arcade rising behind them — Loungers under the arcade

A row of loungers along the pool under an open fringed parasol, the hillside beyond — The row along the water

Two loungers and an open parasol on the upper terrace with an olive tree and the sea on the horizon — The upper terrace

The full length of the building along the pool, two tiers of arches under a top storey on square piers and a red pantile roof — The whole length of it

And what the deck looks out at.

Himarë, its bay and the wooded headland beyond it — all of it below the flagstones, which is the difference between a hotel on the shore and one on the shoulder of the hill above it.

Looking down from the hotel roof over the pool deck and its row of loungers to Himarë town, the bay and the headland beyond — Down over the deck to the town and the bay

A laid table under a timber canopy on the terrace, with Himarë town and the Ionian spread out below the rail — The town, from a table on the terrace

A terrace table under a pine-boarded canopy with the sea filling the frame beyond the balcony rail — The canopy, and the water past it

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