The Lay Out: 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge

In this scenario, size does not matter.

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.