10 Most Breathtaking Ocean View Hotels in the World (2025/26 Guide)

Ocean view hotels are not just places to sleep. They are invitations to slow down, breathe deeper, and remember why you travel in the first place. Whether it’s a cliffside suite in Santorini, an overwater villa in the Maldives, or a glass-walled bungalow in Bali, waking up to the sea is one of the most universally sought-after travel experiences there is.

At SelectedStay, we’ve spent years handpicking properties where the view is as important as the thread count. This is our curated guide to the world’s finest ocean view hotels, properties that don’t just face the sea, but genuinely make it part of the experience.

What Actually Makes a Great Ocean View Hotel?

Not all ocean views are created equal. A hotel can technically overlook water while still managing to feel disconnected from it. When we curate ocean view hotels at SelectedStay, we look for a specific combination of qualities:

• Unobstructed sightline, no car parks, rooftops, or construction between you and the horizon
• Views accessible from the room itself:  private balconies, terraces, or floor-to-ceiling windows
• Properties where the design intentionally frames the ocean as the focal point
• Access to the water whether a private beach, direct ocean access, or a pool that appears to merge with the sea

The 15 Best Ocean View Hotels in the World

1. Overwater Bliss: The Maldives

Few places on earth have become as synonymous with ocean view hotels as the Maldives. Here, the concept is taken to its logical extreme  your room is literally suspended above the Indian Ocean. The best properties in the atolls offer glass-floored villas where you can watch reef sharks and manta rays gliding beneath your feet without ever leaving your suite.

What makes the Maldives unrivalled is the quality of light. The water here shifts between turquoise, jade, and deep cobalt depending on the time of day — and the sunsets are, without exaggeration, among the most spectacular on the planet. Properties like Gili Lankanfushi, Soneva Jani, and One&Only Reethi Rah represent the pinnacle of overwater living, combining extraordinary architecture with lagoon views that seem almost digitally enhanced.

2. Cliffside Drama: Santorini, Greece

If the Maldives is about immersion, Santorini is about spectacle. Perched on the rim of an ancient volcanic caldera, the villages of Oia and Imerovigli offer something rare, an ocean view that also encompasses dramatic geology, whitewashed architecture, and some of the Mediterranean’s most famous sunsets.

The best hotels here are carved into the caldera cliff face itself, with infinity pools that appear to spill directly into the Aegean Sea far below. Grace Santorini, Canaves Oia Suites, and Katikies Hotel have mastered the art of positioning every terrace, every sunlounger, every dining table toward that iconic view. This is ocean-gazing elevated to high art.

3. Jungle Meets Ocean: Bali’s Clifftop Retreats

Bali’s southern cliffs, particularly around Uluwatu and Jimbaran, offer a different kind of ocean view. One where the Indian Ocean appears dramatically from behind dense jungle, with waves crashing against limestone formations far below. The contrast between lush green and deep blue is visually extraordinary.

Properties like Alila Villas Uluwatu and The Ungasan Clifftop Resort have been designed specifically around these views, with private villas featuring plunge pools on cantilevered terraces. Wake up to the sound of waves before you can even see them.  Then watch the morning light slowly reveal the ocean through the tree line.

4. La Dolce Vita: The Amalfi Coast, Italy

The Amalfi Coast is one of those places that looks exactly like its photographs which is rare. Terracotta-tiled villages cascading down vertiginous cliffs to a glittering Mediterranean. Ocean view hotels here tend to be intimate and characterful, often converted from historic villas or monasteries.

Il San Pietro di Positano, Monastero Santa Rosa, and Belmond Hotel Caruso in Ravello all offer terraces where the Tyrrhenian Sea is your constant companion. Breakfast is served with a view that makes it almost impossible to eat, you simply find yourself staring, coffee going cold.

5. Island Luxury: Mauritius

Mauritius occupies a rare category. An island that manages to feel genuinely remote while still delivering world-class hotel infrastructure. The lagoon waters here, protected by one of the world’s largest coral reef systems, are extraordinarily calm and a shade of turquoise that feels almost unreal.

One&Only Le Saint Géran is perhaps the island’s most iconic address, positioned on its own private peninsula with ocean views from virtually every room. The property combines French-influenced architecture with Mauritian warmth and direct access to a lagoon whose colour shifts throughout the day from pale jade to rich cobalt.

6. The Caribbean Ideal: Barbados

Barbados has a split personality, geographically speaking. The west coast, the “Platinum Coast”, offers calm, Caribbean-facing ocean views with gentle waters ideal for swimming. The east coast presents something wilder: Atlantic-facing cliffs and surf that feels genuinely dramatic.

Sandy Lane, Coral Reef Club, and Lone Star Hotel represent the west coast ideal unhurried luxury with the Caribbean right outside your door. The island also rewards those looking for the best places to stay in Barbados for couples, with intimate boutique properties that combine ocean views with genuine privacy.

7. Where Two Oceans Meet: Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town offers something most ocean view destinations cannot genuine drama in every direction simultaneously. Table Mountain behind you, the Atlantic Ocean in front of you, and some of the world’s most spectacular light conditions. The Camps Bay and Clifton hotel strip delivers uninterrupted Atlantic views with a dramatic, elemental quality.

The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Ellerman House combine intimate scale with extraordinary positioning, each room oriented to maximise the ocean and mountain views that make Cape Town one of the most visually compelling cities on earth.

8. Remote Splendour: New Zealand’s Bay of Islands

For those who want ocean views without the crowds that typically accompany them, New Zealand’s Bay of Islands offers something genuinely rare — 200 undeveloped islands in a sheltered harbour, with a hospitality scene that prioritises quality over volume. The views here feel earned rather than packaged.

9. The Pacific Dream: Maui, Hawaii

Maui’s west coast, particularly the stretch between Ka’anapali and Wailea, concentrates some of the Pacific’s finest ocean view hotels into a relatively compact stretch of coastline. The trade winds keep temperatures perfect year-round, while the Pacific light; golden, warm, and incredibly clear makes every ocean view feel slightly elevated.

The Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and Montage Kapalua Bay sit on beaches where whale watching from your balcony is genuinely possible between December and April. Few ocean view experiences in the world can match that particular combination.

10. Island Seclusion: Koh Samui & Koh Yao Noi, Thailand

Thailand’s islands offer a spectrum of ocean view experiences, from the party-adjacent to the genuinely secluded. Koh Yao Noi, tucked between Phuket and Krabi, offers Phang Nga Bay views, that famously strange landscape of limestone karsts rising from still water  from boutique properties that remain genuinely uncrowded.

How to Choose the Right Ocean View Hotel for You

The ‘best’ ocean view hotel is the one that matches what you actually want from the experience. Here’s how to think about it:

• For couples seeking romance: prioritise private terraces, sunset-facing rooms, and intimate scale. Santorini, Mauritius, and Barbados consistently deliver.
• For the view-obsessed: go overwater in the Maldives or clifftop in the Amalfi Coast, where the ocean is genuinely inescapable.
• For families: Hawaii and Bali offer ocean views with beach access, amenities, and enough activity to satisfy everyone.
• For solo travellers: Cape Town and New Zealand reward those who want their ocean view with a sense of adventure and genuine exploration.

When to Book and What to Ask For

Ocean view rooms are almost always worth the premium, but there are ways to maximise the value. Book as early as possible. The best-positioned rooms and overwater villas at top properties sell out six to twelve months in advance for peak season. When booking, always call the property directly after your reservation to request specific room positioning. Ask which rooms face the sunset rather than just the ocean, which floors avoid obstructions, and whether a room upgrade to a higher floor is available on arrival.

Shoulder season also rewards patience. The Maldives in late April, Santorini in early October, and Mauritius in October-November all offer significantly reduced rates while maintaining excellent conditions. The crowds thin, the light remains beautiful, and the ocean view feels genuinely private.

Why SelectedStay for Ocean View Hotels

Every property in our collection has been assessed not just on its amenities or star rating, but on the quality of the experience it delivers, including how effectively it uses its location. An ocean view hotel that fails to frame the view from its rooms, that positions its restaurants away from the water, or that obstructs sightlines with careless architecture doesn’t make our list, regardless of its reputation.

We travel to verify. We stay in the rooms. We eat at the restaurants and note which tables face the water. This commitment to genuine curation is why SelectedStay’s recommendations exist: to save you from booking a ‘sea view’ room that turns out to overlook a car park, and to ensure that when you pull back those curtains on your first morning, the ocean is waiting exactly as promised.

The Ocean Is Waiting

There is a reason ocean view hotels command a premium, inspire Instagram feeds, and feature in virtually every bucket list ever written. The ocean does something to us. It recalibrates perspective, dissolves whatever felt urgent before you arrived, and offers a form of quiet that most environments can’t compete with.

Whether you’re drawn to the crystalline atolls of the Maldives, the volcanic drama of Santorini, or the wild Atlantic cliffs of Cape Town,  the right ocean view hotel is out there. SelectedStay exists to help you find it.