Underwater Hotels: Every Room You Can Book Below the Surface in 2026

Ten places let you sleep below the waterline as of October 2026. Six put the bedroom in open sea or a lagoon: The Muraka and Pullman’s Aqua Villas in the Maldives, the Manta Resort’s Underwater Room in Tanzania, Reefsuites on the Great Barrier Reef, the Floating Villas off Dubai and Jules’ Undersea Lab in Florida. The other four look into a hotel aquarium or a flooded quarry: Atlantis The Palm, Atlantis Sanya, Resorts World Sentosa and the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland.

Seven of the eight places in our 2021 version of this guide can still be booked. Utter Inn in Sweden did not operate in 2026 and is for sale. Jules’ Undersea Lodge is now Jules’ Undersea Lab, run as an educational attraction with overnight stays for certified divers, and the Manta Resort replaced its underwater room in May 2026. Restaurants and a spa you can visit below the surface, but not sleep in, are listed separately, as are the underwater hotels that were announced and never built.

If you want to sleep above the water rather than under it, see our guide to luxury overwater villas.

Underwater hotel rooms compared

Sources are the operators’ own pages and dated reports, checked on 9 October 2026. “Not published” means the operator does not state it.

How this list was put together

A room qualifies if the bed is below the surface of the water and you look out at fish through the walls. We split that into two groups because the experience is different:

• Open water: the room sits in the sea, a lagoon or a lake, and what you see depends on the reef, the visibility and the time of day.
• Aquarium or quarry view: the room shares a wall with a man-made tank or lake. The marine life is stocked and the view is consistent, and the hotel is usually a large resort with a waterpark or theme park attached.

Restaurants, spas and glass-floored overwater villas do not qualify as underwater rooms. Status was checked against each operator’s booking page or a dated news report. Prices are given only where the operator publishes them.

Rooms in open water

The Muraka, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

The Muraka opened in 2018 and was the first underwater hotel residence. It has two levels. The master bedroom sits more than 16 feet below sea level inside a 180-degree curved acrylic dome, with a separate underwater viewing tunnel, an underwater bathroom and walk-in closet. Above the water are two more ensuite bedrooms, living and dining areas, a kitchen, a gym, an infinity pool and a private jetty.

• Size: 550 sq m (5,934 sq ft), three bedrooms, sleeps eight
• Service: 24-hour butler
• Family fit: Conrad lists it for families with teens and adults
• Rate: Conrad does not publish one. Bloomberg reported about US$50,000 a night when it was announced in 2018, and Condé Nast Traveller (2019) gave around £41,000 with a four-night minimum
• Accolades: Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is a Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel

The same resort runs Ithaa, the undersea restaurant 5 m down (see below).

The Aqua Villa, Pullman Maldives Maamutaa

Pullman has two Aqua Villas and calls itself the first resort in the Maldives with two underwater bedrooms. Each villa has a submerged master bedroom looking into the lagoon, a second bedroom above the water, a pool and a private deck.

• Size: 209 sq m (1,216 sq ft)
• Family fit: two bedrooms, one of them underwater
• Rate: not published on the resort’s site

The Underwater Room, The Manta Resort

The Manta Resort on Pemba Island, in the Zanzibar Archipelago, opened its first Underwater Room in 2013. In May 2026 it launched a replacement, developed by Genberg Underwater Hotels. The resort’s press release calls it the third generation of a concept first introduced as Utter Inn in Sweden. The original room was sunk next to the reef to become part of it.

The new room is a private floating structure anchored about 250 m offshore. It has three levels: a bedroom 4 m below the surface, a sea-level lounge with an en-suite bathroom, and a rooftop sundeck. It has electricity throughout and is built in marine-grade steel. The resort says all proceeds from the room go to reef restoration, monitoring and community programmes.

• Rooms: one, for two guests
• Rate: not published on the resort’s site

Reefsuites, Reefworld, Great Barrier Reef

Reefsuites are two underwater suites on Reefworld, a pontoon moored on Hardy Reef on the outer Great Barrier Reef. Cruise Whitsundays describes them as Australia’s first underwater accommodation. Guests sail out from Airlie Beach, Daydream Island or Hamilton Island, arrive around 11am and stay on after day visitors leave.

• Rooms: two, each with floor-to-ceiling underwater windows, king or twin beds and a glass-walled ensuite
• Included: all meals, beer and wine, a guided snorkel safari, a semi-submarine tour and the underwater observatory
• Family fit: children aged 6 and over with a guardian; no child prices
• Rate: from $1,495 per person sharing, or from $2,690 for a single, on the Australian operator’s site in October 2026

Floating Villas, The Heart of Europe, Dubai

Formerly the Floating Seahorse, these are privately sold floating villas at The Heart of Europe on The World Islands. Each villa has three levels across 4,004 sq ft, with two bedrooms on the submerged floor looking into a coral garden. The developer, the Kleindienst Group, says select villas are completed and that short stays can be booked through The Heart of Europe for up to eight guests.

• Rate: not published
• Note: these are residences with a rental option, not a hotel. Check what is included before you book

Jules’ Undersea Lab, Key Largo

Jules’ opened as an undersea hotel in 1986, converted from the La Chalupa research habitat. In 2025, after 39 years as a hotel, it passed to the non-profit Marine Resources Development Foundation and now runs as an educational attraction. It is the only underwater stay in the United States on this list.

The habitat sits 22 feet below the surface of a lagoon at MarineLab Undersea Park. You dive in through a moon pool. The overnight package, the Aquanaut Adventure, is 24 hours with three dives and three meals.

• Who can go: every guest needs at least Open Water scuba certification; minors must be with a parent or guardian
• Rate: $1,800 per couple, plus $500 per extra person up to four (October 2026). A three-hour tour costs $110 per person

Rooms with an aquarium or quarry view

Underwater Suite, Atlantis The Palm, Dubai

The Underwater Suites look into the resort’s Ambassador Lagoon aquarium, which Atlantis says holds more than 65,000 marine animals. The 2021 version of this guide named them Poseidon and Neptune; Atlantis now sells them as one category, the Underwater Suite.

• Size: 165 sq m, one king bed
• Family fit: up to 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 children; the Signature Suite package includes two daily sessions at the Atlantis Explorers Club kids’ club and unlimited Aquaventure World waterpark access
• Included: airport transfer, 24-hour butler, in-room breakfast, Imperial Club Lounge access
• Rate: not published on the Atlantis site
• Restaurant: Ossiano, in the same resort, has an aquarium-facing dining room and one Michelin star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Dubai

Poseidon and Neptune Underwater Suites, Atlantis Sanya

Atlantis Sanya on Hainan Island has two underwater suite types, both looking into its own Ambassador Lagoon, which the resort says holds 86,000 marine animals. Both are two-storey, with the bedroom and bathroom at aquarium level and a balcony upstairs.

Atlantis Sanya is a Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel. Rates are not published.

Equarius Ocean Suites, Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore

The 11 Ocean Suites are two-storey townhouses. The upper floor has a living area, patio and jacuzzi; the lower floor’s bedroom looks into the Open Ocean habitat of the aquarium next door. That aquarium closed as S.E.A. Aquarium on 30 April 2025 and reopened as the Singapore Oceanarium on 24 July 2025. Resorts World Sentosa still sells the suites, with a view of more than 40,000 fish.

• Size: 93 sq m, one king bed
• Family fit: 2 adults and 2 children, or 3 adults; kids’ amenities included
• Included: 24-hour butler, minibar, same-day re-entry and 10% off tickets to Universal Studios Singapore, the Singapore Oceanarium and Adventure Cove Waterpark
• Rate: not published without dates

InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, China

Built into an 88 m deep abandoned quarry in Songjiang, about 50 km from central Shanghai, the hotel opened on 20 November 2018. Of its 18 floors, 16 are below ground level, including two below the quarry lake’s waterline.

• Rooms: 336 (MICHELIN Guide listing)
• Underwater suites: Underwater View Suite, 75 sq m; Duplex Suite, 120 sq m, also with an underwater view
• Accolades: in the MICHELIN Guide hotel selection; no Key shown on its listing as of 9 October 2026
• Rate: not published without dates

The view is of a lake inside a quarry, not the sea, so expect less marine life than at the other stays here.

Underwater restaurants and spa you can visit

These are below the surface but have no bedrooms.

Closed or changed since 2021

Announced but never built

Common questions

How much does an underwater hotel cost?

Of the operators that publish rates, Jules’ Undersea Lab charges $1,800 per couple for a 24-hour stay and Reefsuites starts at $1,495 per person sharing, including meals (both October 2026). The Muraka was reported at about US$50,000 a night in 2018; Conrad does not publish a current rate. Atlantis, Pullman, the Manta Resort and Resorts World Sentosa show prices only for chosen dates.

Is there an underwater hotel in the US?

Jules’ Undersea Lab in Key Largo, Florida, is the only one we found, and it is open only to certified scuba divers. Planet Ocean, also in the Florida Keys, has not been built.

Do underwater hotels really exist?

Yes. The rooms in the comparison table above were all on sale in October 2026. Several widely shared projects, including Hydropolis and Poseidon, were never built.

What is the difference between an underwater room and an aquarium suite?

An underwater room sits in the sea or a lagoon, so the view is a living reef. An aquarium suite looks into a resort’s tank, so the fish are stocked and always there. The Muraka, Pullman, Manta, Reefsuites, the Floating Villas and Jules’ are the first kind; the Atlantis, Sentosa and Shanghai suites are the second.

For other unusual stays, see our guides to snow hotels, treehouse hotels and rainforest resorts.