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This Sporty One-piece Suit Is the Most Flattering, Supportive Swimsuit I Own
Like many professional travel writers I know, I'm always on the hunt for the perfect one-piece swimsuit. I'm talking about one that's both flattering and functional for the many active adventures on any given trip's itineraries. Just any old flimsy suit won't do: I need it to stand up to cliff dives and cannonballs, beach volleyball and cold plunges at the spa. In short, it's got to perform .
As you can imagine, swimsuits that live up to these standards are hard to come by. But after testing my fair share out on many active assignments—from Arctic plunges in Norway to cruises in the Caribbean—I'm happy to report that I've finally found a new favorite, a rare Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants -esque bathing suit that's perfect for every trip you could think of: the Patagonia Cross Shore One-piece Swimsuit. $139 at REI $139 at Patagonia.com
Let me start by saying that I'm not easy to please when it comes to fit. I'm four months postpartum, so I'm navigating new curves, and I have to say, this one-piece suit left me feeling gorgeous and confident. From the first time I tried it on, I found the sporty V-neck cut with stabilizing, adjustable straps to be both flattering and secure. Plus, the top's removable pads and the bottom's moderate coverage provided just the right amount of support I needed. The secret here is Patagonia's durable spandex jersey blend that stretches with give, hugging in all the right places.
I loved how the swimsuit initially fit during the first try-on, but I'm never sold on the first impression. Every one-piece I own goes through what I like to call the 'cannonball test.' It's basically what you'd expect: I cannonball into a body of water (I've done this everywhere from the Aegean Sea to the icy waters of Alaska) and if the suit stays firmly in place, it passes the test. Not only did the Patagonia Cross Shore One-piece Swimsuit stay put on a recent jump into a Florida pool, but I stayed comfortable the entire time. It's no wonder, since Patagonia made the suit for adventurous water activities, like surfing. $139 at REI $139 at Patagonia.com
But best of all, I'm convinced that the Patagonia Cross Shore swimsuit can be worn anywhere, anytime. I can easily slide a maxi skirt or flowy linen pants over them to create a beach-to-bar or spa-to-restaurant look in an instant, just like I did in Montréal at Bota Bota spa. I only wish I'd had it earlier for surfing in Hawaii!
Its flattering, versatile look isn't too showy, so it blends in whether you're dipping into a waterfall off the beaten path or living it up at a five-star resort. I'm already planning to pack it for trips to the Four Seasons Punta Mita in Mexico and to Provence later this summer. I can already picture myself cycling to the pool in it with flowy pants on top, wind in my hair. And as for the price, I find the cost to be well worth it for the quality, especially given the amount of future wear I expect to get out of the suit.
Bottom line? The Patagonia Cross Shore One-piece Swimsuit is the one and only swimsuit I'm packing for every trip this summer thanks to its stretch, versatility, flattering fit, and, above all, functionality. So far, it's stood up to splashing in pools, cold plunges, and beach volleyball matches at home, but I'm confident it'll take me a lot further, too.
I suggest you grab one (or one of the highly-rated, similar one-pieces below) so you can make a splash this summer, without losing your suit. Keep scrolling for more budget-friendly options, starting at $30 at Amazon.
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I met Genskowski, now 80, on a weeklong trip across Tierra del Fuego led by Explora, a company that leads expeditions throughout South America. He told me how, when a gravel road finally reached his property in 2004, he met the change with a shrug. 'I didn't like it much,' he said. 'I was happy with things as they were.' From left: Germán Genskowski at his home in Tierra del Fuego; the port city of Punta Arenas. From left: Explora; Matthew Williams-Ellis/Alamy Things have gotten easier in this isolated part of the island, certainly—a welcome development for Genskowski since a riding accident a decade ago left him unable to mount a horse—but ease was never the point. Our expedition leader, Nicolás Vigil, summed it up when he recited an old Chilean saying before we embarked on our journey: Quien se apura en la Patagonia, pierde su tiempo —'who rushes in Patagonia, wastes their time.' 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Forests of lenga beeches blazed in auburn and ocher—it was autumn in the Southern Hemisphere—and wisps of lichen, draped over their branches like gauze, glowed celadon green. Just below one rocky summit, Roberto de la Cerda, one of Explora's guides, showed us how to read the mountainsides as open ledgers of geologic time. Twilight lasted hours. Even the grayscale of distant fog seemed luminous. As the landscape came into focus, so too did its contrasts—between the ageless and the ephemeral, an ancient topography and a changeable climate. The green clover, purple lupine, and bone-white yarrow that grew along the roadside, Vigil explained, had been introduced by sheep farmers in the 19th century. Within decades, the settlers' brutal expansionism had decimated the Indigenous Selk'nam, who'd arrived some 10,000 years before. Guanacos grazing in Karukinka Natural Park. We arrived at Genskowski's property and settled into one of the three cozy timber cabins he had built by hand, which Explora staffer Ariel Ramirez had spruced up with sheets, towels, and toiletries from one of the brand's lodges. Over the course of three nights, Emanuel Mellado, chef at Explora's lodge in the Atacama Desert, prepared decadent meals of seared guanaco steaks and snow-crab pasta. The next morning, in the slow inky hours before dawn, we boarded a repurposed fishing boat, the Alakush, and sailed west against the wind into Admiralty Sound and down into Parry Bay, both lined with snowcapped peaks that looked as if they had been thrust up from the water's edge. The sky, miraculously clear all morning, clouded over as we veered into a narrow fjord where frigid winds gusted off the barricade glaciers at its southern end. Stepping ashore, we followed the banks of a rushing river, opaque with minerals and sediment, until we reached its glacial source; I could see the ice calving into a metal-gray lagoon. Back on the Alakush, I stood on deck with Danilo Bahamonde, who assists on chartered excursions from spring through fall. When he first came to this area as a teenager some 40 years ago, the glacier extended as far as the fjord, about half a mile away. 'This place changes every year,' he said, stoic about the obvious impact of climate change but still unmistakably awed by a landscape he's known most of his life. 'You get used to seeing things disappear.' That evening back at the cabin, Genskowski told us about a time, not so long ago, when it wasn't uncommon for heavy winter snows to begin in April; that April, autumn foliage had just started to emerge. An autumn landscape in Karukinka Natural Park. Not all change means loss. In recent years, new national parks have opened in the archipelago. In September 2023, the remaining descendants of the Selk'nam finally won formal recognition as one of Chile's 11 First Peoples, a profound reversal of the narrative. That gravel road near the Genskowskis' property is still advancing, albeit at barely 3,000 feet per year. He fears the influx of tourism it might eventually bring. Still, on our final night, gathered around the fire where he had spent the better of the day spit-roasting a lamb culled from his flock, that future seemed mercifully remote. The next morning, we headed back north, crossing the winding mountain passes that separate the Genskowskis from the rest of the world, past the rocky summit where, the day before, we'd climbed through fresh, ankle-deep snow under a blazing sun and bright blue sky. Back down in the pampas, we boarded a turboprop to return to Punta Arenas. During our brief 40 minutes in the air, I kept my forehead pressed to the window, watching the mountains as they dissolved into grassland. The hours and days that had dilated so spectacularly on the ground snapped into metronomic order—too fast, too rushed, each second a lost opportunity to look more closely. Below, rivers so blue they were almost black meandered across the pampas: a reminder, perhaps, that the long way is always more beautiful. A version of this story first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "Living on the Edge."
