We discuss various physical aspects of non-extremal, extremal and supersymmetric black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter (ADS) spacetimes. Specifically, we discuss how the isolated horizon (IH) framework leads to an ambiguity-free description of rotating black holes in these spacetimes. We then apply this framework to investigate the properties of supersymmetric isolated horizons (SIHs) in four-dimensional N=2 gauged supergravity. Among other results we find that they are necessarily extremal, that rotating SIHs must have non-trivial electromagnetic fields, and that non-rotating SIHs necessarily have constant curvature horizon cross sections and a magnetic (though not electric) charge.