One of the many things I like about private island hotels (don’t hate me, but I’ve stayed at a few) is how quickly they force you to switch off, cocooned in their self-contained worlds. My wife and I are normally guilty of tearing around trying to check out every restaurant and bar in a 100-mile radius, but send us off to an island and we relax in minutes, free from the pressures of travel list-ticking.
We don’t want every trip to be a fly and flop of course, but after a hectic work week in London, a trip to the new Zannier Île de Bendor hotel felt like just the ticket. This rocky island off the coast of Bandol between Marseille and Saint-Tropez was bought by pastis king Paul Ricard in the 1950s and became a magnet for artists, celebrities and Riviera hedonists in its mid-century heyday. Now, following an extensive five-year restoration by the Ricard family and Zannier Hotels, it has reopened as a luxurious 93-room retreat.
