Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The other Sardinian coast
Piscinas, in south-western Sardinia, is almost as far as you can get geographically from the Costa Smeralda without actually leaving the island. Not surprisingly, it bears little resemblance to that lifestyle destination, physically or culturally: down here you’re closer to Africa than you are to Rome, and there’s nary a giga-yacht to be spotted on the horizon (nor anchored in any fancy marina; none of those around, either). I fell hard for this wild coast, home to some of Europe’s tallest sand dunes, when I first explored it almost 15 years ago. Le Dune was the whispered-about Shangri-La I never quite made it to: a cult hotel far down a gravel road, with simple, sun-filled accommodations, fresh food and gem-hued seas; the windsurfer’s and solitude-seeker’s dream.
In a few weeks, it will reopen after a three-year renovation that looks to have introduced considerable polish without denuding it of its essential appeal. The 28 rooms and suites still have their sandstone floors and whitewashed rafters, but the design is upgraded. Some suites have little plunge pools set into sand gardens, others have private terraces; the warm-toned plaster walls are incised with decorative motifs. The bar has retained its low-slung, vaguely ’70s appeal, huge stone fireplace and all, but it’s updated with sleek sofas and a worldly cocktail list. The food is now overseen by a chef who helped earn La Terrazza at Rome’s Hotel Eden its Michelin star. But the overall promise is of continued simplicity, in spirit and service: the owners know nature is the star of the Le Dune show. ledunepiscinas.com, from €265
Formentera’s fine new retreat
More dunes, in this case Balearic ones: Dunas de Formentera will open on the island of the same name at the end of next month. The 45-room hotel, overlooking the southern end of Migjorn Beach, is the latest in a series of collaborations between Marugal – the Spanish hotel micro-brand that manages, among others, Cap Rocat on Mallorca and Christian Louboutin’s Vermelho in Melides, Portugal – and the Mallorcan interior designer Antonio Obrador.
Set back from the beach, semi-hidden in the umbrella pines and dunes, it’s a quieter alternative to its sister property, Gecko Beach Club, Marugal’s beacon of feet-in-the-sand revelry a few hundred yards up the shore. Obrador’s style is pared-back, his palette white, sand and terracotta: floors are continuous polished concrete, and there’s lots of smooth touchable teak. The rooms are spread across a series of one- and two-storey houses; some have terraces and separate sitting areas. The restaurant covers the Mediterranean gamut, from wood-fired pizzas to the catch of the day a la plancha. A saltwater infinity pool rounds out the picture. dunasdeformentera.com, from €450
Minimalist Cycladic style on Tinos
Despite being less than half an hour by boat from Mykonos, Tinos has retained, particularly outside the highest-season months, both character and calm. Its steep slopes attract walkers; its hinterland is full of windmills, some dating back centuries to the era of Venetian dominion, and foursquare brick-and-whitewash dovecotes dot the slopes everywhere.
Odera, when it opens next month on the island’s south coast, will be one of Tino’s only full-scale resort propositions. Its 77 rooms and suites, housed in low cubic bungalows along a bluff’s edge, filter Cycladic design elements through a monochrome, minimalist lens: stone floors, washed concrete walls, the only hints of colour a sea-blue or indigo stripe here or a terracotta lounge chair there, next to the plunge pool. A winding path leads down to a private beach with its own bar-restaurant; there is also a full gym and a small spa, with its own hammam and hydrotherapy circuit. For a more essential workout, there is always Tinos’s 400-plus kilometres of footpaths – and the Aegean for your cool-down. oderatinos.com, from €300
