A private island off Provence: inside Zannier Île de Bendor

The arrival is what tells you this stay will be different. We handed the car to a valet at the Bandol port and were shown onto the Zannier pier, where a member of staff appeared immediately with water and, more usefully, coffee. Within minutes a private boat had pulled alongside, and seven minutes after that my husband, our son and I were stepping onto Île de Bendor itself, the mainland already reduced to a low green line behind us. It is a short crossing, but it puts real distance between you and the mainland you just left. Waiting for us were the operations director and a small welcoming committee of smiling staff, the kind of arrival that sets an expectation for everything that follows. We were driven to our room in the Soukana quarter by buggy, more ceremony than necessity, as it turns out. Île de Bendor is small enough that you can walk from one shore to the other in about ten minutes, and most of the pleasure of the island is in doing exactly that.

An island built in three distinct moods  Zannier's genius here is architectural variety on a footprint most hotels would use for one look. We stayed in a Junior Sunrise Suite in Soukana, done out in calming Mediterranean terracotta tones, and the room was comfortably spacious for the three of us. The bathroom alone would justify the category: raw stone across the floor and walls, generously proportioned, with a spa-like hush to it that made it hard to hurry through a morning routine. Elsewhere on the island, Delos leans into 1960s French Riviera glamour, all confidence and colour, with stunning tiled bathrooms to match. Madrague, the island's third personality, is a line of quaint duplex houses with their own small gardens, easily the most characterful and unusual accommodation on Île de Bendor. The staircases are genuinely steep (not suitable for families with children), but for a couple looking for something intimate and a little eccentric, Madrague is the pick of the island.

The hard product, in the details  Whatever else changes on Île de Bendor as the hotel finds its feet, the hard product is a settled, confident piece of work. The quality runs through everything: a genuinely good tea selection, ceramics that catch the eye without shouting for attention, and decor that reads as subtle rather than plain. The kettle has proper temperature control, a small thing that matters more than it should when you are making tea in a hotel room, and the air conditioning is close to silent, which after a warm day outside is its own kind of luxury. The evening turndown brought a couple of genuinely lovely touches: a small plate of sweets each night, unexpectedly delicious for something that could so easily have been an afterthought, and a little gift left by Mēditatif, the in-house beauty brand created by Alicia Rountree-Zannier (wife of Zannier's founder), whose bath products feature throughout the hotel.

Where to eat  Soukana breakfast is the more relaxed of the island's two morning settings, shaded, sea-facing and reliably cooled by a breeze that makes even a warm Provençal morning comfortable. Guests can just as easily take breakfast at Delos instead, and the two restaurants share guests freely. Delos is instantly recognisable in every photograph of the hotel for its striking red colour scheme, which has become something of a signature. The breakfast itself is a study in restraint done well. The à la carte menu is short but confident: avocado on a dense, grainy brown toast, yoghurt piled with fresh fruit, a genuinely good açaí bowl, fresh juices and eggs cooked properly. Alongside it sits a small, clean buffet, fresh fruit and bread plus a Vietnamese selection of tofu and kimchi, a nod to the Vietnamese-Mediterranean fusion that defines dinner at Soukana. In the evening, the choices multiply. Nonna Bazaar has the loose, easy energy of a beach club and a menu that moves fluidly between French, Italian and Moroccan influences. La Grande Large is the fine-dining option, with uninterrupted sea views from every table. Delos Lounge is where the evening tends to end, drinks in hand as the light drops. And Soukana's rooftop bar deserves particular mention: the sunset views from up there, and the vibe that comes with them, were one of the highlights of the stay. The pools are divided much the same way: Soukana's welcomes families, while the pool at Delos is adults-only, so however you are travelling there is a stretch of water that suits the mood you are in.

Sport, spa and the beach  Île de Bendor packs in more activity than its size suggests it should: tennis courts, pickleball, a small gym and a full range of watersports, all within a short walk of wherever you happen to be staying. The spa space is modest, but what it lacks in room, it makes up for in the people: our therapist was warm, unmistakably genuine and clearly skilled. The spa also gets something surprisingly few properties manage, which is the music: it was well chosen and pitched at exactly the right volume, present without intruding. The beach is a small stretch of sand rather than a sweeping bay, and it was an unqualified hit with our son. I was just as happy to spend an afternoon there myself. Beach beds are available now, with more furniture and arrangements promised for next season as the hotel builds out its offering.

Still finding its rhythm  Zannier Île de Bendor opened its doors in May, and this review comes from a stay in its first few months. That context matters, because the snags we encountered were entirely the kind you would expect from a very young hotel rather than anything more concerning. Communication between departments had not yet found its rhythm: we were told slightly different things by different staff members on a couple of occasions, and the WhatsApp concierge was a genuine asset one day and went quiet the next. None of it derailed the stay, and all of it felt like the ordinary teething of a hotel still learning its own choreography rather than a sign of anything deeper. Given how strong the bones of the place already are, service is very much the part with room to grow into the setting, and on this evidence, it will.

A quieter corner of the coast  Île de Bendor sits on a stretch of Mediterranean coastline that is only now starting to get the attention it deserves. The Côte d'Azur has historically claimed all the fame: the glamour, the yachts, a century of postcards to prove it. A little further west, the mood shifts entirely: quieter, less performed. Cassis is close by, and the Parc National des Calanques, all limestone cliffs and startlingly clear water, is one of the most beautiful stretches of coast in the Mediterranean and still relatively undiscovered next to its glitzier neighbours further east. This part of Provence has all the makings of Europe's next great coastal destination, and Île de Bendor, tucked into its own private island setting, feels like it could sit right at the centre of it.  

Written by Marta Diaz · CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Avid tennis player, photographer and traveller. She curates every hotel in the collection and writes The Edit.