Hotel Cala di Volpe, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Costa Smeralda

The hotel's course is Pevero Golf Club, which runs between the Gulf of Pevero and Cala di Volpe bay, one sea to the north and another to the south. Robert Trent Jones, who designed more than 500 courses, laid it out, and it opened in 1972. The hotel gives it as 18 holes, par 72, over 6,107 metres of granite and Mediterranean scrub; from the 4th hole you can see Corsica and Caprera.

Pevero sells an Unlimited Golf package for Cala di Volpe guests: unlimited play, breakfast in the hotel's main restaurant, an 18-hole round for two and discounted lessons. The published terms left out high summer (for 2025, 23 June to 14 September) and require a maximum handicap of 54. No price is listed; bookings go through the hotel by phone.

The club has the Pevero Golf Academy, with courses for juniors and children as well as adults, a Toptracer Range practice area, and carts, trolleys and bags for hire. The dress code is strict: no jeans, T-shirts or cargo shorts.

The 121 rooms have whitewashed walls with trompe-l'œil paintings, hand-painted furniture and colourful ceramic tiles, and every one has a private terrace looking over land and sea, with a marble bathroom. At the top sits the Harrods Suite, the hotel's penthouse.

The pool is an Olympic-size saltwater one, presented by the hotel as the largest in Europe. To reach the sea you take the boat: a shuttle leaves the private pier every 30 minutes from 10am to 5:30pm and reaches the guests-only beach in five minutes. Olbia airport is 26.6 km away, and parking and valet service are complimentary.

Dinner means choosing between three formal-dress addresses: Le Grand, Mediterranean cooking at the centre of the hotel; Matsuhisa, the Japanese cuisine of Nobuyuki Matsuhisa; and Riccardo Giraudi's Beefbar, closed on Thursdays. Lunch is at the poolside Barbecue, with seafood and pasta buffets; the Atrium Bar has live piano until midnight, and the African Queen is down on the beach.

The SHISEIDO Spa brings the Japanese house's face and body rituals to the Costa Smeralda, with dedicated steam rooms. For children, La Volpe Kids Club runs daily from 10am to 6:30pm during the season, alongside a children's pool.

• The "anarchitect": the hotel was designed and built between 1961 and 1963 by Jacques Couëlle, whom Jacques Prévert dubbed "the anarchitect", as a small seaside village of stone and rough plaster.
• A South African Italian Open: Pevero hosted the 1978 Italian Open, won by Dale Hayes on 293, five over par.
• A penthouse named after a department store: the largest suite is the Harrods Suite.
• Bond's Sardinian shoot: the island scenes were filmed between late August and September 1976.