7Pines Resort Sardinia

Every bedside table at 7Pines Resort Sardinia has a pinecone on it, and the pinecone has a job: left on the pillow, it asks for the sheets to be changed. Until its renovation this was the Residence Park Hotel, on a cove at Baja Sardinia, and when it reopened in 2022 about nine-tenths of its fifteen hectares had been left as they were found. The buildings sit among granite boulders and umbrella pines, in rough-cut stone and sand-coloured render, with pergolas on the roof terraces and railings of rusted iron bent like twigs. From the Sea View rooms, glass doors open onto a terrace over the bay and the wooded hills behind it; further out, across the water, are the Maddalena islands.

Recommended for families who want the children occupied, and for couples, who have the Laguna rooms and their pool, both kept for adults. Kio, the kids' club, takes ages four to fourteen, with upcycling and gardening on the programme. The main beach is white sand, and the four coves round the grounds have no service whatever, which is their appeal: a takeaway can be ordered from the kitchen and carried down as a picnic. Boats go out to the Maddalena archipelago for the day, and the sea in front runs from paddleboards to jet skis. In the evening there is Spazio, Franco Pepe's pizzeria a few steps from the main pool, where the Margherita Sbagliata comes out of a copper oven, or Capogiro, which holds a Michelin star and has a terrace facing the sunset over the sea. Capogiro shuts on Sundays and Mondays, so a week's stay gets five chances at that sunset from its terrace.