Can Vistabella Boutique Resort

Some of the bungalows at Can Vistabella can be seen from the pool, and if we came back with the children, one of those is the room we would ask for: whoever is napping after lunch is then a glance away from whoever is on a lounger. This time we went as a couple and had a Deluxe Double Room, homely and comfortable, which we would book again too. The children at the pool were other people's, and well-behaved, and with every room in a building of its own and the pace this relaxed, it is a good place to bring them.

It was a campsite until Zuzana Florekova spent four years turning it into fifteen residences, all on one floor, in separate whitewashed buildings across the grounds. The decor is simple and rustic, done in the island's old manner: terracotta tiles underfoot, sabina beams overhead, and over the windows outside, lintels of rough timber that keep the twist of the branch. There are kitchenettes, and, for a resort that never closes, fireplaces and underfloor heating. One bathroom has a pair of basins hewn from rough pale stone and set on a plank of pine, the nearest the place comes to showing off.

The grounds are expertly planted, pines over pale paths and loquats beside them, and when the July heat was at its worst around midday we found shade all through the garden, and somewhere in it to escape with a book. Yoga and meditation run every day of the year, January included. Massages are given in a pavilion out among the pines, open at the sides and hung with sheer curtains, its posts whole twisted trunks and a bed of staked tomatoes in front. The pool is a long rectangle with a mosaic edge and tall reeds behind, and the canopied daybeds along its flagstones are the second-best shade in the place.

Very little is within walking distance, so a car is part of the stay, and every beach is a drive. Sant Antoni's is the nearest, at six minutes, but the one we thought a gem was Cala Gracioneta, a small cove on the west coast, a short drive away. Its chiringuito, all fresh fish and open flames, is the place for a splurge.

Breakfast is on the terrace of Essència, the resort's one restaurant, beside the pool, and we thought it beautiful at that hour. By dinner we had rather more of the peace guests praise than we wanted: it is the same restaurant by the same pool, and in the evening it was very quiet and missing something. For a livelier night, Sant Antoni's clubs are ten minutes' drive away, and nobody has ever called them quiet.