If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR272.28), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Family values abound at Les Regalia, a highbrow heritage hotel on Corsica’s southern coast. The peaceful estate, with its green belts of pine and olive trees, has been in the Carli family clan for generations, and this latest addition has all the warmth of a family home. Albeit one with a fine-dining Corsican restaurant, heated pool, vinotherapy spa, and eco-chic architecture. You’re perfectly poised for sandy, sun-dappled days, too, with Pinarello beach just a hop, skip and a jump away. And with top-tier service, a bijou alfresco bar and sweeping ocean views, you’ll feel part of the pack in no time.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A 10 per cent discount at the spa and a glass of wine with your first dinner
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £238.07 (€278), including tax at 2.1 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €2.20 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates don’t include the buffet breakfast, which can be purchased at the hotel (€39 for adults and €19 for children under 12).
Hotel closed
The hotel closes annually from the end of November to the start of April.
At the hotel
Spa, fitness room, beach access, valet parking, laundry service (charged), and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: plug-adaptors and tablet (on request), Vinésime or Amuredda bath products, TV, sound-system, minibar, terrace, Nespresso coffee machine, and air-conditioning.
Our favourite rooms
Most rooms are alike, with an elegant, neutral colour palette and decorative wooden panelling. We love the Double Sea View room for its ocean-gazing private terrace, and the generously sized Suites for their sunny yellow walls and luxurious soaking tub.
Poolside
The heated pool has curved, submerged sunloungers which make the perfect spot for topping-up your tan, but there are cabanas peppered around the periphery for those who prefer the shade, too. And if it’s ocean dips you’re after, there’s a beach within direct reach, with free-to-use deckchairs and parasols set up for guests. If the thought of leaving your sunken sunlounger is all a bit much then you can order lighter plates (Mediterranean salads, silky burrata and seafood) direct to the pool.
Spa
The intimate spa has two treatment rooms and calls on Burgundy’s vineyards to deliver grape-inspired goodness through vinotherapy: a practice that uses the raw pips and pulp of the grapes for their age-defying antioxidants. Turn back the clock with a ‘force of the vine’ mask and massage which smooths and firms the skin, or feel the pulp friction with an exfoliating body scrub. Detox drinks and healthy snacks are available on request, and there’s an on-site gym kitted-out with cardio and strength machines and free weights; private coaching is available on request, too.
Packing tips
Bring a trusty pair of flip-flops and dog-eared holiday reads for lazy days beside the pool.
Also
There are two rooms available for guests with mobility issues, and common areas are all wheelchair-accessible.
Welcome. Babysitting can be arranged (with advance notice) for approximately €30 an hour.
Sustainability efforts
The hotel has been built using local stone exclusively, while only recycled wood has been used for the furnishings, flooring and structural assets. There’s a charging point for electric cars, energy- and water-saving measures installed throughout and all ingredients used in the kitchen are sourced from local producers.
Ask for a table on the restaurant’s wide open terrace for sweeping views of Pinarello Bay.
Dress Code
Go glam for Alba, with hints of copper and coral to match the interiors.
Hotel restaurant
The hotel’s restaurant, the Alba, serves Corsican-Mediterranean fare in an elegant space inspired by the ocean’s jewels with textured tapestries, glistening chandeliers and coral-shaped wall lights. Chef Jeremy Passat’s menu showcases the highest-quality local ingredients with dishes like smoked-fish tagliolini tossed in garlic and drizzled in Corsican lemon or fresh-from-the-sea gambero rosso.
Hotel bar
The Alba’s bar has a rustic, warm atmosphere with plenty of wood, leather and a stylish inlaid copper bar where you’ll find the hotel’s mixologists shaking and stirring classic cocktails. For more covert concoctions head to L'Oliveraie, the hotel’s second bar, hidden in the hotel’s olive grove. Opt for a Freschella (made with fresh clementines and Corsican syrup) in the daytime, the signature old fashioned in the evenings, and a glass of crisp Corsican white wine anytime at all.
Last orders
Alba is open for breakfast between 7am and 10.30am (11am when taken in-room), lunch runs from 12.30pm and 2pm and dinner is served between 7pm and 10.30pm.
You’ll find Les Regalia in Pinarello, a fishing village on Corsica’s southern coast with a charming old town and stretches of unspoilt shoreline just 25 minutes from Porto Vecchio.
Planes
Figari is closest, just a 45-minute drive away from the hotel, with direct flights from across the UK and Europe. From here, transfers are available for €95 each way (€140 by night, on Sundays or during public holidays). Alternatively, flying into Bastia and Ajaccio airports will set you back between two and three hours by car.
Automobiles
If you want to explore Corsica by car, you can pick up some wheels at the airport, but make sure there are two breathalyser kits in the car at all times (mandatory under French law) and that you have change for the tolls. The hotel has free underground parking, which is open round-the-clock.
Other
Corsica Ferries operate routes to Porto-Vecchio from Nice, Marseille and Toulon, but you may want to pack a novel or two – the journey can take upwards of 11 hours. Or, if you fancy taking the chopper for a spin, the hotel can arrange a charter.
Worth getting out of bed for
Close to the hotel, you’ll find Pinarello Beach, an immaculate stretch of white sand accessible via a scenic pedestrian walkway or in one of the hotel’s golf buggies. Its crystal-clear waters make it a fine spot for watersports; bring your snorkel and get up close and personal with the local marine life, or hire a jet-ski and discover Corsica by sea. A little further down, La Ruscana is better for those who prefer a more horizontal beach experience, with free-to-use deck chairs and parasols available for Les Regalia guests. While you’re in the area, take a stroll through the neighbouring village of Pinarello, surrounded by pine forests and home to Tour Carrée, a 16th-century tower, a handful of charming, family-run restaurants and, come August, an annual jazz festival. Corsica’s biggest harbour town, Porto-Vecchio, is also worth a visit. A bustling port with Roman origins, today you can go yacht-spotting at the marina, get lost in the walled old town (a former Genoese citadel), or go bargain-hunting at the local street market.
Local restaurants
Elegance comes naturally to U Santa Marina, a must for seafood lovers perched at the edge of the water, with the Gulf of Santa Giulia visible from its tree-flanked wooden dining terrace. Start with slow-cooked yellowtail or Bonifacio prawns cooked with fennel, before tucking into Aubrac beef tenderloin roasted in butter and served with smoked eel and olives. For traditional Corsican fare, head to Le Relais, a family-owned spot whose signature veal dishes, linguine with gambas and Corsican-style soup has kept them a firm local favourite since the 1970s.
Local cafés
For toe-in-sand breakfasts and brunches, Pinarello’s Le Grain de Sable is a shack-style chiringuito that serves crêpes, pancakes and sandwiches in a shaded corner of Pinarello beach.
Local bars
Good vibes abound in Porto-Vecchio’s old town, where the alfresco aperitivo is a finely-tuned art. Among the most notable establishments there’s Le Patio, a multi-purpose bar set in a cobbled piazza where you’ll find chilled bottles and charcuterie boards in the daytime, and cocktails and live DJ sets come evening. Don’t miss their rather generous happy hour each afternoon from 4pm to 7pm. For something a little more relaxed, Le Bel Ombra makes a fine spot for people-watching with a prime position in the centre of town.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this family-run hotel near Porto-Vecchio and unpacked their Corsican chestnut jam and wheels of brocciu cheese, a full account of their sea-and-spa break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Les Regalia in South Corsica…
Surrounded by green stretches of olive and pine trees, Les Regalia is a place you won’t stumble on by accident. Set back from Pinarello beach, a half-hour drive north of Porto-Vecchio, this off-the-beaten track boutique hotel is the latest project of the Carli family, for whom the hotel’s 13-acre estate has been passed down through generations. Named after the owner’s grandparents' family home, Les Regalia is an ode to Corsica, their heritage and time-honoured traditions. But there’s nothing old hat about this stylish stay, with modishly modern exteriors and elegant, wood-panelled interiors. Spend lazy days at the hotel’s heated pool, become acquainted with Corsican classics in the fine-dining restaurant or discover the healing power of grapes in the vinotherapy spa.
