The wooden jetty of the Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa in Southern Corsica.

“They've always got something to surprise you,” says a fellow guest about our hotel, wearing a straw hat and large round sunglasses, from her seat onboard the pointu boat that carries us from cove to cove. I later find out this is her fifteenth time at the hotel. The captain of our boat, tanned and tattooed from French Polynesia, stops the boat in the middle of a lagoon so clear that you can see the coral 10 meters below, and throws down the ladder; our cue to disembark and paddle about in the pristine waters filled with fish, silvery in the sunlight.

We were onboard the boat of the Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa (pronounced Cala Ross' dropping the "a"), one of the most iconic hotels of Corsica, an island in French waters south of the continent. Included when you stay here, guests can hop on the hotel's smart little boat every morning and explore nearby beaches and coves, and there's even a shipwreck you can glimpse when the waters are still enough.

The Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa is right on the sea.

Corsica's officially been part of France for 200 years, but the locals have their own customs, culture and language, making it just as exotic as further flung island paradises. The north of the island tends to be more rugged and wild, with sinuous roads curving around mountains down to pristine beaches and up into forested hills. The south, although just as beautifully wild in most corners, is where you’ll find most of the island’s five-star hotels close to long sweeping beaches of golden sands. However, away from the hubbub of well-trodden spots, hidden in the glittering bay of Cala Rossa in Lecci, is where you'll find the Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa with its homey feel and beachy vacation vibes.

The hotel is laid out along its own beach with wooden deck.

Family-run ever since it was snapped up by Toussaint Canarelli in 1977, the hotel is surrounded by tall parasol pines right on the water in the quiet bay that it has almost all to itself, and it has a private beach. A hotel of high points, credit goes to the stellar staff, who set it apart from the competition, and give it an allure and personality few establishments, even of this caliber, can pride themselves on retaining today.

Originally built in the sixties, when local entrepreneur Mr Canarelli took over, he added extra rooms and maintained the hotel to a high standard for a roster of returning guests, while living on site with his wife, two daughters and son. "You become used to welcoming people into your home," says Lise Canarelli, golden hair framing friendly brown eyes behind dark-rimmed glasses, who took over the hotel from her father in 2018 with her sister Hélène. "It's like second nature, which is important when you're doing this job; it all rests on a sense of wanting to share what you love with others. And I know how lucky I am to be able to do it, to have this hotel - it's my gift from my father."

The freshly refurbished rooms all have views of the gardens.

Intuitive hoteliers, the sisters have succeeded in keeping the soul of the hotel alive and have kept its original retro-tinged architecture and features looking pristine too. The white-washed walls of the vaulted lobby with terracotta tiles swerve into a cave-like bar with cozy linen sofas that recalls the smooth curved walls of Ibizan villages and pushes outside where wooden paths take over and meander around exotic gardens to the water's edge.

The main restaurant tucked in the gardens at the Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa in Corsica.

One of the many high points here is the wooden deck built over the water in the Cala Rossa bay, still like a lake, with its own jetty lit up by lanterns at sundown. Guests come far and wide to nab a table at La Pinède restaurant and bar on the deck in time for cocktails at sunset, which leaves the deep blue sky streaked with shades of powdery pinks and purples above iridescent waters.

Although it's a five-minute drive to the small port town of Porto-Vecchio, pronounced Porto Vecc' (dropping the "io"), there's enough at the Grand Hotel to tempt you away from any semblance of city life. Days here are spent padding from a sun lounger on the shaded deck overlooking the bay, to La Pinède for a salad or piattini (Corsican tapas), and across to the private beach for a dip in the warm waters.

The jungly view from the Nucca Spa pool at the Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa in Corsica.

The sisters have also added a fantastic spa with a 46-foot heated pool, featuring mind-bogglingly good treatments with protocols and products created especially for their own 100% natural skincare brand, Nucca. A brand of products made only with the best Corsican flower and herb extracts from the maquis scrubland, Lise and Hélène tapped Marie-Paul Magonet in Provence, known for her uncompromising approach to composing natural essential oils, to help make their vision a reality. "We wanted to create products that are natural and organic without any preservatives or chemicals," says Lise. "Often, brands advertise that they are 99% natural... But what if that 1% is really harmful? So we worked extra hard to make Nucca into something we love and can be truly proud of."

The Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa is set right on the sea.

In the evening, guests descend from their rooms, pampered and primed in white flowing linen for dinner at La Table, where Maître d'Hôtel Lionel and his wonderful team make dining here a fun and laid-back experience, taking nothing away from the chef's gastronomic credentials. Long-serving chef Pascal Cayeux serves delights made with Corsica's plentiful local produce, like John Dory fish cooked in herbs from the chef's kitchen garden, served with a green bean and almond purée and local brocciu cheese and spinach cappalletti pasta or lobster simply grilled with thyme from the garden with local vegetables and enjoyed with a splash of organic Domaine de Torraccia Oriu from a vineyard next door.

A bird's eye view of Pascal Cayeux's kitchen garden at the Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa.

To finish, don't miss pastry chef Francis Péan’s creations like his choux made daily with a different filling or his homemade sorbets and ice creams. The longest-standing member of staff here, he's been at the Grand Hotel for more than three decades. A keen hiker who knows the area like the back of his hand, if you're adventurous enough, he'll take you on one of his walks up in the mountains or along Corsica's more rugged coastline.

With the help of their exceptional team, Lise and Hélène Canarelli have taken their father's Grand Hotel de Cala Rossa up a notch and made it theirs, along with creating Nucca, their uncompromising skincare brand. And they aren't stopping there. Lise has partnered with her husband to give an old Corsican palace up in the mountains, where king Mohammed V of Morocco famously stayed in exile in the fifties, a new lease of life as a hotel focused on wellness, which promises to be just as wonderful as her Cala Rossa home.