Hôtel & Spa des Pêcheurs

We arrived on Cavallo quite spontaneously by yacht, so I can't comment on the rooms. The restaurant's setting is one of the most beautiful I've seen, and it was still lovely to sit by the sea with a good cocktail. For a place with prices like these, I expected service that was good, if not outstanding, with staff making an effort to make the visit great. Instead, the bar service was mediocre, and our request for a restaurant table was refused. The service could be much better.

That idyllic location is incredible, and the breakfast was very good. But the hotel itself didn't feel like a five-star place to me, more like a four-star. The rooms are fairly simple, the bathroom looked very old with lots of black humidity marks, and the air conditioning was really noisy. They only provided a water bottle on the first day, then charged for it. Service wasn't up to the level either. Staff mainly spoke Italian, with very little French or English, and weren't very attentive. The restaurant is extremely expensive for tiny portions: a small salad costs over 40 euros, the fish wasn't great, and the cellar was almost empty. The beach restaurant costs even more, charges 10 euros per seat, and serves very dry, bad bread. You are paying for the location.

I didn't stay at the hotel, just ate at The Shore Club, and the meal was a real letdown. One helpful woman, who I think was the front of house, was the exception, but the service otherwise wasn't good. Some dishes were inedible. We're not fussy eaters, but several of us struggled with the goats cheese salad dressing because it tasted as though it had gone off. My salad still had grit in it and clearly hadn't been washed properly. The high prices made the poor meal even more disappointing. A club sandwich costs €40. They seem to make the most of the island's stunning, exclusive setting, but I don't think the food is worth it at all. Save your money and eat somewhere else.

We had a reservation for lunch, but after paying 40 euros for the ten-minute ferry to the island, we were told our table wouldn't be ready for another hour. While waiting, we weren't allowed to go to the beach or other parts of the hotel unless we paid 200 euros per person. When we finally sat down, the food was very overpriced for its quality. My salad was tiny and cost 45 euros. The staff were extremely rude, and shady-looking "security guards" followed us around the island. I've never had a worse dining or hospitality experience. I rarely review places, but the way this hotel treated its clients left me so outraged that I feel I need to warn others away.