Hotel Cala di Volpe

Sardinia’s most famous hotel was designed to resemble a fishing village but has been inhabited by the Jet Set and billionaire boys club who flock here in summer.

• The yacht watching at Cala would set a paparazzi’s heart aflutter
• The quirky colorful lobby with its Gaudi meets Pucci flair
• The sumptuous suites which feel like a collaboration between Dr. Seuss or the Flintsones and Loro Piana

Originally the Aga Khan’s villa and official headquarters, the Cala di Volpe, part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, is Sardinia’s most famous hotel. Located on the sea, the property was designed to resemble a picturesque pastel-hued fishing village—albeit one for playboys who don’t know a hook from a fly. It's a popular spot for people embarking or disembarking from their yachts, making Cala di Volpe’s waterside restaurants busy meeting places and people-watching spots. The beachfront barbecue lunch is one of the island’s most celebrated—and one of the most expensive—meet-and-eat occasions: fish and lobster lie on beds of ice waiting to be cooked to your specifications, the gourmet cheeses include fresh buffalo mozzarella and the island’s own pecorino, and the pasta is cooked to order.

The standard rooms are not especially spacious, but all rooms and suites have terraces with water views and have been glammed up with sumptuous Sardinian fabrics and carpets to complement their whimsical cave-like style with a rustic-Mediterranean-meets-elegant-Old-World style: ceramic tiles, woven-basket-style chairs, whitewashed walls. The rooms are among the most expensive in Europe, not for their size but for the prestige of staying in this exclusive club of a hotel and for the impeccable service (the concierge will fly to Rome to run shopping errands for you if necessary). There are shops on property and a beach club that is a walk or boat ride away, as well as an expansive pool area.

Those for whom money is no object, as the prices are staggeringly high for the size and standard of the rooms.