Things to do
Snorkelling in granite coves, a boat to uninhabited islands, a round of golf on a cliff above the Strait, and a medieval city visible from the hotel terrace that most visitors have never heard of.
Cavallo has three main beaches, all of them exceptional. Plage de Palma is the largest — white sand, shallow turquoise water, the most beautiful view on the island. The hotel’s private beach (the only pure sand beach on the island) is accessed through the hotel. Plage Grecu and Plage Zeri are rockier, more sheltered, and reached by golf cart or on foot through the maquis. Eight minutes’ walk from the ferry landing to the closest beach.
June and September are the best months. July and August are busy.
The 23 uninhabited granite islands of the Lavezzi Archipelago lie just offshore — all within the Natural Reserve of the Strait of Bonifacio, which covers 80,000 hectares between Corsica and Sardinia. No buildings, no facilities, no permanent inhabitants. The snorkelling and diving in the reserve are among the finest in the western Mediterranean: exceptional visibility, rich marine life, and water colours that do not exist anywhere else in France. Boat hire from the hotel or the island agency.
April–October. Calm mornings best for snorkelling.
The pink granite seabed produces water clarity and colour that photographs consistently underrepresent. The coves around the island — accessible by golf cart and then on foot — offer snorkelling with visibility sometimes exceeding twenty metres. The marine life in the protected reserve is abundant: octopus, grouper, sea bream, and the occasional dolphin passing through the strait. Mask and fins available from the hotel and from the rental agency.
One of the most spectacular golf courses in Europe — 18 holes built on the white limestone cliffs above the Strait of Bonifacio, with several holes playing directly over the sea. It is not on the island itself, but reachable in forty minutes including the ferry crossing. Golf carts on Cavallo are electric; the golf at Sperone is full-length and seriously designed. The course regularly features in European top-100 lists. Book tee times before arrival in high season.
golfdesperone.com →The entire island of Cavallo is navigable by electric golf cart — there are no cars, no motorbikes, nothing motorised except these quiet little vehicles that have become the island’s signature mode of transport. Hire one from the hotel or the island agency and drive to the beaches, the farm restaurant, the viewpoints, and the rocky western shore where the sea is rougher and the granite formations more dramatic. The island takes about thirty minutes to cross end to end.
Hire available from the hotel and cavalloisland.com
The medieval city of Bonifacio is 2.5 kilometres across the water and twenty minutes by ferry — visible from the hotel terrace on a clear day. The old town is built on white limestone cliffs that plunge directly into the sea: a walled citadel of pale stone above turquoise water, with a harbour below and a network of medieval streets above. Almost nobody outside France knows it well. From Cavallo it is the obvious day trip and the essential contrast — stone and history after sea and silence.
Ferries run regularly throughout the day in season.