The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
TO DINE FOR
This Balearic favourite has overcome its 1980s Brits-behaving-badly reputation and carved itself out a new one for its fantastic food scene. Right now, the island has eight Michelin-starred restaurants; and uncountable farm-tofork (or fishing boat-to-fork) places to eat, from beach bars to “agroturismo”, turning out refined local cuisine using top-notch home-grown produce.
On the sensationally beautiful north coast, Deia – still as seductive as when Anais Nin and Robert Graves lived here in the 1920s – draws gourmands making the pilgrimage to one-star Es Racó d’es Teix (and, if they are lucky, staying at grande dame La Residencia). And June sees the opening of a new foodie hotel near Pollença: 35-room El Vicenç de la Mar has two restaurants helmed by Santi Taura, one of Mallorca’s most celebrated chefs.
Doubles from £198 B&B (including spa access) from June 1 (00 34 8711 10392; elvicenc.com)
A FEAST IN PROVENCE
The 100-acre estate of Coquillade resort is quintessential Provence: an 11th-century hamlet of honey-stone bastides, set amid olive groves, vine rows and avenues of cypress trees. A stay here, in one of the newly restored country houses, is a celebration of the good things in life: food, wine and wellbeing, with its three restaurants, Aureto winery and extensive spa (treatments range from Hawaiian massages to a programme called No Stress). It is set in the hills of the extraordinarily picturesque Luberon, a heartland of gastronomy, from the abundant star-winning fine dining, to the markets heaped with local produce in hilltop village squares.
Doubles from £282 B&B (00 334 9074 7171; coquillade.fr)
THE BOUNTY OF SICILY
Sicilians can spend hours arguing about where to find the best tomatoes – and don’t even get them started on wine. This fiery Italian island bears the most extraordinarily delicious produce, from Etna’s fertile slopes to sleepy Menfi (where chef Giorgio Locatelli’s favourite restaurant-with-rooms, Da Vittorio, can be found). Italy insider the Thinking Traveller has villas here for a range of budgets, and can arrange food and wine experiences, such as cooking an Easter feast with the chef of Planeta estate’s gorgeous Menfi retreat, La Foresteria. The Thinking Traveller offers a week’s holiday for two at one-bedroom villa Belich, near Menfi, from £3,267 (020 8131 9261; thethinkingtraveller.com)
FLAVOURS OF PORTUGAL
Lost in the wilds of Portugal’s Alentejo region – so far from anywhere it’s the world’s first Starlight Tourism Destination – Sao Lourenco do Barrocal is a recently restored farmstead set in 780 hectares of bucolic loveliness. Wildflower meadows, olive groves and vineyards stretch as far as the eye can see. The spa is sublime, and so is the food and wine. Swim in the lake or the granite pool, take out bikes or horses, eat and drink the fruits of the land in the winery and farm-to-table restaurant. It’s sophisticated, and luxurious, but welcomes all ages.
Doubles at Sao Lourenco do Barrocal from £340 B&B (00 351 2662 47140; barrocal.pt)