Sun, sea and Tuba in Marseille

The Tuba Table restaurant at Tuba Club in Les Goudes
The Tuba Table restaurant at Tuba Club in Les Goudes © Florian Touzet

Grégory Gassa and Fabrice Denizot, both Marseille-born and friends since childhood, had long shared a dream of a seaside getaway – a simple fisherman’s cottage immersed along the still slightly wild coastline around their hometown. The semi-decrepit diving club they came upon a few years ago in the village of Les Goudes, several miles south of Marseille, wasn’t quite that cottage but had the potential to become the escape they’d envisioned: rustic, respectful of the environment, with a bit of great food, a lot of great scenery and some cool people. Tuba Club has become a hot-ticket destination with the fashion and creative sets since opening quietly in summer 2020.

A fishing boat on the water by Tuba Club
A fishing boat on the water by Tuba Club © Florian Touzet
A sea view from one of the villas
A sea view from one of the villas © Florian Touzet
A seaside table at Tuba Table
A seaside table at Tuba Table © Florian Touzet

Priced: from €240 for rooms and €850 for suites

Click: tuba-club.com

While it technically qualifies as a hotel – there are just five rooms plus three villa suites – the scene revolves around the restaurant and wide terrace, where revellers lounge, frolic in the sea, and nosh on crudo at Bikini, the waterside bar-restaurant. Architect Marion Mailaender pared the building back to its original bones, then channelled the dive club’s ’80s heyday, filling both the indoor and outdoor spaces with simple raw wood, limewashed stone and a sunny palette of ochre, blue and yellow. It’s low-key and high-chic south of France perfection.


A new beach baby on Antiparos

Sun loungers on Apantima Bay beach outside Beach House Antiparos
Sun loungers on Apantima Bay beach outside Beach House Antiparos © Nick Nikolaou

When Athanasia Comninos opened The Rooster on Antiparos, her low-slung, lo-fi mini-resort in 2021, it was to near-instant acclaim. She’s recently taken on a second venture: a remake of the beloved Beach House Antiparos on Apantima Cove, across the island from The Rooster. Its eight rooms – whitewashed walls, poured-concrete floors, simple blue paint on the joinery – have been upgraded with a mix of antique and contemporary furniture, but Comninos has also brought the Rooster magic to the beach where guests are welcome through to the evening.

A table set for dinner at Beach House Antiparos’s day-to-night restaurant
A table set for dinner at Beach House Antiparos’s day-to-night restaurant © Nick Nikolaou
A bedroom’s outdoor terrace
A bedroom’s outdoor terrace © Nick Nikolaou

Priced: from €400

Click: beachhouseantiparos.com

There are sun loungers, shady seating areas, a new beachside canteen and calm, very swimmable waters. Should you wish to stick around for dinner, the restaurant is also a day-to-night affair overseen by chef Pericles Koskinas.


Fusion fabulousness on Montenegro’s Kotor Bay

The swimming pool at Tapasake at One&Only in Montenegro
The swimming pool at Tapasake at One&Only in Montenegro

One&Only made its Montenegro debut three years ago, with a vast, gleaming resort in Portonovi on the Bay of Kotor – one wing of which is given over to a very deluxe outpost of Swiss wellness clinic Chenot Espace. At the other end of the resort (both literally and figuratively) is Tapasake, its beach club-cum-dining destination, where non-hotel guests are very welcome (though it’s a good idea to book ahead in summer), and where detox sits pretty far down the menu. Loungers, big umbrellas and a bale bed or two sit on the sand and across the lawn in front of the terraced pool. The curated playlist gives way to a DJ as evening arrives.

Inside a private cabana at One&Only
Inside a private cabana at One&Only © Rupert Peace
One&Only’s private cabanas
One&Only’s private cabanas © Rupert Peace

Priced: rooms from £1,085

Click: oneandonlyresorts.com

Tapasake is all about fusion, whether of delectable Peruvian and Japanese flavours from the very capable kitchen, or of tradition and adventure on the drinks menu (there are some excellent Montenegrin wines along with sake flights and a G&T bar). At sunset, the roof terrace is the prime spot for enjoying it all.


Scorpios crosses the Aegean to Bodrum

The view of Bodrum from Scorpios
The view of Bodrum from Scorpios © Georg Roske

Mykonos has come to Bodrum. Scorpios, the Greek island destination billing itself as the “most famous beach club in the world”, was conceived back in 2015 as the cultured and creative person’s go-to – a modern-day agora for connection, performance and celebration as much as for a swim or a lie in the sun.

Sun loungers and umbrellas at Scorpios
Sun loungers and umbrellas at Scorpios © Georg Roske
Towels by a private sunshade
Towels by a private sunshade © Georg Roske

Priced: from €1,500 for a suite, sun loungers from €60 per day

Click: scorpios.com

The club recently unfurled an ambitious and multi-continental plan of expansion: first up is this plum, wooded seaside location in the Turkish Riviera’s best-known town. Here, Scorpios isn’t just a beach club. There are two full restaurants, a Ritual Space (as in Mykonos) for gatherings, day retreats, treatments, performances, and – marking the club’s maiden foray into hospitality – 12 suites, each with its own private pool and large terrace.

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