“Le maquis, la mer ..et vous.” So says the motto of U Capu Biancu.
Le maquis, because the hotel is buried on a headland amid the herb-scented scrub that is a key ingredient of Corsica’s unique appeal. Its 3 km access road has been improved (now about 80% tarmac) but a feeling of isolation still persists in this most privileged of settings. Glorious Bonifacio is about 15 minutes' drive in your hired car.
La mer, because the hotel overlooks the Gulf of Santa Manza and has direct access down to a small, virtually private stretch of coarse sand. (Beaches on this part of the coast get a lot of algae deposits so the hotel guarantees maintenance of theirs only between mid-June and mid-September.)
Et vous… because the owners, Jean-Louis and Sylvie Limongi, have been single-minded in their mission to create for their guests a serene, romantic hotel with a genuine purity of spirit - idyllic for affluent honeymooners.
Of course, all this comes at a hefty cost. And none more so than the restaurant where the Sengalese chef, Gadio el Hadji, presides. At lunchtime in season, you are served together at round tables beside the beach. And, on summer evenings, a candle-lit dinner on the terrace with its 180° sea views is so intoxicating that perhaps you won’t even notice the price.
Décor in the smallest, basic rooms is, to be kind, "true to the hotel's rustic Corsican roots"; you are left in no doubt that this was once a 3-star hotel which upgraded to 4-star when adding more luxurious rooms. Like everything else, it bears the distinctive Limongi stamp but not everyone feels entirely comfortable with their philosophy nor with their pricing structure.