Zannier Île de Bendor opened on 1 May 2026 — a 93-room village across Paul Ricard’s 17-acre private island off Bandol, with eight restaurants, a 1,200 sqm wellbeing centre and a dive centre, seven minutes by boat from the mainland. From €620 a night including breakfast.
In 1950, Paul Ricard — the Marseille-born pastis king — bought a stony 17-acre island 300 metres off Bandol and built his personal idea of Mediterranean happiness on it: artist studios, small hotels, a harbour for conversation, and what is reported to have been France’s first diving centre. Then, for five years, the island simply closed. On 1 May 2026 it reopened as Zannier Île de Bendor, restored hand-in-hand by hotelier Arnaud Zannier and Ricard’s great-grandson Marc de Jouffroy — less a resort than a car-free Provençal village you happen to sleep in.
Zannier Île de Bendor: Key Facts
- Opened: 1 May 2026, after a five-year restoration — Zannier Hotels’ first collaboration with Société Paul Ricard
- Location: private island 300 metres off Bandol, French Riviera — a seven-minute boat crossing, shuttles every 30 minutes; Toulon Hyères airport is about 55 minutes away, Marseille (MRS) around an hour
- Keys: 93 rooms and suites across three distinct quarters — Delos (1960s Riviera glamour), Soukana and the Madrague Houses (rustic Provençal)
- Dining: eight venues under chef Lionel Levy of Marseille’s Une Table au Sud, including the second outpost of Nonna Bazaar
- Wellbeing: a 1,200 sqm centre — eight treatment rooms including a honeymoon spa suite, indoor and outdoor pools, hammam, cold bath, mud bath, balneotherapy, Iyashi dome, yoga and reformer Pilates studios, plus tennis and three pickleball courts
- In the water: beach cove and a dive centre — reviving the island where France’s first diving centre is reported to have operated
- Culture: art gallery and three artisan ateliers; day visitors welcome with restaurant reservations, keeping the village social
- Families: complimentary daily kids’ club, in partnership with Tartine et Chocolat
- Rates: from €620 (rooms) and €1,455 (suites) in medium season, €745 and €1,745 in high season, breakfast included
A Village, Not a Resort
The 93 keys aren’t stacked into one building; they’re distributed across three quarters of a walkable, car-free island, each with its own temperament — Delos channelling the 1960s Riviera years, the Madrague Houses keeping the rustic Provençal register. Mainlanders can still boat over for dinner with a reservation, which is a deliberate act of atmosphere engineering: Ricard’s island was never a gated hideaway, it was a gathering place, and Zannier has kept the gates off. Eight dining venues for 93 rooms only makes sense with that day-visitor traffic — the same maths as a real village square.
The Diving Story Nobody Else Is Telling
For this site’s readers, the buried headline is the dive centre. Bendor’s diving history runs deep — the island is reported to have hosted France’s first diving centre in the Ricard era, when the Riviera was the laboratory of modern scuba. Its revival puts house-reef-style Mediterranean diving seven minutes from a mainland train station, in waters where the season runs long and the wrecks and walls of the Var coast sit within easy boat range. I know this stretch of coast from both directions: my Marseille luxury hotels guide covers the city an hour west — where chef Lionel Levy made his name — and my Ponant Le Bougainville review is the sea-level view of the same Mediterranean.
Tip: the rate calendar rewards the shoulder: May and September–October run about 17% cheaper than high summer, the sea is still warm for diving into October, and the village atmosphere is at its best without the August crowds. Book Delos for the glamour, the Madrague Houses for quiet.
How Much Does Zannier Île de Bendor Cost?
Official rates start at €620 per night for rooms and €1,455 for suites in medium season (May, September–October), rising to €745 and €1,745 in high season (June–August), always with breakfast included. On the booking platforms, for a late-September midweek stay (29 September – 1 October 2026, two nights, two adults), a Madrague House starts from around €706 per night including breakfast and taxes, while the flagship Delos Suite runs closer to €3,500 per night — both showing free cancellation and a midweek discount already applied on the dates we checked. Zannier is also running a set of opening-season offers, the pick of them being “Pay 3 Stay 4”, which adds a complimentary fourth night and free wellbeing-centre access to three-night stays. Rates shift with availability and platform promotions — we’ve seen genuine swings of 10–20% for the same dates — so five minutes comparing the sites below can save you serious money. The links already have Zannier Île de Bendor entered:
- Booking.com — free cancellation on most room types, no prepayment needed.
- Trip.com — often worth a look for travellers based in Asia.
- Expedia — useful if bundling flights.
This preview is based on official announcements — I haven’t stayed yet. Read more about how I review or visit my Work With Me page.
Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links. If you book through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure policy.
