- An arched window framing the open sea
- Stone bath set into the wall
- Breakfast served on your sill
No. 01Four suites
Sea Suite
An arched window framing the open sea · Stone bath set into the wall · Breakfast served on your sill
from €420 / night
Cala OndineFourteen rooms on the cliff
Where the cliff meets the sea.
Fourteen limewashed rooms stepped into the rock above a quiet cove. Linen, lemon trees, and a sea that changes colour by the hour.
39°47′ N3°08′ E
IThe house
A house of fourteen rooms, cut into the rock above the cove and opened — slowly — to guests.
Maison Ondine began as the summer house of the Arnaud family, who fished these waters for three generations and grew lemons on the terraces above. In 1962 they let two rooms to travellers who arrived by boat, swam before breakfast, and asked to stay another week.
Today there are fourteen, each one different, each one turned toward the water. The walls are limewashed by hand every April; the floors are the terracotta the family laid by lantern light. There are no televisions, and the only timetable is the sun.
“Nothing here is new, and nothing is in a hurry. That is the whole idea.”
- Rooms & suites, each facing the water
- 14
- Stone steps down to the swimming rocks
- 62
- The year the first guests came by boat
- 1962
- Generations of the Arnaud family
- 3
IIRooms & suites
Fourteen rooms, three ways to wake.
Every room faces the water. Choose the arch, the terrace or the garden — the sea follows you either way, and so does breakfast.
Find your dates
- A private terracotta terrace of 22 m²
- Loungers under the bougainvillea
- Outdoor shower in the old cistern
No. 02Seven rooms
Terrace Room
A private terracotta terrace of 22 m² · Loungers under the bougainvillea · Outdoor shower in the old cistern
from €360 / night
- A plunge pool in the olive grove
- Kitchen hewn from island stone
- Lemons picked from your own trees
No. 03Three villas
Garden Villa
A plunge pool in the olive grove · Kitchen hewn from island stone · Lemons picked from your own trees
from €690 / night
Every rate includes breakfast on the terrace, the Tuesday boat to the grottoes, and a late checkout whenever the sea is calm.
IIIThe table
Supper begins when the light goes gold.
A note from the kitchen
We cook what the boats bring in at six and what the garden gives at seven. If the sea is rough, the menu changes — and so do we. Sit wherever the candles are lit.
— Lio Marrás, chef
The terrace at 20:40 · Thursday
Reserve a table
Nightly 19:30 – 22:30
Non-residents by reservation
IVDays at Ondine
Slow days, well spent.
Arranged by Nadia at the front desk the evening before. Nothing is compulsory; almost everything involves the sea.
Boat to the grottoes
Our wooden fishing boat leaves the cove at nine for the blue caves under the point. Masks, white peaches and a thermos of coffee on board.
Lemon-grove lunch
A long table in the dappled shade of the grove, three hours and far too many plates. Pasta rolled by Nonna Pia, wine from the hill behind the house.
Ceramics with Lucia
Throw a cup on Lucia's wheel in the old net store, glaze it in the blue of the cove, and drink your last espresso of the stay from it.
Sunset swim
When the sun touches the point we lower the ladder from the rocks and pour something cold. The water is warmest at the very end of the day.
VFrom the journal
Notes from Cala Ondine
Read the journalIssue No. 07Late summer
The swifts come back in the third week of April.
A season's notes from the cove: when the figs turn, how Lucia mixes her blue, and the rock where the water stays warmest.
Read the issueVIThe guest book
From the guest book
We came for three nights and stayed for nine. On the last morning the waiter remembered how I take my coffee — and which chair catches the first sun.
“The quietest breakfast of my life, and the best bread.”
Room 3, May“Lucia's cup is on my desk in Copenhagen. I still drink from it.”
Villa 1, July“Swim at seven, not six. Trust the waiter on this.”
Room 11, August