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In this text, I’ll share our itinerary for 4 days in Sardinia! We explored Northern Sardinia by automobile and visited a number of the primary highlights in Sardinia: Costa Smeralda, Alghero and La Pelosa. We additionally stayed in Olbia and Palau and noticed a number of the most stunning seashores in Sardinia. If that sounds proper up your avenue, maintain studying!
Before we begin with the itinerary, listed below are some helpful issues to learn about Sardinia:
Do you want a automobile in Sardinia?
Unfortunately, public transport isn’t working very incessantly in Sardinia and a few locations on this itinerary aren’t accessible by public transport. If you may, I like to recommend renting a automobile. We rented our automobile by means of Rentalcars.com and selected the operator Sicily by Car. We acquired the automobile we booked and didn’t have any points with Sicily By Car; subsequently, I’d positively advocate it.
If renting a automobile is out of the query, I like to recommend both staying in a city with good seashores like Santa Theresa Gallura or Alghero and see if there’s a public bus that may take you to different seashores and cities. Alternatively, you may also ebook excursions that will deliver you to different locations in Sardinia like these ones:
La Maddalena Archipelago Boat Tour
Costa Smeralda Day Trip – one of the best villages and seashores
How many days do you want in Sardinia?
If you’re questioning, what number of days do you want in Sardinia, ideally as many as you’ve! There are loads of issues to do in Sardinia and also you received’t be bored or drained. Moreover, the island is so massive that on this itinerary, we’re solely specializing in North Sardinia. However, in case you have 10 days or 2 weeks in Sardinia, you may go to each the North and the South of the island – they’re fairly totally different! The Southern a part of the island has much more sightseeing you are able to do and has much more landmarks!
What is there to do in Sardinia?
North Sardinia isn’t one of the best place for sightseeing (not like Sicily – learn my put up concerning the itinerary for per week in Sicily), but it surely’s a beautiful vacation spot for a seaside vacation because it has a number of the most stunning seashores in Europe. There are some beautiful stunning cities in Sardinia as properly (Alghero, Cagliari), however the majority of cities in Sardinia aren’t very spectacular. Food in Sardinia is great as properly! The smartest thing to do in Sardinia, for my part, is to drive round and discover essentially the most stunning seashores and eat in beautiful genuine eating places! If you come to the South of Sardinia, you are able to do a bit extra sightseeing, however one of the best seashores are positively within the North!
What’s one of the best time to go to Sardinia?
If you’re questioning, what’s one of the best time to go to Sardinia, I’d advocate going through the months when it’s attainable to swim – from June to late September!
Alright, with out additional ado, let’s begin with the itinerary for 4 days in North Sardinia:
The overview of our itinerary for an extended weekend in North Sardinia:
Day 0: Land in Olbia at 9pm, accumulate a rental automobile, keep in a single day close to Olbia at Hotel Il Timone
Day 1: Principe seaside, Porto Cervo, lunch in Cannigione, Mannena seaside, night & dinner in Palau, an evening at Hotel Piccada
Day 2: Rena Blanca seaside in Santa Theresa Gallura, lunch in Castelsardo, then seaside in Alghero, a night exploring Alghero and staying there in a single day at Hotel Angedras
Day 3: La Pelosa seaside (wants advance reserving), so we stayed at La Pelosetta, lunch there, then driving again to Olbia & Porto Istana Beach, an evening at Mercure Olbia
Day 4: Exploring Olbia, Pittolungu seaside and return flights
Now, let’s speak concerning the itinerary in additional element
4 days in Sardinia: Northern Sardinia itinerary by automobile (from Olbia to Alghero)
Day 0: Arrival in Olbia
Our flight to Olbia departed from London Heathrow round 5pm, which meant that we needed to take 1/2 days off to get to the airport on time. It takes round 2 hours to get to Olbia from London. After the passport management, we had been queuing to gather our pre-booked rental automobile. That took over an hour, because the queue is big. We had been fairly fortunate that our lodge was closing reception fairly late, round 11pm as we acquired there simply on time, round 22:30pm, regardless of touchdown simply earlier than 9pm!
Overnight, we stayed at lodge Il Timone – we picked it due to its good opinions, reasonably priced value proximity to the airport and to our subsequent vacation spot. However, the reception there closes at 11pm. If you’re feeling such as you is likely to be delayed, think about staying at Mercure Olbia which has a 24-hour entrance desk!
Day 1: Costa Smeralda and Palau
Principe Beach
On our first full day in Sardinia, we determined to see the highlights of Costa Smeralda, together with one of the best seashores within the space. We began with the Spiaggia Principe (Principe Beach), which can also be referred to as Spiaggia Poltu Di Li Cogghj. Even although it’s a small seaside, there are sunbeds for rent there for those who determine to remain for longer. However, needless to say it takes round 5-8 minutes to succeed in it from the parking and also you want snug sandals to get there, because the street is slim and entails a little bit of climbing. Also, they solely take money on the parking! As for the fee, we paid 5 EUR for the parking for two hours.
Porto Cervo
Our subsequent cease was the long-lasting city Porto Cervo – it’s recognized for its designer outlets, costly eating places and unique seaside golf equipment, visited by millionaires and billionaires. We anticipated a bit extra from Porto Cervo – sadly, it simply seemed like a elaborate open-air buying village with no character and no architectural highlights. The eating places are certainly actually costly – whereas there’s a low-cost cafe there, if you need one thing good, you’ll find yourself paying 30 EUR+ only for a starter.
If you’re not serious about shopping for a Chanel bag or Hermes sneakers, then there may be not a lot to do in Porto Cervo – it’s a port, so there is no such thing as a seaside close by, simply outlets and eating places. And a number of yachts!
Lunch in Cannigione & Mannena Beach
Initially, we had been planning to have lunch in Porto Cervo, however we didn’t anticipate most locations to be closed and the one open eating places cost 37 euros only for small starters, so we determined that it’s in all probability not one of the best worth for cash and we are able to have one thing else in one other place. That’s how we discovered the little city referred to as Cannigione! Cannigione can also be a port – you may take a number of boat excursions to La Maddalena and different locations from there. It additionally has a couple of eating places. We had a fast lunch with wonderful contemporary seafood in a spot referred to as Gennarino retailer – I can positively advocate this spot!
Afterwards, we drove to Mannena seaside and rented two sunbeds and an umbrella there for 20 EUR! Mannena seaside wasn’t as spectacular because the seaside we visited earlier than, Principe, but it surely wasn’t as full as Principe seaside and it was only a quick stroll away from the parking!
Alternatively, for those who’re not excited concerning the prospects of visiting one other seaside, you may ebook one of many boat excursions like this one, for instance.
Night in Palau
Our subsequent and ultimate cease for our first time out of 4 days in Sardinia was Palau. Palau is a barely bigger city positioned nearly on the fringe of Costa Smeralda. It’s not very spectacular from the architectural viewpoint (I wouldn’t name it a really fairly city), but it surely had a stunning port, a pleasant promenade, an excellent seaside and a number of good eating places! Our lodge for the evening was Hotel Piccada, however for those who’re serious about one thing barely nicer, LH Porto Rafael Altura Resort is likely to be a greater possibility!
For dinner, we picked Restaurant Pasta e Vino and it was beautiful! Alternatively, if it’s too busy or to not your liking, we noticed a comfortable restaurant referred to as Il Kalamaro!
Day 2 out of 4 days in Sardinia: Santa Theresa Gallura, Castelsardo and Alghero – driving to the West Coast of North Sardinia
Santa Theresa Gallura
Our first cease was Santa Theresa Gallura, one other city positioned proper on the fringe of Costa Smeralda. Santa Theresa Gallura is a pleasant city – it seemed considerably older than Palau! However, the principle cause to go to Santa Theresa Gallura is its fantastic seaside. It’s positioned very near town centre – and it’s completely gorgeous! After visiting over 8 seashores in North Sardinia, this one might be my favorite one! I preferred it much more than the well-known La Pelosa! You can hire sunbeds there as properly, nonetheless, they promote out fairly shortly, so be sure that to reach there early for those who want one.
Overall, I regretted that we didn’t keep in Santa Theresa Gallura to work remotely (as a substitute of Olbia, the place we stayed for an additional 3 nights after the sightseeing a part of the journey), as a result of it was one of many nicest mixtures of a stunning city and wonderful seaside!
Lunch in Castelsardo
Our subsequent cease was Castelsardo, nearly 1 hour driving away from Santa Theresa Gallura. Some sources claimed Castelsardo to be probably the most stunning cities in Sardinia, and it’s certainly good – it seemed fairly totally different in comparison with Olbia or Palau. It’s additionally a tiny city, so throughout lunchtime, it seemed utterly lifeless – there have been a couple of individuals, however all of them had been on a really compact seaside proper within the coronary heart of Castelsardo.
We managed to seek out an open restaurant for lunch – Sale e Peppe and the meal there was among the finest we had in Sardinia!
If you need to discover the nicest a part of the city subsequent to the doorway to the Castle/Museum, it’s fast a steep stroll up, nonetheless, you may drive a number of this route (which we didn’t as we mistakenly parked on the backside, close to the seaside and already paid for the parking once we realised it’s fairly removed from the precise city centre).
Alghero
Our ultimate cease for the second day in Sardinia was Alghero. It took us one other hour to get there from Castelsardo. Once we arrived, we shortly checked in at our lodge Angedras (needless to say it’s fairly removed from the good seaside in Alghero because it turned out), so probably I’d advocate Hotel Domomea for exploring town centre and Don Giovanni to remain near each the seaside & town centre.
Since we had been removed from the seaside, we needed to drive. We drove to Maria Pia seaside and left our automobile on the parking. The seaside in Alghero was good, though not as spectacular because the seashores close to Olbia. Also, surprisingly, the water temperature was quite a bit colder in Alghero in comparison with Santa Theresa Gallura and Olbia! I even felt prefer it was too chilly to swim regardless of it being over 30C exterior!
In the night, we explored town centre of Alghero – for my part, it was the prettiest metropolis in Sardinia that we managed to see on this journey. Alghero jogged my memory of lovely cities in Sicily like Syracuse and Catania and it’s positively many instances nicer than Olbia. If you need an ideal mixture of lovely metropolis – good seaside, then Alghero is the most suitable choice!
However, we weren’t very profitable with discovering a pleasant place to eat for dinner. Alghero was very busy and one of the best locations required a reservation, so we ended up within the restaurant referred to as Marco Polo, which I’d advocate to keep away from. It was in all probability the worst meal we ever had in Italy (and we visited Italy greater than 10 instances). After that unhealthy meal, we visited a wine bar L’Altra Vineria that was nice (5 out of 5)!
Day 3 in Sardinia: La Pelosa, Olbia and Porto Istana
La Pelosa
Numerous sources claimed that La Pelosa is essentially the most stunning seaside in Sardinia and after visiting it, I feel we needed to agree. La Pelosa is certainly probably the most stunning seashores in Italy, if not in Europe! It’s a really shallow seaside, which signifies that the water there appears to be like turquoise, similar to within the Caribbean. It’s additionally very clear, with a number of fishes swimming round and really heat! The solely draw back is that you may’t go to in with out an advance reserving in Summer and in September. You have to ebook at the least 2 weeks upfront if you wish to go to the seaside on the weekend. You can ebook it on-line right here.
Unfortunately, we didn’t do correct analysis and had no thought about advance bookings, so we had been truly turned down and couldn’t enter La Pelosa seaside. However, there may be one other seaside simply across the nook (3-5 minutes strolling) referred to as La Pelosetta, the place you don’t want a reservation and because it’s so near La Pelosa, you may truly swim /stroll there (needless to say you may’t keep on the seaside at La Pelosa, as there are a number of workers members checking the wristband on a regular basis, you may simply stroll/swim for those who don’t have a wristband).
However, in La Pelosetta, we rented two sunbeds and an umbrella for simply 20 EUR (it’s sometimes 30 EUR, however since we had been solely staying for 3 hours, they gave us a reduction).
Olbia and Porto Istana
After visiting La Pelosa, we drove all the best way to Olbia for just below 2 hours. We checked in at our condo NG Gallura, the place we had been staying for longer to work remotely, however for those who’re simply staying for one evening, I like to recommend staying at Mercure Olbia! We left our issues and headed to a different seaside, Porto Istana.
Porto Istana is taken into account among the finest seashores in very shut proximity to Olbia and is even reachable by bus. It additionally has a couple of good eating places close by for those who determine to remain for dinner! We stayed there for a few hours and located the water temperature actually heat!
If you determine to return to Olbia for dinner, be sure that to go to the restaurant referred to as Mere – it’s positively one of the best one in the entire Olbia (now we have tried fairly a couple of eating places there whereas working remotely). Olbia will get fairly packed at evening, and it’s good to stroll across the metropolis centre (it’s fairly small, so you may stroll throughout it in lower than 40 minutes)
Day 4: Olbia, San Pantaleo and Pittulongu Beach
Olbia and San Pantaleo
In the morning, you may stroll across the centre of Olbia once more and see it within the daylight. After that, you may drive to San Pantaleo – it was really useful to us a number of instances by many locals. San Pantaleo is a stunning village positioned very near Olbia and it’s positively one of many prettiest spots in North Sardinia. If you’re fortunate to be there on a Thursday – it’s a market day in San Pantaleo. The market begins at 8am and you should purchase every kind of issues there! San Pantaleo additionally has gorgeous views of the mountains!
I’ve learn that Sardinia is a superb climbing vacation spot, nonetheless, in all probability not in July, as a result of the temperatures had been reaching 38 levels and it was positively not one of the best climate for climbing except you grew up in a desert! If you’re visiting Sardinia between late September and late October, you’ll positively be capable of hike there, so as a substitute of seeing so many seashores, you may allocate a while to climbing!
Pittulongu Beach
Finally, for those who nonetheless have a while earlier than taking a return flight, I like to recommend heading to a different seaside, positioned very near Olbia and San Pantaleo – Pittulongu Beach. Pittulongu Beach is definitely not only one seaside however an extended line of a number of seashores. All the seashores are beautiful and the water was the warmest now we have skilled in Sardinia – good for a final swim earlier than flying again residence!
Some different posts you may take pleasure in studying:
7-day street journey round Sicily
The finest seashores close to Pisa & Cinque Terre
2 days in Mallorca, Spain – street journey round Mallorca in winter
From Milan to Rome – 7-day street journey in Italy
Romantic honeymoon in Italy – one of the best itinerary for 10 days
4 days in Ischia – the island with one of the best meals in Italy