Sardinia floats off Italy's western flank like a continent in miniature, a place that feels less Italian than simply itself.
Go in May to June and September, for warm sea and lighter crowds.
- Fly into
- Cagliari (CAG), Olbia (OLB), Alghero (AHO)
- Capital
- Cagliari
- Size
- 24,100 km² (9,305 sq mi), about the size of New Hampshire
- People
- 1.6 million
Some seven thousand nuraghi, the conical stone towers raised by a vanished Bronze Age people, stud the interior, none grander than Su Nuraxi at Barumini. Around the coast the empires that coveted the island left their marks in stone, from the Phoenician-Roman ports of Tharros and Nora to Catalan Alghero, where Spanish is still spoken in the lanes.
The interior, the rugged Barbagia around Nuoro and Oliena, remains the island's stubborn heart, a land of shepherds, of pecorino pressed in mountain dairies, of Cannonau reds and the myrtle liqueur called mirtu. The table runs to malloreddus and stuffed culurgiones, to grains of toasted fregola in broth. Yet the coast tells another story entirely, the granite glamour of the Costa Smeralda, the pink sand of the Maddalena islands, the impossible turquoise of the Gulf of Orosei.
Come in late spring or September, when the water is warm, the festivals fill the squares and the crowds of high summer have thinned.
What to see in Sardinia
Save the ones you want and we'll find which of our routes reaches the most in the fewest nights.
Su Nuraxi di Barumini
Sardinia's grandest Bronze Age nuraghe complex, excavated from beneath a hill in the 1950s.
La Maddalena Archipelago
A national park of seven granite islands off Sardinia's north coast, home to Budelli's pink beach and Garibaldi's house.
Neptune's Grotto
Alghero The sea cave of stalactites and a salt lake at the foot of Capo Caccia.
Tharros
A Phoenician port city on the Sinis peninsula, its basalt streets, twin Corinthian columns and tophet running into the sea.
Nora Archaeological Site
Pula A Phoenician, Punic and Roman port town on a cape south of Cagliari, with a seaside theatre and mosaic floors.
Capo Testa
Santa Teresa Gallura The wind-carved granite cape facing Corsica across the Strait of Bonifacio.
Cala Luna
Cala Gonone The Gulf of Orosei's crescent cove, reached only by boat or a rocky coastal trail.
Orgosolo Murals
The Barbagia shepherd town whose walls have carried political murals since 1969.
The short answer
- Where to sleep
- Cagliari, Alghero, La Maddalena, Cala Gonone
- At least
- 10 nights
- Within a day out
- 6 of these 8
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How many nights in Sardinia?
Choose your nights and the route redraws: where to sleep, what to see, and the towns an easy day out from each base.
3 nights in Sardinia: Cagliari for 3.5 nights in Sardinia: Cagliari for 3 and Alghero for 2.7 nights in Sardinia: Cagliari for 3, Alghero for 2 and La Maddalena for 2.10 nights in Sardinia: Cagliari for 3, Alghero for 3, La Maddalena for 2 and Cala Gonone for 2.
Add your first day and each link opens on that stop's dates.
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Where to stay in Sardinia
Each stop with what to see and, where we have them, a day out and the hotel we'd book.
Sardinia's capital climbs from its harbour to the walled Castello quarter, ringed by Pisan towers and crowned by the Bastione di Saint Remy.
- Day out
- Pula
A villa-style hotel with large gardens and a heated jacuzzi in Stampace, within walking distance of the old town and the marina.
Check dates: Hotel Villa FannyMore in Cagliari
Palazzo Doglio
A hotel in a Liberty-style building around a courtyard of shops and restaurants, with a spa, pool and a theatre opposite.
Check dates: Palazzo DoglioPalazzo Tirso Cagliari Mgallery
A seafront Art Nouveau palazzo with custom Poltrona Frau interiors, a spa in the vaults and a casual terrace restaurant over the gulf.
Check dates: Palazzo Tirso Cagliari Mgallery
165 km from Cagliari as the crow flies
A walled seaport on the northwest coast where Catalan was carried over from medieval Aragon and is still spoken today.
Within its honey-stone ramparts the city trades in red coral, while nearby a boat ride leads to the sea cave of Neptune's Grotto.
115 km from Alghero as the crow flies
The main town of an archipelago of seven granite islands off the Gallura coast, now a national park.
- Day out
- Santa Teresa Gallura
A small guest house in the town centre with a handful of air-conditioned rooms, breakfast, free parking and a lift.
Check dates: Guest House VillabiancaMore in La Maddalena
Hotel Villa del Parco
A country-style hotel with terraced rooms and kitchenettes, buffet breakfast, and boat trips to Corsica arranged on request.
Check dates: Hotel Villa del ParcoResidence Borgo Punta Villa
A residence of self-catering apartments up a steep hill, with pool access, free parking and views over the sea and town.
Check dates: Residence Borgo Punta Villa
105 km from La Maddalena as the crow flies
Other places to stay
Residence Grandi Magazzini
Self-catering apartments in central Nuoro, a short walk from Piazza Sebastiano Satta and the MAN art museum, handy for exploring on foot.
Check dates: Residence Grandi MagazziniCasa Solotti
A bed and breakfast on Monte Ortobene in a large garden, with homemade cakes at breakfast on the terrace, a short drive from Nuoro.
Check dates: Casa SolottiCasa Orrù
A bed and breakfast a short distance from Nuoro's centre, with air-conditioned rooms, private bathrooms and an Italian breakfast.
Check dates in NuoroGuest House Villabianca
A small guest house in the town centre with a handful of air-conditioned rooms, breakfast, free parking and a lift.
Check dates: Guest House VillabiancaCanduleri
A five-room guesthouse in the centre of Orgosolo with a rooftop terrace, a library and interiors made partly from reclaimed local materials.
Check dates: CanduleriHotel Villa del Parco
A country-style hotel with terraced rooms and kitchenettes, buffet breakfast, and boat trips to Corsica arranged on request.
Check dates: Hotel Villa del ParcoResidence Borgo Punta Villa
A residence of self-catering apartments up a steep hill, with pool access, free parking and views over the sea and town.
Check dates: Residence Borgo Punta Villa
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A traditional dinner from Sardinia
Every course is one the region actually serves. Change any of them and the wine, the timing and the shopping list follow.
Antipasto
Pane carasau
Sardinian durum-wheat bread rolled into thin rounds, inflated in a hot oven, split and toasted into crisp sheets.
First course
Malloreddus alla Campidanese
Hand-shaped Sardinian semolina pasta with saffron in the dough, tossed with a pork-sausage and tomato sauce and finished with Pecorino Sardo.
Main course
Sardinian lamb with artichokes
Lamb braised with artichoke wedges, carrots and a little tomato, finished with fine strips of lemon peel.
Dessert
Seadas
Sardinian fried pastry with warm, lemon-scented young pecorino and a ribbon of corbezzolo honey.
What to pour
A Cannonau di Sardegna, the island's warm, fruity red: its soft tannins suit the sausage and the pecorino.
Cannonau di Sardegna
Start the Pane carasau first: 3 hr 35 min.
Taste it there
Sardinian pasta in a farmhouse near Alghero
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What Sardinia is known for
You will find these here and nowhere else.
Slow smoke of myrtle and juniper gives Fiore Sardo its dark rind, on a cheese of raw Sarda sheep's milk curdled with lamb or kid rennet.
Bosa is the only Sardinian town built on a river: coloured houses run down to the Temo, the tanneries face them and the Malaspina castle watches both.
An island of different wine places
Sardinia’s wine names point toward distinct territories: Vermentino di Gallura, Carignano del Sulcis, Vernaccia di Oristano and Malvasia di Bosa are useful starting points. Choose one area to explore with its settlements and landscape. The island’s wine country is better understood through those local relationships than through a single label for all Sardinian wine.
Sources and citations (2)
At Christmas
For a Sardinian Christmas menu, choose dishes by the work they need: mint-and-potato culurgiones to shape, porceddu for a carefully planned roast, or raisin papassini for the sweet course. These are choices for your table, not one fixed island-wide sequence. Read each method before combining them, and keep the origins of other holiday sweets distinct when browsing the wider recipe collection.
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