Sardinia (Sardegna) travel

If you use the English spelling - Sardinia - in the search box, you'll find over 500 Forum entries including a few of my own. Though it doesn't have those WOW!!! places, I found the island to be great. Wonderful scenery, charming people, excellent food.

Thank you, Philip! Good suggestion.

I did a little less than a week in Sardegna about 13 years ago. We had the Rick Steves' books, but we didn't find much in there, so when we were driving around the island we stopped in a Carrefour (or something like it) and they actually had a small bookstore like part of the "mall" it was in, and they had a Lonely Planet book in English! We bought that, and went on our way.....I think we only planned 2 steps ahead. We took the ferry from Civitavecchia to Olbia, explored it a bit, stayed on the water outside of Olbia the first night, then crossed the northern part of the island stopping in various places, and then stayed on the northwest peninsula and stayed in Stintino (where the guidebook said if you are "moderately good swimmer" you can swim across the channel to a smaller island off that beach....WOW that was an adventure). After that, we took a drive to Alghero, and then down to Pula which is more or less across from Cagliari, where we explored some caves to the west and some of Cagliari. Then we drove back to Olbia and stayed in the same hotel from the first night. It was a whirlwind!

Thank you Katherine! Yes, we have Lonely Planet books for Sardinia as well as Southern Italy. (Also for earlier trips to Sicily, but I understand Rick has a new Sicily book; most of the highlights in his new book we've explored and are terrific!) Great suggestions. I appreciate your time. Of course we want to do it all so will plan well!

I’ve posted several comments over the years. Linked below are some, but there are hundreds of past posts available if you search this forum. Most of the comments are from me and Philip and few others since very few Americans go there (although the island is very popular with Europeans). The only Americans I met there were scuba divers serving in the NATO Navy Base (nuclear submarines) at La Maddalena. Since the base was closed in 2008 I presume you will find even fewer Americans now.

Sardegna is mostly about nature, beaches, scuba diving, although there are some interesting historical sites and quaint historic towns. The food is unique and with little resemblance to the typical Italian foods in the mainland. That’s the result of centuries of relative isolation, which you can see also in their dialect, totally incomprehensible even to native Italian speakers like me.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sardinia-a4b6bf34-12f0-4f41-aa46-cc7c08ab1f7f
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sardinia-10e5a248-2848-4d78-8fdc-14a40d512964

Thanks Roberto da Firenze! I have now read many of your posts and they are most helpful. I'm already adding to my "to-do" list as we pull together our itinerary. Two weeks (or more) in Sardinia, and then four weeks in southern regions of Italy.

Sardinia hosts 60% of all military bases in Italy and a lot of its territory (including a portion of the sea larger than the island itself) is used by missile, air bombing, Navy bombing ranges, used for NATO military exercises with live ammunition. During summer from June 1 to September 30 all exercises are halted during the tourist season. If you go outside of summer and plan to rent a boat, there are restrictions to leisure navigation at certain times and in certain areas, also some beaches are closed for safety. So you need to be informed about all restrictions if you travel before June or after October. If you don’t plan to go boating, then don’t worry.

We spent almost 3 weeks in Sardinia in September 2017, drove all the way around the island, and explored a few of the smaller offshore islands as well.

It was awful. The scenery, the sandy beaches, the dramatic rocky coastlines, the old cities, the little hill towns, the food, the wine. All of it, really just awful. I mean, think about it: It's part of Italy, but with a complex history that includes influences from every major civilization around the Mediterranean and several other European empires, all of which occupied at least one corner of the island and left their mark. It's the third-largest island in the Mediterranean, surrounded by ocean, and it's even named after a fish. The food, especially all that seafood, required dedication and a major effort to choke down. It's a miserable place, which is probably why all those Russian oligarchs and Italian politicians have homes there.

A horrible, horrible place to be avoided. I'm sure you would hate it. Move along, nothing to see.

On the other hand, everyone seems to love Cinque Terre...maybe that's a better target?

David clearly would like to have Sardinia all for himself.

It’s not just Russian oligarchs and Italian politicians, like Berlusconi (and his close friend Vladimir Putin), who like to hang on the islands. The top soccer players, movie and music stars, seem to love the place (George Clooney, Leonardo di Caprio, Elton John, Katy Perry, to name a few).

The top reason is the Sardinian beaches, created by unique geological circumstances.
Google image SPIAGGE SARDEGNA to see some.

Just to settle this out. The origin of the name Sardegna (or Sardinia, as the Romans called it) has nothing to do with sardines.

The origin is not certain, but probably it comes from Sardò, a legendary woman from Sardis, a city in Lydia on the Anatolian Peninsula (modern day Turkey). The Romans probably believed that the island’s inhabitants (and the Etruscans) originally emigrated out of Lydia in prehistoric times.

Andrew, I suggest you do some more research because your opinion about Sardinia is lacking. I visited Sardinia and Corsica in late September and early October in 2016 and found the islands to be fascinating. I understand that visitors want different experiences. Some like attractions that are like bright neon signs, others are enchanted by those that are more like hand-painted weathered wood signs. On more than 20 trips to Europe, I’ve seen the “biggies.” But now I’ve learned to enjoy the subtleties of smaller, more intimate experiences that have let me learn more about people and their histories.

Do you consider Corsica primitive? The islands are very similar. Amazingly they have electricity, running water and indoor plumbing! What will they think of next? Satellite TV?

Since I live less than a mile from the beautiful beaches of south Florida, I really don’t look for them while I’m vacation. There are many places to visit on Sardinia: the Madelena Archipelago, the Sinis Peninsula with its Roman ruins at Tharos, the nuraghe in various places throughout the isle (particularlarly Su Nuraxi di Burimini), walk the Bastione Alghero, take a boat to the nearby Grotta di Nettuno, roam the streets of Càgliari and climb to the Bastione di Saint Remy, visit the Cathedral and the museums. That’s just scratching the surface. Sardinia also has spectacular scenery.

But please don’t tell anyone how wonderful it is. I don’t want it to become spoiled.

Yes Sardinia is primitive and Sardinians won’t let their island become like the Cinque Terre.

Apparently Rick Steves took a group to Sardinia, but the primitive Sardinians did not let the group leave unscathed. I suggest to all of you to stay out of primitive Sardinia or else.