Sardinia - Alghero and Costa Smerelda

Ann Marie, spent the last week in August in Sardinia. We stayed on the west coast and really enjoyed it.

A bit south of Alghero is Bosa, and it fits a most of your criteria. It is on of the Borghi piu Belli d'Italia. And although it was late August there seemed to be very few tourist.

Thanks @dlinstrom, I'll take a look! I need to get to Olbia/Costa Smerelda for our flight home anyway, so was hoping to find someplace in the northeast, but that could be a good option.

I usually stay in Santa Teresa or its proximity. I like the town and there are nice beaches especially at Capo Testa, although there is also a popular one in town called Spiaggia della Rena Bianca (Beach of the White Sand). From the harbor there are plenty of boat excursions to the Maddalena archipelago, which you should not miss (if the weather permits since they don’t operate with high winds, which is frequent in the area).

I’ve visited Golfo Aranci and Porto Cervo from Santa Teresa but never stayed there overnight. Prices are too high in summer there. It’s mainly for the rich and famous who own 200 ft yachts or larger, especially Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo.

I don’t like Olbia much. It’s a big non distinctive industrial and cruise port city. I usually hang out there only for lunch before my flight back to Florence (or Pisa).

Thanks Roberto! That was my suspicion about Port Cervo. Have you ever stayed or visited Palau as an option? Santa Teresa seems great but I'm a little worried about the trip back to the airport. Google maps say 1 hour and 15 minutes, but I imagine that it really takes longer (more like 2 hours?) and the road looks pretty curvy and risky for my severe motion sickness. If I can find reasonable lodging in Golfo Aranci would you stay there, or is it still too "rich and famous" only? Does it make sense to split the nights 3 on either northeastern or northwestern coast and 4 nights the on other? I have seen other comments from you on prior Sardinia postings so I appreciate your thoughts!

I think 1 hour and 30 min is way more than plenty to drive to the airport, I never encountered traffic in either directions, so it always took me less than that. But even if you give yourself 2 and 1/2 hours to build a cushion for refueling and returning the rental car (which is right at the airport parking lot), that is doable unless your flight is super early at zero dark thirty and you don't want to get up early. I've been to Palau a few times for dinner and to catch the car ferry to Maddalena to visit Garibaldi's home and grave in Caprera but I like S. Teresa better, and I don't think you'd save more than 25-30 min by staying in Palau and driving to the airport from there. The road to Olbia has some curves, but not really hairpin curves, they are pretty soft actually, and it takes that long in spite it's only 60 some km (40+ miles) simply because it's a two lane highway and they have the speed limit ridiculously low (50 km/h = 30 mph).
Golfo Aranci is nice. It's more expensive but it depends on when you go. Maybe off season prices aren't too bad, but I always went in June/July, so you pay more on the Costa Smeralda.

Another vote for Santa Teresa. It's an easy drive back to Olbia as Roberto says, just slow. We took an hour low season early morning. We took a quick trip to Costa Smeralda a few years ago and have since avoided it. The area around Santa Teresa and Capo Testa is lovely
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2024/07/sardinia-in-may-trip-report.html

Thanks for the vote Tinac! I'm very excited to see Sardinia! The seaside towns have me a bit confused, we are so used to having a defined Centro in Italy, most of the Costa Smerelda towns seem so spread out. Santa Teresa does seem to be one of the most walkable - at least what I can tell from mapping street views.

It's because the Costa Smeralda towns are not the typical Italian old towns. It's fancy modern suburban like resort towns built out of nowhere by Prince Aga Khan IV in the 1960s for the rich and famous Yacht crowd.