We would like to plan a trip to Sicily and Sardinia. Our idea is to take the RS tour of Sicily and then go to Sardinia (would prefer a RS tour, but alas there are none). We would be flying out of Albuquerque to Palermo the somehow get to Sardinia and then back home. Does anyone have any insights as to transportation (between islands, to/from US, and on Sardinia), and best time to go. We would like to go in late summer or early autumn but looking at the weather charts it looks like it rains alot during that time in Sardinia (or is it just usually daily warm showers?). Our interests are mainly archeological, cultural and of course culinary. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15157 posts
From Palermo you can fly to Cagliari in summer with Meridiana Fly. You can also fly to Cagliari from Trapani TPS with RyanAir. These are the only non stop options. The other option is Alitalia to Cagliari with a connection in Rome. Coming back to the US from Sardinia will require flying to one of the hubs in the European mainland, likely with a low cost airline, then take a flight from there to the US. Of the major airlines that fly to the US, Alitalia is the only option. Most flights to Sardinia are otherwise with low cost airlines or regionals. Alitalia is part of the Sky team (like Delta), therefore the easiest seamless flight back to the US would be a Alitalia/Delta code share combination from Cagliari to Rome to JFK or Atlanta and from there to Albuquerque. My wife and I love to go to Sardinia, but primarily for the jaw dropping beaches and sea which could put any Caribbean island to shame. Beaches are really what draws millions of people to Sardinia every summer. In terms of archeology, the ancient and not fully known Nuragic civilization and their Nuraghi buildings is the most important feature. Sardinia's cuisine is outstanding as well. September is still a good time to go. Thats still summer. As Fall advances, however, the chances of enjoying the outstanding beaches diminish, therefore after the beginning of October wouldn't be optimal. But read about Sardinia, even on Wikipedia, and see what you might be interested in besides the world famous turquoise sea and white beaches.
Posted by
Duluth, MN, USA
2 posts
We're visiting Sardinia in April this year - staying on the north end of the island - so we're flying in and out of Alghero (AHO) and renting a car there. We put together a set of one-way flights on Ryanair (via Rome - CIA) to get there from Edinburgh ($110), and EasyJet via Milan-MXP ($85 each) to get to Lisbon before heading home.
Our "main" tickets are open-jaw from MN to Edinburgh, then Lisbon to MN, with Sardinia in the middle. Once we decided where we were going we found that doing the intra-Euro legs on the budget airlines worked out well. Hope we feel that way when we get home . . . I found this to be much cheaper than trying to include all legs in one ticket/itinerary.
We do have 6-hour layovers in both Rome and Milan - have to see how ambitious we feel about getting into the city(s) for a quick bite/look around. Never been to Milan, but did spend 5 days in Rome a few years ago so would like to dip our toes once more.
I'll try to remember to check back and let you know how it goes.
Brad