Hoping to spend a week in Sardinia but wonder which is better: north or south? Looking for beautiful beaches, charming towns and good food. Also which area has more flights coming in from the US? We are considering flying to Mallorca for a week after this but maybe just spend an additional week in Sardinia. If Mallorca, then also 3 days in Valencia after that before returning home.
Posted by
North Italy
550 posts
Both north and south of Sardinia are beautiful, I couldn't say that one is better than another. You need to look at where you can fly into from where you live in the US and take it from there. Alghero, Olbia and Cagliari all make good bases to start from, especially if you've only got a week. You should factor in to rent a car, because that's undoubtedly the best way to see the most beautiful places.
This is what we did in May last year, to give you some ideas:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2024/07/sardinia-in-may-trip-report.html
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
7166 posts
Also which area has more flights coming in from the US?
Well, that one is an easy question to answer: None. There are no flights to Sardinia from the US. You will need to fly from somewhere in Europe.
Sardinia is quite well-connected (by flights) to Italy and much of western Europe, at least in high season (it's a popular destination during summers, less so outside of June-July-August). Flights options drop off quickly once high season is over. By mid-September, many flights will have been discontinued, but you should still be able to find multiple flight options (but check schedules carefully, ie if you see flights available in July or August, don't assume the same flights will be going in September...by October 1, flight options dwindle significantly).
There's great stuff in the north and in the south, and on both the east and west coasts (the interior is also worth visiting, but most folks understandably stick to the coastal areas). Hard to pick a favorites (my favorite places were annoyingly distributed all around the island...that's both good and bad: it's bad because if you only pick one part of the island, you will miss a lot of fantastic stuff elsewhere; but it's good because there's good stuff all over the place....the eternal dilemma of short trips).
Haven't been to Majorca so can't offer any comparisons/relative preferences. I'll just add that Sardinia is worth as much time as you can give it - I'd try to give it up to 3 weeks if possible, 2 weeks as a minimum (we were there for 18 days and wanted more). We drove all the way around the island and found absolutely delightful places every single day.