Trip Report Sardinia August 24th to 31st, part 1

Who: The whole family, mom & dad (Mid 50's), son (23yo) and daughter (20yo).

How: Ferry to and from Sardinia, family car to move around the island. 

Overall review:

Relaxation: very much so.

Tourism: enough things seen. 

Beaches: exceeded expectations.

Food: does one ever eat poorly in Italy?

Day 1.

Our trip started on Saturday the 24th. We left Logroño at 3:30pm. We got to Barcelona a bit before 9pm. Bought some food to make picnic type dinner on the ship and were in the ferry line by 10:30 pm.
The ferry is a good sized ship. Decks 2-6 are for the vehicles, with lots of big semi trucks. Deck 7 to 9 are the cabins, 10 is for the restaurants and shops, and the 11 has the pool and outdoor deck.
We had a small cabin, with a full bathroom. We were in the room about midnight, had some sandwiches, and then went up to the rear deck and watched as Barcelona disappeared into the night. Very nice way to disconnect from the work life and ease into vacation.
We woke up at about 10ish, and were kicked out of the cabin at noon. Spent the last hour and a half watching as the island grew bigger. For people not used to the sea travel, it was pretty cool watching the coast go by, and becoming more and more clearer. We were also impressed with the blueness of the water.
At 13:30, as scheduled we were able to start the deboarding. By complete chance, I was parked in the front row of cars, so we got in and were off like a shot.

Our first objective was to get some lunch. Some real Italian food. As it was Sunday, I had made a list of possible place which should have been open. We found the first one, but they were closed for August vacations. So we hit the second one. And it was great.
My first choice as a crostini place. It had a different kind of menu, no pizza or pasta, and I thought that we would be having plenty of that and wanted to try something different. Happily though, my second choice was probably the best meal we had on our trip. They had an outdoor terrace under some pine trees, just below the historical church. We had some shellfish pasta, a mushroom risotto, and pizza with smoked swordfish and other fish, and the local Sardo pizza.

After having lunch, we walked around the church and then headed off to our rental. The GPS said it was 200km and 2hr 15m. And it was a bit more. There wasn't a great highway, and there were long streches of poorly paved road. Very low on the scale, but this might have been my one regret. I had wanted to visit the Sacred Well of St. Cristina. It was on our way, just off the road, but I figured it was better to get to the rental. I had said we'd arrive between 6 and 7 and it was five thirty, and we were supposedly 30 mins away.

The town we stayed in was called Pistis. It is a small seaside collections of houses. Nothing else, except the lido and it's bar. When we got there, it was full of cars and beach goers. Basically it was the last weekend of August, and it was a very nice beach day. We found the house. The owners were there, they were very friendly. They showed us around, and it really was a nice place.
Very quickly we unpacked the car and change for the beach. By this time it was close to 7 and the area was clearing out pretty quickly, and we walked about 5 mins to a cala that was nearby. We were able to enjoy about an hour of beach. When we were finish, just after eight, we headed down to the lido and bought some sandwiches and salads, and had dinner outside enjoying the view.

Day Two: Monday

We knew that we weren't going to do anything the first day. My wife and I got up “early” and headed over to the next town, where there was a small market. Sardinia is not built for speed. It was a 10km (6.2mile) drive, and it took us twenty minutes. We did some shopping, had a coffee and pastry, found a bakery, and headed back. Between where we stayed and Torre dei Corsari, where the market was, there is a small cluster of house, and there is a cheese vender. So we also picked up some local cheese and other little things.

Basically the rest of the day was at the cala. We made some lunch, and also had dinner at home too.

End of day two, no complaints

Day Three: Tuesday

Trip to Cagliari, a pleasant surprise, the Beach, and a night time drive through some Sardinian hills.

This was our one real tourist day. As I mentioned, the island is not built for speed. From our place to the capital, Cagliari, was just over 100KM, or 62m. But it took us almost an hour and half to get there. And that includes some “highway” too.
I was able to get the family moving a little after nine and we were in the city and parked by the old city wall area a bit after 11am. Cagliari has your basic sights, and we saw the old walls, visited the Royal Palace, saw the Cathedral, and spent time in the Archeological Museum.

The Royal Palace and the Cathedral are right next to each other. The Royal Palace is where the Viceroys for the king of Aragon and later the Savoy kings had their residence. It is nothing exceptional, but interesting. The building still functions as a meeting place for the county government. The Catherdral is a cathedral. It has it's decorations, and even has a reliquary of a thorn from Christ's crown of thorns.

We did walk around a bit and and had a touristy lunch in a restaurant in front of the church. We hadn't planned ahead, and were still on Spanish time, so finding a place that was open was a source of a little friction. But the meal wasn't bad.

Overall we weren't impressed by the city, but we know that there were some more thing to see. Of course the main purpose of our visit to the island was relax and beach so that is where we went next.

My pleasant surprise was that my daughter had actually done some reseach on beaches, and had a few suggestions for the southern part of the island. We chose Su Giudeu Beach. It is about 30 miles south of the capital. And about a 50 min drive. Along the way we were able to see flamingos, so that was nice.

The beach was total Instagram material. Super clear, blue water, beautiful beach. It reminded me of Lake Tahoe in California, but the water was like 30F degrees warmer. We spent a few hours on the beach, very nice. Not crowded, but it seem more of the typical Italian beach scene. There were two Lidos, and there were also two little spots that sold your basic beach knick knacks, so there were no vendors walking up and down the beach.

This beach is about 80miles from where we were staying. GPS said 2hours if we went back going through the capital. I had hoped to visit the town of Iglesias, which meant going to the west coast and up. This was A... VERY..... BIG.....MISTAKE. The route took us through some very curvy, windy roads. Which meant we had to go even slower. (Some of my passengers have been know to suffer for car sickness). When we got out of the mountainy area, we decide just to turn North and go home. Although it was a “waste” of time, we had a great view of the sunset so that was something. Some of the roads were better paved than the highway we had taken in the morning.

The next decision was whether to try and go straight home or to stop and have dinner along the way. The second option won. If lunch was touristy, dinner was very “local”. We stopped in a small town along the way, at the first restaurant we saw. It seemed quite busy. We had some more carasau bread. Later we would buy some to take home. We had some fregula, some “fruti de mare”, pizza. I like sheep's cheese, and I like honey, so I had to try a seabas. Great idea for a dessert. Had a few more before our trip ended.
In the end we got home very late, but unworried as the next day was another designated beach day.

Also, if you like looking at stars, the night sky is pretty incredible.