Sardinia - why not? Advice requested.

My wife and I are just starting to kick around a trip idea for the 2nd week of September. We are thinking about San Sebastian, Spain (been there several times and LOVE it!) combined with a single locale in Italy - a country we’ve never visited. Via a variety of resources, we’ve become very interested in Sardinia. It seems to hit a lot of our priorities - outstanding, interesting local food, beautiful scenery, and a good local culture. FWIW, we’re not much for museum or history culture (well, I should say my wife isn’t very interested, so therefore it falls down the list for me too).

So, working backwards, why not Sardinia? Give me your perceived negatives for going there. (They might be positives for us.) Before we start moving forward I want to investigate things I may be overlooking.

The one big issue I see right off is the travel hassle of getting there with relatively limited time. Our total trip will only be about 8 days and going somewhere a little less mainstream will require multiple flights/ferries/trains/cars/etc.

Thanks for any advice.

Sardinia really interests me as well but I have travelled through Italy extensively. I would want to stay/explore for at least a week if I went, maybe combine it with a stop to Corsica. If I had only 8 days and San Sebastian was on the itinerary someplace a little easier would be my choice. Florence/Tuscany is a great introduction to the country. Of course Rome/Venice but oh so crowded.
Interested what you have learned about visiting Sardinia though.

I went to Sardinia last year. We stayed in the Costa Esmeralda. That resort area is pretty separate from the island’s real culture. Very, VERY high end. Sat next to a Russian oligarch at dinner, who had a >300’ yacht in the harbor and his wasn’t the only one that size. There did not seem to be a lot of a tourism industry outside of the Costa Esmeralda.

I wish we had scheduled a tour of the rest of the island. Very rocky with a lot of natural features that would have been interesting to see.

Not impressed with Meridiana Airlines. You kind of figure out what you’re getting when you see multiple signs in the airport reminding passengers that they can not bring live pigs on the plane with them.

Over the past 24 hours, we’ve looked a little more and I think we’re leaning away from Sardinia because of the travel hassles with our constrained time. We might reconsider if we turn it into an Italy only trip and do something like Florence and Sardinia.

Patrick, we’ve gone to renting apartments or houses for our travels when we can and were looking at some homes over there. Not sure the location as my wife was doing it. If this ends up being a San Sebastian/Florence trip, I’m sure we’ll do that again. The last apartment we rented in San Sebastian was set up perfectly and for us it is always much more comfortable. I know a lot of people prefer the convenience of the hotel services but we don’t gain much from that and enjoy imagining living there for a few days.

I can understand the time constraint but Sardinia is super.

The Costa Smerelda is drop dead gorgepous but priced sky high to keep the hoi polloi at bay. However, I had a rental care and drove to the inland town about 7km away, and it was 9 euro pasta and pizza etc.

Calgiari was an absolutely great city, with some of the best seafood I have ever had. Friendly town. Sardinia feels different from the rest of italy as it was a province of Carthage until their fall.

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The prices drop quickly in September and you don’t have to take half board like you do in the summer. I’ve been to Cagliari once a while ago, Costa Smerelda twice, including last year.

I enjoyed Caia di Volpe but my first room was teeny-tiny and I had to escalate my complaint to get an upgrade (I have high Marriott status). I don’t like playing that card, but the room was TINY.

Food is awesome. They give a big discount to the dinner for folks who stay there, and you can get anything you want on the menu as part of the prix fixe (as many courses as you wanted). It was excellent quality. They have a private beach that you can walk to or take a boat.

Many years ago, I stayed at the Porto Cervo (also a Marriott). They also had access to a private beach, this one was it’s own island! It was a superior beach but not as nice a hotel. Also, you could walk to the beach if you missed the boat at Caia di Volpe but not at Porto Cervo.

The other hotels that are part of that group are the Pitrizza and Romazzino, I hard a hard time deciding which one to choose. Didn’t look at the others, but if I recall, Pitrizza is better for couples (per flyertalk reviews), Romazzino better for families. Here’s a link to One Mile at a Time’s review of the three properties.https://onemileatatime.com/hotel-romazzino-porto-cervo-review/

If you go, I’ll dig out the restaurant recommendations.

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Jumping on the wagon here and monitoring the ideas in the thread. Never been to Sardinia and am also looking for next European mostly r&r destination.

Ramon

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Mark, speaking from extensive (albeit dated) experience, I find early September to be an absolutely optimal time for Costa Smeralda. The hoi polloi are gone but things have yet to shut down; the water warms up beautifully; and things are just easier. In terms of which property there, Pitrizza is for romance and privacy, Romazzino for families; and Cala di Volpe for “the show” – but at that time of year it is just relaxing and gracious. The Cervo in Porto Cervo, while lovely, is a step down relatively speaking and best only for a larger group or for the shopping-obsessed. I’m a bit out of date in terms of dining, but the so-called “BBQ” at the Cala is as extravagant a buffet as you can imagine, worth a few hours. My favorite of the non-resort restaurants was always Gianni Pedrenelli. Unless things have changed, it’s the only place in the area that would pull me off-property. There are some very nice places in Porto Rotondo though, not too far away, if you were to get bored, and of course lovely agroturismo-type options inland, and a host of small towns within a 1-2 hour drive.

As to wine, drink local of course! Anything from Argiolas tends to be wonderful, especially the flagship Turriga (needs age and/or lots of air), and Santadi and Dettori excel in their own right.

My only time in Corsica was a hosted affair, so I can’t offer much help there. As an alternative, you might consider shifting to the southern end of Sardegna as there is a tremendous diversity across that large island, and many nice options near Cagliari, with better airlift in (or out).

Hope this is helpful, feel free to PM.

Kind regards,
Jonathan

As a burg lover, I find the Sardinian reds to be too big/heavy for me (Turriga definitely included), but if one likes Grenache based wines then the reds fit the bill. I stick to the local Vermentino.

It’s easy to pull me off property for a change. However, it’s not because the food is as good. For fresh seafood, pasta, pizza at relatively modest prices, I enjoyed la Briciola (lot’s of locals, I went twice). For fresh fish, Ristorante Gastromina Belvedere (especially for whole, fresh, very pricey fish - but other options available) https://www.ristorantegastronomiabelvedere.com/?utm_source=tripadvisor&utm_medium=referral. The Belvedere is very close to La Caia del Volpe.

I’d probably try Pitrizza next time (romantic and private sounds great) but can confirm that Cala di Volpe was relatively tranquil in mid September 2019. Other than feeling a little second class when pushing for an upgrade (which I am supposedly entitled to) from my tiny room, the service was excellent.

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Bumping this. Any island wide recs? Going to have an AirBNB somewhere on the south side of the island. Will be there 4 days after a wedding.

We stayed here in 2019 and loved it. We visited both the north and south of Sardinia and preferred the north. Enjoy!!
Bed and Breakfast La Murichessa
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gorgeous

Stay away from the maggot cheese if all of the larvae are dead

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I went for one of my best friend’s wedding about 10 years ago and loved the island. Very divers. The inland is more rugged and wild (don’t drive across the island on small roads in the night - we survived but never again :slight_smile:…), if you can find any good Agro-restaurants serving roasted lamb or pig, definitely do it. Everything from the sea is great of course including botarga, then the pecorino is fantastic - probably better than anywhere else in Italy. Only other place with pecorino to that level (as far as I’m aware) is Croatia.

If you are thinking of beaches then you have about everything on the islands… in the south you mostly have beautiful sandy beaches, rocky beaches to the east and I’m the west a bit more mixed but one of the loveliest beaches I have been to is there and is calles Is Arutaz - amazing soft pebbles… in the North you have Stintino which is a famous and beautiful beach…

Dettori makes very interesting and polarizing wines in the North. In the south you can also find ungrafted vines/wine in Sulcus. In the West you also have Malvasia do Bosa (flor aged wine) from the same charming pastel colored town.

Hope you like Sardinia as much as we did.

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Got back from Sardinia. Stayed in Alghero for 3 nights and Porto Cervo 1 night. Had a blast. Definitely made it to an agroturismo near Alghero called Sa Mandra and had some of the best pecorino and ricotta of our euro trip there. Rented a car and was able to get out and explore lots of different beaches. Will say the stay at the Cervo Hotel was awesome as they had a boat shuttle out to a private beach. That was a fun and relaxing way to wind down the trip. Depending on beach/weather, the water was amazingly blue (a tad colder than I expected).

Wine wise - we had the most fun just drinking the house wines on tap at pizza places. Most bottles of vermentino and cannanou we tried were a bit too big for what we were looking for. Had a some decent blend roses that we took with us to the beach. Having started my trip in Provence, they fell a bit flat.
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Following - Sardinia and Corsica are definitely on our list.