You want to see pristine beaches but don’t want to leave Europe? Sardinia is your place. Long and white sandy beaches and crystal clear turquoise waters – just like in the Caribbean. It was so dreamy. A pleasure for the eye! I could continue like this all day.
Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily. The flight from Munich only takes two hours. We rented a car and booked a little holiday flat for one week at the Costa Rei. But we stayed one night in the north, because just a beach holiday is just not our thing. Restless feet and wanderlust and so on, you know!
History
Just like in Sicily it seems as if all ancient people of the Mediterranean were here. The island’s history dates back to old times. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Etruscans, Catalans – the latter are the reason why former people of Alghero were displaced and replaced by Catalans. Catalan is still the spoken language.
In 1946 Sardinia gained autonomy.
The Nuraghe
You can only find them in Sardinia and they’re spread all over the island. Most of them are in the northwestern part and in the centre of the island. We visited one near Costa Rei.
Nuraghe are little towers from ancient times. They were built by the Bonnanaro and the Nuraghe culture, who lived 2200-400 B.C. and were used as ritual places.
Nuraghe are unique worldwide and very likely a Sardic invention.
Best time to travel
Generally, summer lasts longer than in Middle Europe. Obviously. We were there in the end of September/beginning of October and water temperatures were still ok though a little bit cool.
In low season everything is really cheap. Our little holiday flat at the Costa Rei was 750€ a week in August. By end of September it was only 150€ for the whole week.
Therefore, Sardinia fun in summer is really expensive. Due to Ferragosta (Italian summer holidays, the first two weeks in august) it’s also very crowded. You won’t find lonely beaches here during this time. Italians love their beaches and we can’t blame them.
Sardinia’s capital: Cagliari
We don’t know why, but Germans have a huge problem pronouncing the name of Sardinia’s capital. Before we booked online, we went to two travel agencies to check prices. Well they weren’t good. But the pronounciation of the capital was somewhere between ‘Kackliari’ and ‘Calgary’. And because we still think it’s funny, we still mispronounce it on purpose and no one really notices it. Awesome!
AirBerlin somehow had a problem with it, too. See in the picture.
Cagliari is a beautiful city. At least the centre. There are some sights here, but nothing really spectacular like for example in Rome. The alleys were amazing. Everyone following this blog knows I am really keen on Italian alleys.
We parked our car down among the palm trees near the port. We were lucky. It’s not that easy to find a parking lot. From here we started exploring the city.
There are a few museums, but we’re not very keen on visiting them during sunny days. You should definitely walk the way up to the Bastione San Remy.
It’s an old Piemontese bastion built in 1901 with a great panorama terrace offering an amazing view over the city. The view is the reward you get after surviving the many steps up there. There are also two cafés. Bastione San Remy is a must see here.
Honestly, we didn’t have any plan and didn’t read guide books before coming to Cagliari. In this case it was a good idea as we had a really relaxed time here.
Beaches
We planned making a boat trip at the Golfo the Orosei and see the beautiful Cala Goloritze and more. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t good and the sea rough. In summer the conditions might be more stable.
The beaches are extremely beautiful. They’re even better in the north. We haven’t seen such beaches in Europe before.
The huge stones in the water reminded us of the Seychelle Islands. We haven’t been there yet, but we all saw the pictures.
Costa Rei
Our holiday flat wasn’t far from the kilometre long beach of Costa Rei. Therefore, we were here a few times for swimming or watching the sunrise. The latter was really amazing. There were a lot of families here.
The first two days, the weather was not so pleasant, so we decided to leave the Costa Rei and look for other beaches. We tried to find sunny places. It was really quiet and the sea was quite cool.
Spiaggia di Tuerredda
We had to drive a while until we found a sunny place and a beautiful beach. Half an hour southwest of Cagliari we finally found one.
Spiaggia di Tuerredda was a bit crowded, but for good reason.
Spiaggia Cala Caterina
We also call it the Seychelles beach. There is not much to say about it. It’s fabulous here, though with better weather conditions it probably looks even better.
Cala Brandinchi
On our way to the North of the Island, we made a stop here. A perfect picturesque beach. It’s impossible for photos becoming bad. The beach is flat and you can easily walk a while into the sea. The sand is soft and the beach is pristine. The colour of the sea was kind of hypnotic.
Lanusei
Actually we can’t say anything about this place. We crossed this town on our way to the north and were totally impressed. It’s steep, it’s chaotic and the alleys are narrow, all at the same time. It was insane. We panicked here, as we thought we would never come out there.
Part 2 coming soon!