2 Weeks - Sardegna only or Sardegna + Sicilia or Amalfi?
 

Hello there! Been reading Fodor's Travel for a while, but this is my very first post here :)

I'm planning a 2 weeks trip in September 2018 with my girlfriend. Our main destination is Sardegna. We are going mostly for relaxing, spending some time on the sun and visiting beautiful beaches/locations.

From reading a lot of posts here, our doubts now are:

1. Spend 2 weeks in Sardegna?
2. Spend 1 week in Sardegna and 1 week in Sicilia? (Focus on the main locations of each island?)

One other consideration: From what I understood, it would be really beneficial to rent a car. We both have car and motorcycle driving licenses and would really like to rent scooters to go from one beach to the other or from the hotel to the beach. Do you think this would be possible or most trips would take us more than 1 hour and would be more comfortable in a car?

Thanks so much already in advance for the tips :)

Seeing just the highlights of Sicily generally takes at least 2 weeks, if not 3. You can certainly see some wonderful things with a week there, but you would need to be very selective, perhaps focusing on just the east or just the west of the island.

I agree that Sicily can be a trip on its own.

Depending on what you intend to do in each place, Sardegna and the AC could be a lot of the same thing for me. But this is your trip. Research the logistics. How will you get to Sardegna from your home, how will you get to the AC, and how will you get home. You'll need to spend the last night near your departure airport, so that will likely be a third destination.

Renting a car on Sardegna is advisable if you want to explore the island. If you're just going back and forth between hotel and beach, scooters might work. Personally, I'd rather have a car although parking in the most popular areas is difficult. Make sure you know about ZTLs (zona traffic limitato) which have been established in most Italian cities and towns. You'll need to get International Driver Permits.

https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.co...with-ztl-zones

A car on the AC would be more inconvenient than convenient. Traffic is heavy, parking is very scarce. Do you know where you want to stay on the AC and have you looked into lodging availability in your budget range? September is still high season.

Thanks @kja! That's what I was thinking. Maybe Sicily should be a separate trip.

But your idea of focusing on the main points is also very good. Maybe one week in Sardegna and one week in the east or west of the island could be good. And then I could do another trip some other time to the other part.

Will start thinking more about it. :)

Thanks a lot @Jean!

I think we won't consider AC anymore, logistics and price are not really favorable :)

Thanks for the tip about the ZTLs, will definitely take a look at it. I'm leaning to rent a scooter and if needed a car for a day only to travel to another location on the island.

A one-day car rental could be expensive. Compare one-day to multi-day rate. You'd have to go to one of the main cities to pick it up, and then you'd have to travel back to your base after you turn it in. So, add that transportation cost in your calculations. It might make sense in cost and time to pick up the car on arrival (plane or ferry?) and turn it in as you're leaving the island.

There is train service on the island. Depending on where and how much you want to explore, it might be enough to replace a rental car.

Trenitalia - Homepage English - Trenitalia

Thanks for the tip on the train! Looks really nice! :)