Itinerary for Sardinia: need comments/suggestions
 

Dear Sardinia "Experts",
My husband and I are planning a 2 week trip to Sardinia this year. We are flying in and out of Cagliari. We like to eat good food, hike, swim in the ocean (but not sunbathe for hours), explore. I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon in Costa Esmeralda, bur not interested in staying in super expensive resorts. Our proposed itinerary (number of days is approximate) is: land in Cagliari, spend 2 days there, drive to Porto Cervo. Spend 3 or 4 nights there, doing day trips around the area, including to La Maddalena for the day. Drive to Alghero, spend 2 days. Drive to Gulf of Orosei, maybe stay in Cala Gonone and spend 2 days there, boat cruise in Gulf of Orosei one day. Drive back to Cagliari the night before we depart.
We have 3 different lodgings in an effort to get a feel for the different areas of Sardinia. Do these locations make sense and are they good bases to do day trips?
Thank you very much in advance for your comments and suggestions.

What are you interested in:
archeological sites: Barumini, Tharros, Pula, Idili, Torralba.....,
archeological/Hystory musums: Cagliari, Sassari
Ethnographic museum: Nuoro
Best sandy beaches: Villasimius, Marinella, San Teodoro La Cinta, Rena Bianca-Liscia Ruja-Capriccioli,Costa Smeralda, Palau, Fertilia, Stintino (always crowded), Chia...........
Most stunning landscapes: Cala Gonone - Sta Maria Navarrese, Maddalena, Tharros, mountain villages.....

It might make more sense to do your trip clockwise or anti clockwise, may be like this:
Cagliari - Barumini - Tharros - Bosa - ALGHERO - Sassari - Tempio - Palau -COSTA SMERALDA - Olbia - San Teodoro - CALA GONONE - Arbatax - Villasimius - Cagliari.

Thank you neckervd for your suggestions. What do you think of those places as bases? Just read about San Pantaleo - perhaps use that as a base instead of Porto Cervo. Have you been? Also, why do you recommend traveling anti-clockwise?
Thank you.

Here is a link to our trip report on Sardinia from four years ago. It unfortunately was before we started adding photos to our reports, but we were able to see most of the island b car in a little over a week. https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1659806/

"Also, why do you recommend traveling anti-clockwise?"

I wrote clockwise OR anti clockwise (INSTEAD OF ZIG ZAGGING).
If you go directly from Cagliari to Porto Cervo, you pass through the Western part of the Island via Oristano to Codrongianos (30 miles from Alghero) and cross then to the Eastern part (Olbia and Porto Cervo). In order to go to Alghero from there, you wil then have to backtrack up to Codrongianos and to cross the Island a third time in order to reach Cala Gonone.
If you have a car, you can easily stay at San Pantaleo (in the Hinterland). Although not completely untouristy, San Pantaleone is a tiny Sardinian town, where local people live all the year round, since centuries, whereas the much more expensive coast looks somewhat artificial (no building more than 50 years old), extremely busy in summer and dead in winter.

Thank you neckervd. I was not looking at a map as carefully as I should have when I suggested that initial itinerary. Your route makes more sense. Thank you for your suggestions.
What are your impressions of Cagliari? Is the city worth spending much time there or perhaps just a day to recover from jet lag?

Thank you Whitehall. I just read with great interest your trip report. Loved all the details. I'm looking forward to our trip even more.

Cagliari has a small but very interesting museum for people interested in the History of Sardinia.(since the Antiquity).
In high season, t's easier to find accommodation at Cagliari than in beach resorts (although Cagliari has a big sandy public beach).
After a overnight flight, I would take a taxi from Elmas airport to a beach hotel outside the town. somewhere between Villasimius (best baches, but rather far away) and Pula.