Need Advice-Southern Sardinia-June
 

My wife and I want to explore Southern Sardinia for about 9 days in early June. We will rent a car and be on a rather tight budget. We would like to find one, maximum of two locations to base ourselves in order to experience some city activities, coastline and beaches, as well as life in the interior. Could we do all that from Cagliari? Is there another location combined with Cagliari that would be better. Or, is there one other location that would work? Could anyone suggest a good itinerary? Recommendations from previous experiences would be appreciated.

noah

Cagliari is a good base. You might want to read my trip report dated March 12, 2008.

Hi Noah

Cagliari is indeed a good base to explore both coasts of Chia / Santa Margherita di pula and villasimius . however you should consider that traffic starts to increase in this period of the year therefore driving will take a little longer to reach every day different areas.

you might also consider to arrive, stay 1 night in cagliari, move to villasimius / costa rei area for a few nights . here you can discover many beaches and bay and also organise a day excursion by boat or going to Arbatax area

then you could move to the other coast, Santa Margherita di Pula / Chia - again here you have a great choices of beaches and you can also go inland to Teulada and up to Costa Verde and discove amazing natural spots.

enjoy sardinia and do not hesitate to ask for more if you need more advices

" however you should consider that traffic starts to increase in this period of the year therefore driving will take a little longer"

There are some European class beaches along the south/west coast and much of the population of Cagliari heads for them in summer. We stayed in Pula two and a half years ago. It is lovely but be warned there is only one directly road around the bottom of the island.

The road between Chia and Pula can be horrific. Our car did not move for a hour. A 35 minute journey took 3 hours as there is simply no other back road to avoid the traffic. Weekend are clearly the worst time, weekdays were fine.

Personally I would use the area south of Oristano as a base. The Roman ruins cover a huge area, the beaches are just as good and it is just over an hour on a different road into Cagliari.

Costa Verde is wierd and wonderful, as are the ruined silver mining towns of Agregento.

Chia beach is one of the best in Europe.

Personally, I prefer the north end of the island (Santa Teresa), we have booked for two weeks this July.

There isn't a better seascape in Southern Europe and Cala Di Volpe IS the best beach in Europe.

If you do go to Calgiari, there is a fish restaurant on the main road out towards Pula. It is on the right, on the edge (sea front) of the first town you enter after the salt flats. The waiters just wander round with the chef's fish specials and you choose what you want. The eels were very good.

I have had a miserable experience recently and I am at a lack of options and need some help or advice on what can be done. Since you seem to collectively have some expertise in the region, I thought I would post here to see what you might come up with. My situation is a bit lengthy so I will give the shortened version, although it may not seem so short :-) Essentially, my wife and I were married at the end of April and planned a multi-city honeymoon to Italy beginning June 1. Just two weeks after our wedding, she suffered severe internal problems that required complete cancellation of our trip and surgery, which was at the end of June. Fortunately the surgery was successful and she is now recovering. I had extended a lot of money for this honeymoon of our dreams, and all airlines and hotels within our itinerary were able to fully refund us- some even 'bent' their policies in order to do so. The one exception is this 'Hotel Faro Capo-Spartivento' in Sardinia, an alleged 5-star hotel with great reviews. I booked this hotel through an agency, and then provided them with 25 days advance notice of our emergency cancellation. The agency replied that the hotel does not give refunds, but in this instance they would provide 1/2- meaning I am still out of pocket 1425 euro to this day. I was never provided any terms of cancellation in advance. I have subsequently contacted this hotel directly via the email address on their website- I very very politely requested to know if they were able to rebook the room, and if they could provide me with any details of their policy. I explained that we are in a very complicated financial situation as the costs of my wife's surgery were extreme- we had to seek a surgeon beyond our health insurance coverage in order to expedite her procedure. This effectively erased our complete honeymoon budget, and rather than being on an Italian beach we were in a San Francisco hospital to celebrate our honeymoon. Anyways, despite being a customer of record, this hotel has not replied to me in any way, shape or form, nor did they reply to a follow-up message. I would not expect such treatment from a 1 star motel let alone a 5 star 'castle'. They do not have any phone numbers listed on their site- I believe they must operate via unlisted mobile phones. Anyways, I am at a complete loss for what to do next and would be tremendously appreciative if someone in the Fodor's community would provide me with any suggestions or ideas on what to do next. At this point, I am more distressed about their lack of communication with me whatsoever than the money, although 1425 is a very significant sum to me which we need. I intend to make my situation as public as possible until this hotel shows me some positive treatment, and if anyone has any suggestions on where to turn next, I would be extremely grateful. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate any and all support and advice.

Before anyone wastes his/her time trying to help MrLax42, read his "Unfair Treatment-Faro Capo Spartivento Sardinia" thread.

His problem, if there ever really was one, was already resolved, at least 4 days ago.

http://www.charmingitaly.com/intervi...table-holiday/

He is "Andy".