Sardinia: Glorious beaches & mountains too
 

In mid-late September, we visited Sardinia for a week arriving by ferry from Corsica to Santa Teresa di Gallura. I’ve previously posted a description of our Corsica trip under this link Corsica: One giant rock

The 50 minute trip from Bonifacio on the Saremar ferry was warm, calm and a good deal at about $25 per person (booked online ahead of time). When we arrived, we realized our rental car office booked through AutoEurope (using the Europcar agency) was up a steep hill so got a taxi at 10E to take us there. It was an easy check in and got “upgraded” to a Peugeot 5000...a rather large car but very comfortable and high tech...first time we’ve ever had an automatic, electronic parking brake. However, the car was filthy...dirty exterior and the rugs weren’t vacuumed. Finding our way out of the city is always more challenging than expected, but our destination was about 3 miles away to Tancamelis B&B near La Marmorata beach. At an unmarked road before you reach the beach, you take a sharp right up a very steep and unpaved road into the foothills until you come to a whitewashed, organic looking Moroccan style villa.
Deb, the cute, young proprietress, came out to greet us and we were lucky to be able to check in about 11am. The modern home is set high in the country hillside with a view of the sea in the distance, surrounded by attractive cacti and natural landscaping. Deb, her husband Antonio and young daughter live on the main floor, and we walked down and around to the back, where 3 suites open up to a grass and stone terrace lounging area. Our suite, the Murichessa room, was the largest and on one end. The entire home is constructed of concrete with the furniture built in, softened with cushions, and filled with artistic, natural touches. Our terrace had a stone inlaid floor and Moroccan style bench with pillows and a covered roof.

You walk into the room through an iron-gated screen door fronted by tabbed linen curtains with purple cords. All the furnishings, including a daybed, are sculpted concrete in shades of lavender, purple and light gray....very serene. You face a half-canopied linen platform bed with whitewashed aqua wood headboard and sumptuous natural linens. The walls are a faux painted mulberry color and support a flat screen TV...again with about 800 channels and not one English speaking one. In the back is a large bathroom with a trough sink inlaid with 2” purple glass tiles, and a separate room for the commode, bidet and a huge purple mosaic walk in shower with a round rain style shower head. Conveniences included a minibar refrigerator and safe, but no toiletries, hair dryer or iron. It was rather dark and cool inside and while I loved it, it felt like being in an elegant cave. Another quirk was that you had to pay cash on check in for the whole amount, which was communicated ahead of time so we made sure to have enough euros on us. But, she didn’t require a deposit ahead of time to hold the reservation.

We dumped off our suitcases and made our way to Capo Testa to visit the acclaimed beaches, but we were disappointed. It was very crowded and not as pristine as we’d hoped. We went to an easy to reach, east facing beach, (I think it was Rene di Ponente) with clear water, on one side of the isthmus. However, if you make more of an effort, you can drive further onto the cape and hike down to what looked like beautiful little coves where you can seen the unusual rock formations.
That night, we drove into Santa Teresa and ate at Ristorante Marlin winebar, a seafood restaurant recommended by Deb. Sitting outside on a little terrace, we had tagliarini with squid ink and shrimp, langouste and clams and also a John Dory fish with potatoes...both very good. For dessert, we tried the traditional Sardinian dessert, Sebados (or Seadas), a deep-fried fritter filled with fresh cheese and drizzled with local honey....delicious!
Afterwards, the town square was set up for a concert with a lighted stage and folding chairs. We sat down for about a half hour with a bunch of other people to wait for whatever was going to happen. Good canned dance music was playing over the speakers. We amused ourselves quite well (probably helped by the dinner wine) concluding that this was in fact, the concert and we should get up on the stage and dance. (which we didn’t) We finally left, and with the help of Angela (my husband’s GPS that I frequently fight with) found our way back in the black countryside for a restful sleep.

Next: La Maddalena

Sorry, my link to Corsica trip report didn't take. Here it is: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...nt-rock.cfm?34

Breakfast was lovely on the eyes as well as the mouth. It’s served upstairs on a light-filled terrace on a large wooden table decorated with natural linens, sea shells and driftwood. The view looks over the countryside down to the sea, which today looked extremely rough. Antonio, her equally handsome husband, first served us delicious cappuccino. Deb served thin pieces of a vegetable tart, several local cheeses (hard Pecorino and fresh ricotta), fruit jam, toasted nut and regular bread, bowl of fresh cut up fruit and slices of tomato. All were homemade or fresh from her organic garden. One other couple from London joined us.

The plan that day had been to go out on a small boat among the La Maddalena archipelago, but the forecast was for strong winds so we decided instead to go over on the large car ferry (40E) that leaves from Palau. We arrived in the main town about 11:30 and browsed the charming shopping streets before they closed in an hour. Fortified with excellent gelato, we picked up some food to take with us to the beach. There’s a good road that goes around the island past many beautiful beaches. We stopped at Spiaggia Spalmatore, the first beach we came to on the north side of the island because it was protected from the wind. It was not uncrowded, but easy to get to and a pretty cove with some large rock formations and beautiful azure blue water. When we left, our high tech car provided some anxiety as we were sandwiched in between two cars on a hill, and there wasn’t enough room to move to release the parking brake without it sliding backwards into the car behind us. Somehow, we finally got out without damage.

We finished driving around the island and saw some dramatic beaches but the wind was picking up and we decided to get off the island while we could. We were the last car to drive on the 3:45 ferry and the ramp went up the minute we crossed over....very rough and windy crossing. That night, it began to rain and we drove back to Santa Teresa for pizza at a casual place, Pappa & Cicciu. They had zipped up a canvas tent around their terrace and we couldn’t figure out how to get in until someone unzipped a door for us. The place was filled with locals, inexpensive, great pizza but the salad and wine just OK.
The next morning was even more windy...gusts up to 60 miles an hour so beach plans were scrapped. We’d had two weeks of glorious hot and sunny weather in Corsica, and wouldn’t you know the weather would change when we wanted to take advantage of Sardinia’s beaches. Breakfast note: don’t like the Figuera, the fruit from the prickly pear cactus outside. It’s orange and filled with small, really hard seeds that you just have to swallow.

So, decided to drive to Castelsardo, a medieval hill-top village about 1 1/2 hours away along a beautiful coastal road. Finally found a place to park down below, and then walked up through the rather ugly modern town to the medieval village on top. First, we tried to find a recommended trattoria but settled for another one that was just OK. Then, we walked up the narrow alley ways where usually old women are sitting outside weaving rugs. Not today with those gale winds. Things were blowing over, even large potted plants. We ducked into a chapel but the main cathedral was closed. The shops were nothing great. Back down in the modern town, we stopped at one of the huge tourist stores....everything looked like junk. Conclusion: Castelsardo looks much better from a distance.

The night redeemed the day. We’d reserved at Agriturismo Saltara, about a 30 minute curvy back road trip up into the mountains from our B&B. It had a lovely rustic ambience with heavy dark wood tables, red plaid tablecloths, heavy antique furnishings and old Sardi photographs on walls. My husband had the Classic menu (40E) and I the Light menu (33E), which included all beverages. First, they bring out a huge jug of red wine (very good house wine) and a jug of water, then a huge platter of antipasti... cheese and charcuterie, tender beef with onions, thin fish with a sauce, pickled eggplant, then my husband got two pastas, one was a baked pasta (Zuppa di Cavola?) and I got little gnocchi in tomato sauce. Then, we both got their specialty, porceddu, spit roast suckling pig, with roasted potatoes. This was the only disappointment because the meat was dry. For dessert, the classic menu included Sardinian cookies and dessert wine and I got a cream dessert. Finally, I had a glass of Mirto, the delicious Sardinian myrtle liqueur, and my husband tried their Fil’e Ferru grappa, which was too strong to drink.

Luckily, the next day was calm, sunny and warm as we headed toward the Costa Smeralda enroute to Cala Gonone. I wanted to check out Porto Cervo and the surrounding beaches. It was very difficult to park, but we finally found a spot in a more residential area. I was looking for the piazza shops, but instead came across the magnificent modern Catholic Church Stella Maris that looked like Gaudi designed it....all flowing white curves. It was beautifully sited above the old harbor, which I found out later we should have walked down to...that’s where the shops were. But, I wanted to find a beautiful beach so we headed out for Spiaggia Principe. One thing about the beaches in Sardinia....they usually involve quite a hike down among a rocky, uneven path. Once we got there, we were treated to a beautiful setting with that clear light aqua water. We did swim but the water was a bit chilly. After an hour, we continued on to Cala Gonone and got there about 5:30pm.

"However, the car was filthy...dirty exterior and the rugs weren’t vacuumed"

The irony of that one is monumental.

After hiring over 100 cars in Europe over the years. Thrifty tried to charge me for not cleaning the car. They were about to slap a 50 euro surcharge on me until I simply clean the sand of the mats. they then waved the charge.

Sardinia in August is not a nice place. We would not dream of going again in the peak season. We have been many times in May/September but August just stunk of fleece the tourist season.

Can't wait for the rest of your report barefoot. I have trodden all your steps in the past!

We loved Saltara. In in world where world cuisine has taken over, this place shines out as being proud of their produce. I was really surprised to read about the pig, it is usually incredible and no need to eat for two days after a visit.

Did you make it to Azzurra in Santa Teresa? Some of the best seafood we have ever had.

Did you make it to Cala Di Volpe - best beaches in Europe.

Keep going.... don't keep us in suspense, let's hear it all. Love all the great detail, barefoot. I am thinking of going to Corsica and Sardinia in Sept this year. I have been researching for a friend and have now decided I must go there too!! So I will have some questions no doubt.

Schnauzer

I'm also eagerly following along. I would have thought that the weather would be perfect in mid-September but I guess nothing is guaranteed! More, please!

Eks

We were there last July (16th to 30th) ie prime HOT season.

We sat outside to eat on only 3 evenings. The other 11 it was simply too cold or windy. We are from Scotland ie the weather was bad, for that time of year, if we couldn't cope.

From last year's figures only Seville and Athens areas seem to have had reliable and good weather last summer in Europe.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Just a note on the weather...we were in the region for about 5 weeks total....Sept 5-Oct 11 and generally the weather was glorious. The worst was when we wanted to see all the beaches of north/eastern Sardinia, wouldn't you know...and two rainy days on Sicily. So, overall 4 out of 35 days isn't bad! But, I did miss seeing more of the beaches and boating around La Maddelena archipelago. To continue.....

Our hotel, Nuraghe Arvu, located about a mile above and outside town, reminded me of a Greek resort, all whitewashed with bougainvillea tracing arched doorways and a lovely, large free-form swimming pool. Our sea view standard room was like a little casita with a large terrace bisected by a blue dovecote tower and a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the distance. it was basic but lovely with traditional furnishings...wooden headboard, Sardi ceramic lamps and the quail symbol embroidered in the daybed linens. However, the tile floor was dirty (many of the hotels on our trip don’t seem to wash the tile floors so flip flops are helpful). The tiled bathroom had a small shower enclosure, sink and toilet in one room. There was a safe and minibar we could use.

We were tired from driving all day so just ate in the hotel dining room although I had read mediocre reviews about it. It was decorated with charming turquoise wooden chairs and tables but, common to many restaurants on our trip, too brightly lit. We would’ve preferred to eat outside but it was too cool. The food was Ok, the service very good, and the local red Cannonau wine excellent.

The next morning’s large breakfast buffet was the best we’ve encountered on our trip (including Corsica) so far. It included yogurt, fruit salad, small pears and peaches, fig tarte, cheeses and hams, scrambled eggs, etc. Lovely to sit outside on their terrace.

We headed into town to the Port to check out our options for renting a small boat to see the Gulfo Orosei. I chose Cielomar from the many booths because I had previously seen their website. I was quoted 70E to rent a zodiac all day (plus gas). (Our hotel’s choice cost 90E) We asked about going out that day but she said it was really too windy for us to take it out alone that day, but tomorrow would be better. We could have gone out with a group excursion for 25E each. So, instead we walked around town (not much there) and picked up picnic stuff. We tried going to Friuli Beach, which is the last one you can drive to from the village on Bue Marino road, but the climb down was too difficult. I checked it out and climbed down a very steep and rough track until I could actually see the beach still far below. The water was very wild with big waves and a surprising amount of people were crammed onto a small beach. Nope. Hiked back up and we tried another beach on the way back to town...still too steep. So we settled for Central Beach in town, which was fine.

Later that afternoon, we drove back along a beautiful road up to Dorgali to try the Ceramica Loddo shop, whose work I had admired on La Maddalena. I liked his pottery with blue and yellow quails on white and found a medium size tray. I also found a reasonably priced jewelry shop which had interesting black and red coral or turquoise bracelets for gifts. That night we dined at Il Pescatore in town with great seafood, and slept well despite the disco right out back of us.

Our best day on Sardinia (and one of the best of our entire trip) was our day trip along the Gulfo Orosei coastline, which is only accessible by boat. Luckily, the wind had calmed and it was warm and sunny. After some instructions, my husband headed the zodiac south about 10am and we took off for the furthest point, Cala Goloritze, a protected park with looming, spiky rock formations and incredibly clear azure blue water. We didn’t moor the boat because they had the strictest regulations there. We moved on to see Cala Mariolu, the “most beautiful beach”, with a big rock outcrop and huge boulders. It looked a little tricky to moor there, and there were already a fair number of people on the beach, so we moved further up to the next beach Cala Biriola. It looked very lovely but I knew it was on the big boat itinerary, so moved on past to Cala Sisine. That was remote all right...no one on the beach. But, then we started to think if we ran into any boat trouble, who could we ask for help? So, headed back down to Biriola and moored. This isn’t as easy as it sounds because the whole area has very strict rules. My husband had to cut the engine at 50 meters, paddle me into shore where I could wade in with our stuff. This was actually quite painful because my Keens immediately filled with tiny pebbles that hurt like hell to walk on. Perhaps really tight aqua socks would have been better. He then had to go out 100 meters from shore, anchor the boat and then swim into shore.

Finally, we got to relax on one of the most beautiful beaches encircled by high cliffs. Had a lovely swim in the slightly cool water despite little fish nibbling on my legs. We spread out our favorite travel item...the Grand Trunk Para Sheet beach blanket, which is made out of a lightweight parachute material that’s cool, dries fast, has corner pockets to stuff with sand to anchor it, and folds into a small sack...perfect for travel to remote beaches. I unpacked our picnic lunch (cheeses, olives, bread, pear, peach and cookies) and the ice packs in our small collapsible cooler kept our white Vermentina/Stella Mosca wine perfectly cold. Well satiated, we were ready to nap when a monster tourist boat landed right on the shore (huh?) and disgorged about 70 tourists. The handful of others who were enjoying the seclusion just looked at each other in disbelief. By this time, shade also started to engulf the sand so decided it was best to move on.

I packed up while my husband swam out to the boat. I stood waiting on the beach for awhile until I realized he and another boat were having some kind of trouble. I thought they were tangled together, but it turns out, both of their anchors had become lodged deep below in some rocks. He tried and tried from every angle to pull it out. He was about to give up and cut the anchor line when a snorkeler came by and offered his assistance. He dove down about 20 ft. and was able to pull them out. Apparently, this is a common occurrence and the boat companies charge 200E for a lost anchor!

So, on to our final stop, Cala Luna close to home. After our last experience, we decided to just float with the other boats off the beach. I decided to take a swim off the boat, which was fine until I tried to get back on. I tried to pull myself up on the dinky ladder but couldn’t...and my husband was finally able to hoist me up like a beached whale.
We returned the boat by 5pm having thoroughly enjoyed the gorgeous coastline and water. That night, we had excellent pizza and salad at La Favorita, starting with complementary Prosecco and finishing with a delicious tiramisu. A perfect day.

Next: Cagliari

DickieG, No, we didn't get to Azzurra...wish we'd known about it. And, we drove past Cala di Volpe to get to Dei Principe...only had time to visit one beach and supposedly, that one was Prince Aga Khan's favorite, but that whole region is gorgeous.

We’re off to our final destination in Sardinia, Cagliari, before heading to Sicily. We had to leave by 7am so the front desk made us cappucino and gave us cornettos to fortify us .

Despite an accident on the freeway that stopped traffic, with Angela’s help we got off early and she helped navigate us to the airport to return our car by 10:30am. Took a taxi (20E) to our reasonably priced B&B in downtown Cagliari, Il Cagliarese. A wooden plaque outside a massive wooden door was all that indicated the B&B, and we had to walk up two steep flights of stairs carrying our luggage to get to the apartment. We arrived early at 11:30am, and were greeted by Mauro, the charming owner, who showed us to our simple room. The room was a good size with some artistic touches, a beamed ceiling, wardrobe, desk and small LCD TV, and had a small french balcony with laundry drying from it looking across to a massive office building. If you poked your head outside, you could see the sea to your left. The bathroom had another small shower enclosure, toilet, bidet and sink with tile floors throughout.

We began our tour of the city by taking the lift up to the Castello upper old town district. It was a hot and sunny day and we had lunch at Cafe Spiritu on top of the balustrade. My zucchini flower blossoms were too tough but the shrimp tempura was OK. We ambled around the ancient narrow streets and visited the gorgeous cathedral and the Museum of Archeology, which we thought was just OK. The elephant tower was impressive, the buildings had charming facades, and the distant view of the sea, lagoon and mountains was pretty. It also was interesting looking down over the rooftops to the modern city below and seeing a fair number of bombed out buildings from WWII that still remained.
We walked down through an old city gate and made our way to the refreshing coolness of Isola Gelateria with it’s 100 flavors of gelato.

We continued our city tour by window shopping through the pedestrian only shopping streets of Via Manno and Via Garibaldi and continuing on to the more upscale Via Paoli.
I guess I wasn’t in a shopping mood because nothing really appealed to me. Earlier, I had bought a traditional, gold-plated “breast” style adjustable ring with two strategically placed small turquoise stones. Finally, our feet and legs were killing us so stopped for a drink at a Via Roma cafe before calling it a day.

That night, we walked around the corner to dine at Stella Marina di Montecristo, a seafood restaurant recommended by Mauro. You absolutely must have reservations far in advance to eat here. Have your hotel book them ( I don’t think you can contact them directly) probably a month in advance or you won’t get in.

We got there at 8:30 when they opened and we were the only table. The atmosphere is nautical meets sports bar (I think the owner is a former soccer player) again, way too bright, but that’s not the main draw. The gruff owner asks “wine?” and plunks down a pitcher of white wine (no choice of red) and water “gas?”. Never asked what we wanted to eat... you get whatever was caught that day. I had no idea what the cost would be (but I thought I remember from reading earlier reviews that is was reasonable) Then he brought out a large platter of antipasti...wonderful grouper (cedrine) in a light tomato sauce, stuffed mussel and clams, a bit of shrimp salad and mussel salad, some langoustine (crayfish) and small octopi. Following that, we got two types of pasta...linguini with little shrimp and fettuccine with fish and tomato sauce. Then, a huge cork platter loaded with 2 whole grilled sea bass, 4 grilled prawns, 2 scallops, 2 squid, 2 pulpo (baby octopi) surrounded with fresh fruit (2 peaches, pineapple, grapes and cacki (persimmons...excellent!) To finish, he put a bottle of Mirto on the table (we poured our own) and a delicious mandarino (tangerine) sorbetto in a glass. Excellent! The place is now packed with locals all happily indulging in this seafood extravaganza. We had a very nice young waiter who tried to answer my questions about what we were eating (and then translate it into English), but we could tell he was getting yelled at if he took too much time with us. The bill arrives....30E each for this amazing feast including the wine, water and Mirto. What a bargain!

Happily satisfied, we stagger back to find the office building square in front of our B&B now magically transformed into a tango dancing spectacle. Actually, it’s a tango dance lesson followed by open dancing. We stay for awhile to enjoy watching the dancers, the music and warm night air. My husband has the effrontery to question one of the teachers that their version of the tango looks different from what we see in the States and he’s told they do the Argentinian style. When we go upstairs and shut our windows and shutters, it blocks out the music so we’re able to sleep peacefully.

The next morning, Mauro serves breakfast in a small modern room part of the kitchen. Along with cappuccino, we have a bowl of cut up fruit, a small cornetto, bread with great cheeses drizzled with local honey and walnuts, a fig tart, some tiramisu and a bit of white pudding. It’s quite good, but I don’t really like the atmosphere and lack of any public space. There is a computer and Wi-Fi available.

We set off down Via Roma, the main street along the sea, and briefly walked through La Renascente, their main department store, which is very nice. We start walking up to see the Botanical Gardens, with 500 plants from around the world, but we don’t find it very interesting. It’s starting to cloud up, but still hot, and continue walking uphill to view the unexciting Roman amphitheater from the sidewalk. We walked up to the Belvedere trying to find out how to reach the Public Gardens. Finally figured out how to get down from Castello and reached the lovely small Art Museum and toured that. When we left that, we strolled through a contemporary ceramic art fair of local artists in the park with works I would’ve love to bring home, if I had the room. It started to drizzle then and we walked all the way back to the Marina district where we had a late lunch inside at Lillicu trattoria, renowned for seafood. We wanted pizza but the pizza restaurants only open for dinner. My husband had spaghetti with clams and grated Bottarga (mullet roe), a Sardi specialty that we had to try before leaving (it’s just OK...salty). I had their seafood starter with 6 different things...a great tiny fried fish thing, mussels (but we haven’t liked any of the mussels here....they’re in a way too salty broth)...tuna slices (I thought were too bland but husband liked), cold shrimps with tomatoes (good), squid (nasty), snails (no)...with great house wine and a lively, noisy atmosphere. I’ve forgotten to mention in this review how good their traditional unleavened crispy cracker bread is...Pane Carrasau that’s served with almost every meal.

Since we had a very early flight to Sicily the next morning, we headed back to pack up. This was no easy matter because we were flying Meridiana and their luggage policy was the most restrictive....5 kg (11 # for one hand luggage) and 20 kg (44 # for one check bag. The hand luggage was the big issue since I carry a lot of medications, my 35mm camera and other Items I didn’t want to check. So, we ended up throwing away or giving to Mauro many things to get the weight down. While packing, I also realized I had lost my larger zoom camera lens (either left in the car or taken from my room in Cala Gonone)....less weight though! Since we had to get up at 5am for a 6am taxi, we didn’t go out to dinner. Mauro was kind to put together a snack bag for our breakfast the next morning. We had the worst night sleep though, because tonight a loud, hard rock band was playing in the square and the throbbing sounds came through the closed window. Earplugs finally helped, but by then we were pretty jazzed up. Luckily, our taxi was outside in the dark at 6am and our flight to Sicily went off without a hitch. However, they didn’t even weigh our carry on bag...so lesson learned, don’t throw out anything until they make you!

I will post a link to my photos shortly. And, eventually I’ll write a separate trip report for Sicily.

Most interesting. You are very good travelers! Waiting for more.

Finally! Here's the link to my photos. Please let me know if you have a problem with this.

http://barefootbeach.smugmug.com/Tra...0920495_JhKHKn

Excellent photos! What fun you seem to have had! Thanks for posting.

Thanks taconictraveler for your nice comments...it was a fun trip! (The frustrations started in Sicily!)

What a handsome couple on a beautiful trip.

Well thanks, sylviathomas!

Terrific photos, looked at every single one!!! Did you do a photo link to Corsica? I shall go and check but if you didnt'..... I want one.

I am thinking of going mid Sept this year, it looks like the weather is still warm enough.

Schnauzer

thanks schnauzer...you are committed if you looked at every one! Here's the link to the Corsica photos http://www.smugmug.com/photos/swfpop...lbumKey=68vL9D
Hope you get there in Sept....we mostly had great weather.