Sardinia - What area and hotel to stay
 

We booked a last minute trip to Sardinia flying into Olbia. We have 10 days.

1. Should we stay in Olbia the entire time or divide our time between 2 cities? like Olbia and Alghero. We have no car. We don't feel comfortable driving
2. How easy is it to get around to the ancient ruins
3. What hotels/airbnb would you recommend. We usually stay at apartments since they are larger and have a kitchen
4. Our accommodation price range is $100 - $200 a night - for family

About us

• Traveling with young kids and don't want to move to a new city every 2 days (like we did when we were younger and more mobile)
• Like to relax at the beach 25% of the time, and see historic places 50% of time. Rest of 25%, we like to walk around the nooks and crannies of the city / old towns
• We love places like Rome, Santorini, Ortygia,
• Covid cautious - Do not want to be in a packed tourist bus with alot of people

Sardinia has the best beaches in Europe for small children , when are you travelling ?

Even in August the traffic isn’t too bad in some areas, a car would be a huge advantage as the island is big , we haven’t used public transport so couldn’t comment but we love the area around Santa Teresa which allows ferry trips out to Corsica and to La Maddalena , which is beautiful.

This probably won't help your situation, but here is link to our trip report on Sardinia. We could not imagine doing it without a car. https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1659806/

Thanks. can you add the link?

There are no major archeological sites around Olbia. The best one is at Barumini, in the hinterland of Cagliari. Others are on the coast West of Oristano (Tharros) and South of Cagliari (Pula).
It will be easy to find the accommodation you look for from Sunday August 28th onwards.
The sandy beach of Marinella can be reached by train (short train ride from Olbia city). The sandy bach of Pittulongu is less scenic, but can be reached by Olbia city bus.
Families often go to San Teodoro, south of the airport. There are some daily buses between there and Olbia.
Alghero can be reached by train and bus. The best beaches there are around Fertilia, however (beach bus from Alghero, local bus to airport and Sassari).
Most train rides in Sardinia are dirty cheap and very scenic.
Taxis charge about 2 EUR/mile, in touristic areas often much more.
Rather strenuous hiking is good in the Cala Gonone area (poor bublic transport).
For accommodation, check airbnb and booking.com

The link should be there. Just scroll over: https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1659806/ and it should show as a link. Good luck.

whitehall Thank you for the trip report!. Is driving easy? We are nervous of driving in mountainous areas and the traffic and getting into an accident
We figure this is on less thing to worry about but I agree having a car is easier. Also where did you rent the car and how much is it generally?
We were thinking of

Olbia - Aghero - and visiting some other areas

We liked Alghero more than Olbia, although a lot of people rave about Maddalena islands, which we didn't get to. We also enjoyed Cagliari (great restaurants), but it is a big city and perhaps the only place with any challenging driving.

I am sure traffic is busier in beach areas during July/August, but we found Sardinia to be virtually traffic-free everywhere. It was extremely easy to drive, even in the mountains.

We rented from Auto Europe (a broker) as we usually do. It was for a Hertz car, booked through Alghero airport, and the elderly agent there could not have been nicer, even with no English. Prices, of course, in the last year or so have skyrocketed everywhere, and you face peak season pricing. One advantage of Auto Europe, besides being an honorable US company which is good for us, they usually offer full insurance at prices much better than you pay at the desk.

Which airport are you flying out of ?