My husband and I would like to go to Sardinia for 2 weeks at the end of May. We love Italy, hiking, good food, culture and are independent travelers who will rent a car to explore the island.
We will leave from Boston and would like to fly to Cagliari and return from Olbia (can reverse if needed).
Our tentative starting plan is to stay in Cagliari for 3 nights, see nearby places such as Nora, Pula and Villasimius.
We would then go to Oristano for 2 nights, Alghero for 3 nights, Santa Teresa Galluria for 3 nights, exploring nearby places in each. We would then drive from Santa Teresa Galluria to Olbia to return home, or stay one night in the Olbia area.
Does this sound like a good itinerary?
It seems a little complicated to fly to Sardinia from Boston---should we fly to Rome and then get a flight to Sardinia or should we check airlines to see who might go there, e.g. Lufthansa.
Thanks for any help!

The 3 international airports of Sardinia (Cagliari, Olbia, Alghero) are relatively close one to each other (less than 3 hrs drive).
They can be reached by direct flights from most somewaht important European airports. There is no need to fly via Rome or Milan.
Delta has even a direct flight from JFK to Olbia (a bit expensive, however).
The Lufthansa/United group has actually a lot of offers with plane change at either Frankruft, Muniich or Zurich.
If you want to do it in a more adventerous way, you may fly with Iberia to Barcelona and from there by cruise ferry to Porto Torres (Sardinia).
A RT flight with Vueling from Barelona to Cagliari would cost 195 USD/pax (with 1 piece of hand luggage and 1 piece of checked in lugggage).
There are of course daily ferries from Genoa, Livorno (Pisa) and Civitavecchia (Rome) too.

In May, Sardinia will be really green, but rainfall cannot be excluded.
Villasimius is a beach destination, but beach life will not begin before mid June.
The archeological sites of Sardinia are rather small and can all be visited in less than 3 hrs (Barumini, Isili, Nora, Tharros, Torralba........)
The archeological museums at both, Cagliari and Sassari should not be missed.
There are coal mining museums at Carbonia, if you are interested in.
The charming tiny city of Carloforte was buit by people from Liguria, whereas the first setgtlers of the partly walled medieval city of Alghero camde from the Iberian peninsula.

You might also use the local car and passenger ferry from Northern Sardinia to Southern Corsica and visita bit of Corsica too.

I think I would choose an airline that has flights to Sardinia later than yours; in case your flight from Boston is altered, you can get on another flight the same day.

May is a beautiful time of year to visit Sardinia before the masses of tourists arrive. Although last year we noticed that the season starts much earlier than in the past. Splendid beaches like Cala Brandinchi or beaches near Alghero were already quite busy.
The best thing about Sardinia is the landscape, especially the coast and the fantastic sea and beaches whether for hiking or sitting and enjoying. It's very different from Sicily or Puglia where there are dozens of charming villages and historic towns.
Two weeks sounds a lot but Sardinia is a very large island and I would concentrate on a part of it at least south or north to have time to stop and stare and walk along the coast and enjoy the landscapes. You say you like hiking but your planned itinerary won't leave much time for that.

This was our trip to the north last May:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspo...eport.html?m=1

Sardinia is not a hiking Island, although hiking is possible with the elevation map https://elevationmap.net/
Don't expect to find well signposted hiking trails.
Nice hiking areas:
Cala Gonone (small hikes OK, longer hikes very strenuous)
around Porto Pino
along the coast East of Arzachena
Maddalena Islaand

We did a lot of walking along the coast on our last trip to Sardinia, when I say hiking I broadly mean walking on a path in the middle of nature, not necessarily climbing a mountain. Sardinia is good for the latter too - a few years ago we hiked to the top of the Gennargentu (highest mountain in Sardinia) - just us and a German guy at the top, also to Monte Albo, Gole di Gorropu and the Cala Gonone area. But I agree with neckervd that Sardinia is not especially hiker-friendly - few paths are signposted, often not very well.
Near to Santa Teresa di Gallura there's Monte Limbara, where the trails are bettermarked, good landscapes and spring flowers in May although can be foggy round the top.

We really loved the day spent going by ferry from Santa Teresa Gallura to Bonifacio and back. Fabulous views, especially up close to Bonifacio. Take your passports, we went as foot passengers but there were cars and campervans on the ferry too.

We went to Sardinia last spring and it was super nice! I agree with your idea to rent a car, it makes the trip much more relaxing and enjoyable. In general your trip planning sounds legit, it's only Oristano I haven't been. But we included la Maddalena (from Palau), it was very nice. We based our trip on information we found mostly here https://www.nationalgeographic.com/t...e-travel-guide , here https://www.italia.it/en/sardinia and here https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/desti...italy/sardinia .

This is very helpful information and I will incorporate the suggestions into our itinerary. Just to clarify, when I say hiking, I mean walking hikes and not mountain climbing hikes so this will be perfect if we have enough time.
We have been to Puglia and Sicily , which we loved and thought we would tour Sardinia to see something different.