The best beach towns in Sardegna
Sardinian water does something to the eye. It runs from glass to jade to a blue that looks synthetic until you are standing in it, over sand that is pale and coarse and grinds slightly underfoot. The coast is built from granite in the north, sandstone and lagoon mud in the west, schist and river gravel on the east flank below the Ogliastra mountains, and the towns are built from whatever was nearest. Summer is long here, with swimming weather stretching well past the end of the school holidays, and the food follows the shoreline: sea urchin on spaghetti in spring, bottarga grated over everything in the west, fregola with clams, roast suckling pig once you turn inland, pane carasau on every table.
The obvious answer is the Costa Smeralda. Porto Cervo and its neighbours were designed as a resort and still work like one, with moored yachts, prices set for people who arrived on them, and August traffic that turns the coast road into a queue. The beaches themselves are as good as advertised, which is exactly the problem, since everyone has read the same advertisement. The Maddalena archipelago boats leave full and come back fuller.
The granite does not stop at the resort boundary. The same coves, the same water, the same wind that the surfers in Gallura wait for continue north to the Bocche di Bonifacio and west along the Gulf of Asinara, then down past the lagoons to the Sinis and around to the beaches below Ogliastra. The towns in this list sit on that longer coast. Fewer people go, the bathing water is certified clean, and the beaches are run properly, which in high summer counts for a great deal.
Of the 41 communes we have mapped in Sardegna, 7 qualify as beach towns: each holds the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches. The smallest, Badesi, has 1,821 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The best coastal towns in the province of Sassari and The best coastal towns that eat well in Sardegna.
Badesi
Why visit Badesi
Badesi sits on a hill at 102 meters above the Gulf of Asinara, its municipal territory running north to the dunes and down to the river that forms the natural boundary between Gallura and Anglona. The village formed in the eighteenth century, when shepherding families settled in a Spanish baron's fief and gathered around the parish church built in the early twentieth century.
Badesi became an autonomous comune in 1969, later than the settlement itself, which had already taken shape around the church a generation before. The pattern of the place follows this same line from hill to water: a village core inland, vineyard hillsides around it, and a coastal strip of dunes and river mouth at the far edge of the same territory, held together by the Coghinas, which both feeds the wetlands and marks where Gallura gives way to Anglona.
What began as a shepherding settlement in a feudal fief has ended up governing a stretch of coast and river protected for its water quality and its birdlife, the same land put to grazing now carrying a wine designation and a conservation status instead.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Badesi
- Spiaggia di Li Junchi. Eight-kilometer beach of fine white sand and juniper-covered dunes from Isola Rossa to the Coghinas mouth, holder of the Bandiera Blu.
- Vermentino di Gallura vineyards. Hilltop vineyards inside the only DOCG zone in Sardinia, white-wine producers concentrated north and west of the village.
- Foce del Coghinas. River mouth marking the boundary between Gallura and Anglona, an EU-protected site for migratory birds nesting in the reed beds.
How to get to Badesi
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Sassari is roughly 53 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the season at Li Junchi. The sea is swimmable from mid-May, the dunes are walkable, and the vineyards on the hills above the beach work through their cycle from flowering to September harvest. July and August are crowded with Italian, German, and French families, and the Delphina resorts above the dunes fill.
Palau
Why visit Palau
Palau is young by Italian standards. The first houses went up in the first half of the 19th century, when shepherds from Tempio Pausania came down to the coast for summer pasture.
The dialect spoken is Gallurese, the same as inland Tempio, a trace of where the town's founders came from. The town's shape follows its coast: a working port at the center, the headland with its granite outcrop to the east, the fortress on the high ground behind, and the windsurfing peninsula out to the west.
None of these sit far from each other, so a settlement built for shepherds' summer pasture became, in the same stretch of shoreline, a naval lookout, a ferry gateway, and a wind sport venue without much distance between any of them.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Palau
- Roccia dell'Orso. Recorded by Greek and Roman navigators as a landmark for the strait. The climb up to it gives a view over the port and across to La Maddalena.
- Fortezza di Monte Altura. Built 1887-1889 as part of the defensive belt protecting the naval base across the water. Open for guided visits, standing above the town rather than in it.
- Isola dei Gabbiani. A tied-island peninsula, meaning it connects to the mainland by a low sandy bar rather than open water. The shallows on the sheltered side make it navigable even for beginners.
How to get to Palau
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Sassari is roughly 115 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the working season: ferries every half hour, beaches at the right temperature, the mistral cooling the afternoons. July and August are the busy months when the campgrounds fill and the ferry queues stretch back to the roundabout. June and September are easier, same water, fewer people.
Santa Teresa Gallura
Why visit Santa Teresa Gallura
Santa Teresa Gallura sits on the northern tip of Sardinia, facing the Strait of Bonifacio. Corsica is 11 kilometers away across the water, the closest point between the two islands.
The town was founded on August 12, 1808 by King Vittorio Emanuele I of Savoy and named for his wife Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, built over the older settlement of Longonsardo and laid out on a regular grid borrowed from Turin. Before the Savoy refoundation, Philip II of Spain had already raised the Torre di Longonsardo on the headland in the 1570s, one of the coastal towers built to watch for North African raiders.
Capo Testa, the granite peninsula west of town, is a Hercynian outcrop weathered into round boulders and arches, with a lighthouse at its tip and the Cala di l'Ea wind-carved cove on its eastern shore. Rena Bianca, the town beach, has held the Bandiera Blu since 1987.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety. It is also rated for accessibility, which most of this coast is not.
What to see in Santa Teresa Gallura
- Torre di Longonsardo. Late 16th-century Spanish coastal watchtower built under Philip II, the headland landmark above the town and a free viewpoint.
- Spiaggia Rena Bianca. Town beach of white sand and shallow turquoise water, Bandiera Blu holder since 1987, a short walk from the central piazza.
- Capo Testa. Granite peninsula west of town shaped by erosion into round boulders, arches and natural pools, with a working lighthouse at the western tip.
How to get to Santa Teresa Gallura
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Sassari is roughly 114 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the open season. May and June bring warm but not yet stifling water, with the maquis still flowering. July and August are the loud months when the campgrounds fill, ferry traffic peaks, and Rena Bianca packs out by ten in the morning.
Castelsardo
Why visit Castelsardo
Castelsardo sits at 114 meters on a rock above the Gulf of Asinara, twenty-five kilometers north of Sassari. The Doria family of Genoa built the castle in the early twelfth century to control the gulf, and it served as the residence of Brancaleone Doria and Eleonora d'Arborea until 1448, when the Aragonese took it and renamed it Castel Aragonese.
The Spanish turned it into a defensive fort with towers and bastions, and it kept that name until the Savoys took over in the eighteenth century and gave it the present name. The old town climbs the rock in a single line from the harbour to the castle at its summit, the walled village wrapped around the slope between the two.
Below the castle, the cathedral stands on its own terrace above the sea, its tiled bell tower placed so it can be picked out from boats well offshore. Six kilometers east, on the road out of town, the Roccia dell'Elefante sits apart from this vertical arrangement, a single eroded outcrop rather than part of the settlement.
Three rulers in succession, Genoese, Aragonese, Savoyard, each left their mark on the same rock without erasing what came before: the castle they fought over, the church they built beneath it, and the harbour they all needed at its foot.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Castelsardo
- Castello dei Doria. Tops the walled village at its highest point, the rock dropping to the harbour below. Its rooms now hold the museum devoted to the town's weaving craft.
- Cattedrale di Sant'Antonio Abate. Gothic core with seventeenth-century Renaissance and Baroque additions, tiled bell tower visible from sea, Maestro di Castelsardo altarpiece inside.
- Museo dell'Intreccio Mediterraneo. Recreated workshops and historical pieces set inside the castle's rooms, tracing how asphodel and dwarf palm are cut, stripped and worked into baskets and sieves.
How to get to Castelsardo
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Sassari is roughly 35 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the working season on the Gulf of Asinara. The Bandiera Blu beaches at Lu Bagnu and around Castelsardo open from May, and the castle terrace catches the gulf light best in early or late summer. July and August fill the centro storico with day-trippers from Sassari and the Costa Smeralda.
La Maddalena
Why visit La Maddalena
La Maddalena occupies the main island of the archipelago of the same name, sixty-two granite islands and islets in the Strait of Bonifacio between northern Sardinia and southern Corsica. The town is the only inhabited centre of the chain and the gateway to the Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago di La Maddalena, on the UNESCO tentative list since 2006.
A six-hundred-metre causeway links the main island to Caprera, where Giuseppe Garibaldi settled in 1856 and lived for twenty-five years until his death in 1882. His house, the Compendio Garibaldino, is a national monument with the memorial chapel and the original rooms preserved as he left them.
Admiral Horatio Nelson anchored the British Mediterranean fleet here in 1803-04 and donated a crucifix and two silver candelabra to the parish church of Santa Maria Maddalena, where they are still kept. The waters around Spargi, Budelli and Santa Maria carry the Bandiera Blu rating.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety. It is also rated for accessibility, which most of this coast is not.
What to see in La Maddalena
- Compendio Garibaldino di Caprera. Giuseppe Garibaldi's house and burial place on the island of Caprera, occupied from 1856 to his death in 1882, now a national museum with the original furnishings.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena. Parish church on Piazza Santa Maria Maddalena, holding the crucifix and silver candelabra donated by Admiral Nelson in 1804 during the British fleet's stay.
- Arcipelago di La Maddalena. National park of sixty-two islands and islets, with the famous pink beach of Budelli, Spargi, Santa Maria and Razzoli, on the UNESCO tentative list.
How to get to La Maddalena
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving.
Our tip
May through October is the season the archipelago opens fully: ferries from Palau every fifteen minutes, boat tours of Spargi and Budelli, the Compendio Garibaldino accessible without crowding. July and August carry the heaviest yacht traffic in northern Sardinia and the famous pink beach of Budelli is off-limits to walkers. June and late September are the best windows for swimming and beach access without the August peak.
Tortolì
Why visit Tortolì
Tortolì sits on the central-east coast of Sardinia, the larger of the two co-capitals of Ogliastra alongside Lanusei. The town proper is two kilometers inland on a plain that runs out to the sea at Arbatax, the historic port and now Tortolì's seaward frazione.
Arbatax is named for the Arabic 'arba'a tashar' (fourteen), the medieval number assigned to the watchtower on the headland. Its defining feature is the Rocce Rosse, a wall of red porphyry that rises fifteen meters out of the water next to the harbor, geologically distinct from the granite that defines most of the Sardinian east coast.
The Tortolì coast carries the Bandiera Blu for both Lido di Orrì and Spiaggia di Cea, the latter known for the two pale-red Scoglius Arrubius sea stacks that rise twenty meters offshore. In May the town stages an Infiorata, carpeting the streets in flower petals for Corpus Domini.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Tortolì
- Rocce Rosse di Arbatax. Red porphyry cliffs rising 15 meters from the sea next to the Arbatax port, the geological landmark of the east Sardinian coast.
- Spiaggia di Cea. Long pale-sand beach with the two Scoglius Arrubius red sea stacks 20 meters offshore, Bandiera Blu holder.
- Lido di Orrì. Series of small coves and pine-backed beaches south of Arbatax, Bandiera Blu site since the early 2000s.
How to get to Tortolì
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Cagliari is roughly 127 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the swimming season. May and June stay warm without summer crowds, and the Infiorata fills the centro for one weekend around Corpus Domini. July and August bring full ferries from the mainland to Arbatax and packed beaches at Cea and Orrì. Sa Festa Antiga falls in May.
Oristano
Why visit Oristano
Oristano sits at the mouth of the Tirso river on the Campidano plain, five metres above sea level, looking onto the gulf that carries its name. The city replaced the ancient Phoenician-Roman port of Tharros and became the capital of the Giudicato di Arborea in 1076, the central-western Sardinian state that survived from 900 to 1420.
Eleonora d'Arborea governed as regent from 1383 to 1403 and issued the Carta de Logu, one of the most advanced medieval law codes in Europe, in force on the island for four centuries. Each Carnival the city stages Sa Sartiglia, an equestrian joust at the ring whose lead rider, Su Componidori, is dressed and unmasked according to a fixed sixteenth-century ritual.
The Torre di Mariano II and the Antica Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta mark the medieval centre. The coast at Torregrande, six kilometres west, carries the Bandiera Blu rating.
The beach here holds the national bathing award, which a comune has to win back every year on water quality, beach management and safety.
What to see in Oristano
- Torre di Mariano II (Torre di San Cristoforo). Late thirteenth-century medieval tower built by Mariano II d'Arborea on Piazza Roma, one of the surviving fragments of the old city walls.
- Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta. Medieval cathedral on Piazza Duomo, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, with the octagonal bell tower retaining its earlier majolica-tiled cap.
- Antiquarium Arborense. Civic museum with the most important collection of Punic-Roman finds from Tharros and medieval material from the Giudicato of Arborea.
How to get to Oristano
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Cagliari is roughly 81 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through October is the working season on the Campidano coast: warm dry days, Torregrande open, the wetlands of the Sinis full of flamingos. July and August touch thirty-five degrees on the plain and the centre empties between two and five each afternoon. April and the second half of October hold the gold light and the dry warmth that suits Tharros and the cathedral walks. La Sartiglia falls in February.
