What is Palau known for?

Main embarkation point for the seven-island Maddalena archipelago, with year-round ferry service across the strait. The 122-meter granite bear on the headland east of town, weathered into shape over millennia and the town's emblem. Isola dei Gabbiani and the Porto Pollo bays host international windsurfing and kitesurfing events thanks to consistent mistral exposure.

When is the best time to visit Palau?

May–Oct. 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. Spring brings yellow broom on the granite. November to April is quiet, with reduced ferry timetables and many restaurants closed. Winter storms hit the Capo d'Orso headland hard, and the strait crossing gets cancelled when the mistral exceeds force seven.

Palau is a comune in the province of Sassari, Sardinia region of Italy, about 119 kilometers from Sassari.

How do I get to Palau?

From Sassari, Palau is roughly 119 km by road.

Sardinia · Sassari

Palau

The Gallura port with a weather-shaped granite bear on the headland that gave the town its emblem.

Known for

LA MADDALENA GATEWAY
Main embarkation point for the seven-island Maddalena archipelago, with year-round ferry service across the strait.
ROCCIA DELL'ORSO
The 122-meter granite bear on the headland east of town, weathered into shape over millennia and the town's emblem.
PORTO POLLO WINDS
Isola dei Gabbiani and the Porto Pollo bays host international windsurfing and kitesurfing events thanks to consistent mistral exposure.
VERMENTINO DI GALLURA
The commune lies inside the Vermentino di Gallura DOCG production zone.

When to visit

Best · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Why come

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 Sunday letter

We haven’t written Palau’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

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.
Porto Palau
Crossings to La Maddalena run every 30 minutes in summer, close enough that the archipelago is visible from the quay for most of the wait.
Porto Pollo
The two bays sit back to back: calm and shallow on one side, open to the mistral on the other, so the same stretch of sand serves both a swimming beach and a launch point for sails.

The slow-trip planner

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Living here

Population 4,048
Off the beaten pathi
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Sardinia, 4 h 30 min drive
Regional capital Cagliari, 4 h 18 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

Bandiera Blu

The numbers

Elevation: 5 m
Population: 4,048
Surface area: 44.44 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Sassari

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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