Sardinia: Italy's Wild, Beautiful Island That Gets Under Your Skin

More Than A Beach Holiday – And One Of The Mediterranean's Most Rewarding Escapes

Wondering where to go for your next holiday? We thoroughly recommend Sardinia. The white sandy beaches. The iridescent turquoise sea. The delicious cuisine. And the wild flamingos you’ll see in the marshland not far from Cagliari-Elmas airport.

We've been planning trips here for years. It’s a beautiful island that still surprises us.

Why Sardinia?

The island is large enough to absorb its visitors in a way that smaller Mediterranean destinations simply can't. Inland, the Barbagia region is genuinely remote. You can drive for an hour without passing anything that resembles tourist infrastructure, which is rarer than it used to be in this part of the world.

What keeps Sardinia feeling like itself is partly geography and partly stubbornness. Much of the coastline is protected. Building restrictions are strict. The Sardinians have a fiercely independent relationship with the island, and that shows in how it feels to be there.

The Costa Smeralda and the North

The Costa Smeralda delivers. That's not faint praise – there are plenty of places in the Mediterranean that have been selling themselves on reputation for decades while quietly falling short of it, and the area around Porto Cervo isn't one of them. The water is as good as it looks in photographs, the beaches are immaculate, and the restaurants in peak season are exceptional.

Beyond the Costa Smeralda, the north gets interesting in a different way. The Maddalena Archipelago is a protected marine park of pale granite islands and wild beaches, reached by a short boat trip from the mainland. Hire a private boat for the day and work through the smaller islands. The water clarity in the interior channels is genuinely startling.

Our favourite hotel in the north: Capo d'Orso Thalasso & SPA

The West Coast – Fewer Crowds, Just as Beautiful

The beach at Is Arutas is made not of sand but of tiny, rounded quartz granules that look like spilt rice. The water in front of it sits somewhere between pale mint and turquoise. It is one of the more genuinely odd beaches in Europe, and almost no one from outside the island knows it.

Further south, the Sulcis has a different quality altogether. Old mining towns, Phoenician ruins, wide beaches that face the open sea and attract almost no one. Tharros, a Roman and Phoenician site on the tip of the Sinis Peninsula, sits right at the water's edge. In the late afternoon, with the light doing what the light does on Sardinia's west coast, it's magnificent. There is rarely a queue.

Our favourite hotel on the west coast: Hotel Le Dune Piscinas

The South – Forte Village and the Best Resort on the Island

If there is a single name associated with luxury in Sardinia, it's Forte Village.

The resort sits on the southern coast near Cagliari and operates on a scale that's genuinely hard to match anywhere in Europe. It's not a hotel – it's a village, spread across 47 acres of Mediterranean garden that runs straight down to a private sandy beach. What surprises many first-time visitors is that Forte Village is actually made up of nine separate hotels, each with its own character and price point, covering a wide range of budgets. Whether you're looking for something more accessible or the very top end of the market, there's a fit. For those seeking complete seclusion, 13 exclusive villas are available, each with a private garden and pool, a secluded setting within the resort, and a British-style personal butler service.

There are multiple pools, a long stretch of sun loungers, and the kind of unhurried, immaculately organised atmosphere that makes a week feel both full and relaxing.

The food is one of the resort's great strengths. Forte Village has hosted some of the world's best chefs in residence over the years – Michelin-starred names who come specifically to cook here through the season. Beyond the headline restaurants, there are casual beach dining options, a proper Italian deli, and a poolside grill. The range is wide enough that you never feel like you're eating in the same place twice, even on a fortnight's stay.

For families, Forte Village is exceptional. The children's clubs are among the best we've encountered anywhere in the Mediterranean – genuinely well-run, age-grouped, and staffed by people who are enthusiastic rather than merely present. There are dedicated activity pools, a football academy with professional coaching, a tennis programme, and a full kids' entertainment schedule that runs from morning to evening. The result is that children are genuinely occupied and happy, which means parents genuinely relax. It's a harder balance to strike than it sounds, and Forte Village gets it right.

Couples who come without children tend to be equally well served, which is a useful indicator of the resort's design. The thalassotherapy spa is serious – a large, dedicated facility offering seawater treatments, massage, and wellness programmes that make it a compelling reason to be there on its own. The beach is calm and clean. The pace is yours to set.

We've been sending clients to Forte Village for years, and the feedback is consistently strong. People return. That's the clearest endorsement we can offer. If you're considering it, we'd encourage you not to delay – peak weeks fill early, and the best room categories go first.

Cagliari rewards a day trip from the resort. The Castello quarter sits above the city on a limestone hill, with views across the Campidano plain, and its old streets are genuinely beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with being prepared for visitors.

Explore the resort: Forte Village Resort

The Food and the Interior

The food deserves a separate conversation.

Sardinia's cuisine was shaped by centuries of near-complete self-sufficiency, and it shows. Pane carasau is the thin, twice-baked flatbread that turns up everywhere, eaten with olive oil and salt, or piled with whatever the kitchen has on hand. Culurgiones are potato-and-pecorino parcels, finished with a tomato sauce that hasn't changed in living memory. Suckling pig roasted over myrtle wood. Cheese at every meal.



Cannonau, the Grenache-based red grown in the Barbagia hills, is earthy and complex and still underpriced internationally. Vermentino is the white to drink with anything that came out of the sea. These are wines that hold their own against far more famous Italian regions, and most people discover that only after they've been here.

The East Coast and Cala Goloritzé

One beach on the eastern coast has become synonymous with Sardinia for a reason.

Cala Goloritzé sits beneath limestone cliffs in the Gennargentu mountains and is accessible only via a challenging hiking trail or by boat from Santa Maria Navarrese. When the afternoon sun hits the water, the colour is an electric blue that photographs can suggest but can't quite capture. The effort required to get there is exactly what keeps it feeling like a discovery.

The coast from Arbatax south to Santa Maria Navarrese repays slow exploration by car. The roads wind through mountain scenery and then suddenly drop to the sea. The villages are unhurried. There is very good grilled fish to be had in small places that don't take reservations.

Our favourite hotels in the east: Baglioni Resort Sardinia and Su Gologone Experience Hotel

When to Go

May, June and September are the months we recommend. The water in June is swimmable everywhere, the island hasn't reached its August peak, and the evenings are long. September is particularly good: the water is at its warmest, the crowds thin after the first week, and there's a quality to the light that makes every bit of coastline look like it was arranged.



July and August are busy, particularly in the north. If that's the window you have, the West Coast and the South are noticeably quieter and worth considering.

How Tailormade Escapes Puts It Together

The difference between a well-chosen base in Sardinia and the wrong one is significant, which is something that's easy to underestimate when planning from a distance. We know which hotels suit which kind of traveller, which parts of the coast work well together as a twin-centre trip, and where to point you for food and boat hire that won't disappoint.

If you're thinking about Sardinia, get in touch and we'll start from there.