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Foreign I am Claudia. I was born and raised in Sardinia and I still call it home. I am the mastermind behind the Sweetly Sardinia Travel blog. And now the Sweetly Sardinia Podcast, where each week I'll bring you the best Sardinia has to offer and share my most useful tips that will help you plan a memorable trip to my wonderful island. Today, I want to talk to you about a very pressing topic that many of you raise with me every now and then. How to get to Sardinia. This is an especially important topic for people traveling from outside of Europe because there are no direct connections from North America or Australia or Asia to Sardinia. And so I'm gonna cover everything. Don't worry. At the end of this podcast, you will have information that will help you decide which way to travel to Sardinia. There are only two ways of getting to Sardinia. Because we're an island, it's either by plane or by ferry. Flying is faster, easier, cheaper, and yes, traveling by ferry allows you to take your own car on the ferry, but you can rent a car when you're in Sardinia already. We have three airports in Cagliari, Elmas, which serves the capital city of Sardinia, and the southern and central region Alghero Fertilia, near Alghero, which serves the northwest of Sardinia Olbia Costa Esmeralda, near Olbia, in the northeast of Sardinia, which serves the famous Emerald Coast. Airports in Sardinian cities are usually really close to the city, and it's just a question of hopping on a quick train or bus ride or taxi to get to your final destination. Unless you're traveling obviously elsewhere, traveling to Cerdina by plane is quick and easy. The flight from Rome to Sardinia, depending on where you're landing, takes between 50 minutes and an hour. The flight from Milan to Sardinia takes between an hour and an hour and 10 minutes, depending on where you're landing. And then obviously, we have flights from a multitude of other cities in Italy direct to Sardinia. The highest number of direct connections to Sardinia are from Milano Linate in Milan and Rome Fiumicino in Rome. Flights from Milano Linate and Rome Fiumicino to Caglieri and Olbia are operated by aeroitalia. And you may have not heard about this airline, but I will tell you more about it in a little bit. Flights from Rome and Milan to Alghero are operated by Italian national carrier ITA Airways. I want to reassure you about AeroItalia. Oftentimes people ask me whether it is a reliable airline. Well, it's not just reliable. It's the only one that at the moment has direct connections From Cagliari and Obia to Rome and Milan. These flights are operated under what we call continuita territoriale, which literally means territorial continuity, which is intended to regularly connect mainland Italy to Sardinia as a service for residents. The service cannot be interrupted. Flights cannot be cancelled, they can be sometimes delayed, so you can rest assured the flights are always departing when you're traveling with ITA or Aero Italia. There are also direct flights to Cerdina from a variety of other airports in Italy. Milano, Malpensa, Embergamo, Orial, Serio in Milan, Rome, Ciampino, which is the budget airline hub in Rome. And there are direct flights operated by budget airlines from Venice, Marco Polo, Verona, Pisa, Florence, Torino, Bologna, Perugia, Naples, Bari, many, many, many other cities. Most budget flights to Sardinia are operated by the biggest budget airline in Europe, Ryanair. But you'll also find flights operated by EasyJet, Eurowings, Volotea, Wizz Air. You can also find direct flights to Sardinia from various European cities. There are direct connections from London Gatwick to Calgary with British Airways, Munich is connected to Sardinia with Lufthansa. Air France operates flights from Paris Orli to Sardinia, and KLM operates flights from Amsterdam to Sardinia. Ryanair usually activates more flights during the peak summer months between May and October, and you'll be able to fly into Sardinia from Dublin, London, Stansted, Paris, Bovet and other airports in Europe. In general, there are way more options to fly to Sardinia from a variety of cities in Europe in the peak travel season between May and October. The offer is a bit more limited in the low season and on during those times, you'll probably have to fly to Sardinia via Rome, Fiumicino or Milano Linate, especially if you're coming from outside of Europe. Now booking your flight to Sardinia, Usually what I do is look on Skyscanner and then find the best flight options and then book directly with the airline. This is what I do. If you're traveling to Sardinia in the summer months, I strongly advise to book as early as is feasible and as soon as you find an offer that you think is good. That's because prices tend to skyrocket during the peak season. Now, how to arrive to Sardinia if you're coming from the United States, Asia or Australia. As I said before, we don't have any direct connections from America, North America, Asia, Australia or New Zealand. So if you're flying from one of these countries, you're gonna have to go via Rome or via Milan or another major European hub like Amsterdam or London. There are flights to Rome and Milan from many, many cities in the United States, such as, I don't know, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, you name it. Operated by various carriers that you may know. ITA Airways, Delta, United, American Airlines. There are also flights from Toronto and Montreal operated by Air Canada. If you're coming from Australia or New Zealand, you're likely gonna have to stop in Singapore or Dubai on the way to Italy and then fly from Rome or Milan. Overall, I find that the best place to connect if you're coming to Sardinia from North America or from Australia or Asia is via Rome. Fiumicino Airport. Why? Well, Milano Malpensa is a well connected airport, but most of the flights to Sardinia from Milan are departing from Milano Delate, which is a different airport. So you would have to change airport to catch your flight. On the other hand, in the case of Rome, flights to Sardinia are departing from Fiumicino, which is going to be where you're landing. So it's just a question of going through passport control, picking your bags, and then, you know, maybe check them in again. If you have. If you have bags to check in, go through security again and it's so easy. You can also get to Sardinia by ferry, if your travel schedule allows. We have connections to many harbors in Sardinia from various places in Italy and around Europe. We have the harbors in Sardinia in Olbia and Golf Aranci in the northeast of the island. In northern Sardinia there's Porto Tor, and there's a ferry port in the eastern of east of the island in Arbatax, which is not very well connected. There's only, I think, one or two ferries per week to mainland Italy, Civitavecchia. And we also have a ferry port here in Cagliari in the south of Sardinia. There's another ferry port in Santa Teresa di Gallura, which only connects Sardinia to Corsica. I don't really recommend traveling to Sardina by ferry because it takes a long time and, you know, it takes longer. If the sea conditions are a bit rough. It can take between 10 and 15 hours, depending on your departure and arrival point. And this is the regular ferry service that is operated throughout the year. In the summer months you can also opt for a quick ferry. Usually connects Livorno in Tuscany to Olbia and Golf Aranci, and it travels during the day and takes about five hours where the overnight ferry. You're gonna have to book a cab for the passage, otherwise at least you can relax during the night. There are various companies that operate the ferry to Sardinia from Italy. Tyrrenia Grimaldi, Lines, Mobi, Grandina, Bibelochi, Sardinia ferries and Corsica ferries. And the ferries depart from Civitavecchia, which is near Rome, Genoa, Livorno and Piombino. And there are also ferries from Naples and Palermo. I think once a week, if you're traveling from outside of Italy, there are direct ferries to Sardinia once a week from Toulon and Marseille in France, and once a week from Barcelona. Marseille is connected to Porto Torres, Nice is connected to Golf Aranci, and Barcelona is also connected to Porto Torres. When it comes to booking the ferry to Sardinia, I normally recommend using Fairy Hopper, which is a comparison site. And it's, it's a lot. It's not like Skyscanner where you eventually have to go to the airline to book. It's more like a booking site altogether. You look for the best options for your date and, and time, how many passengers you are, whether you want a cabin, first class or second class cabin. And you're gonna have to state if you're traveling with a car and how big the car is, and that's it, you can book your ferry. Now. There also are cruises to Sardinia. They usually stop in either Olbia or Cagliari. It's not really a way to get to Sardinia, I say, because you only get to spend a day in Sardina and then you go away on the same cruise. Let me give you some few final, a few final words on how to get to Sardinia. If you're coming from Europe, you have a wide choice of airports to fly from, with direct connections to the three Sardinian airports of Alghero, Cagliari and Olbia. Costa Smeralda. Ryanair operates many, many flights. If you're coming from Italy, Again, many of many flights operated by budget airlines from a variety of cities in Italy. Or you can always fly from Rome, Fiumicino or Milano Linate. If you're coming from outside of Europe, your best option is to fly via Rome Fiumicino, because it's the only airport where you land and depart from the same airport. And that's the most convenient thing. Now this is a wrap up now and if you like this podcast, please make sure to give it a five star review. Five star rating and a good review. Next time on the Strictly Sardina podcast, we're going to talk about another very pressing subject, where to stay in Sardinia. So stay tuned and until next time, goodbye.