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Foreign I was born and raised in Sardinia and I still call it home. I am the mastermind behind this weekly Sardinia Travel blog and now this weekly Sardinia podcast where each week I will bring you the best of Sardinia and share my most useful tips that will help you plan a wonderful trip to my beautiful island. Today I want to talk to you about one of the most common questions I receive from from my readers. What are the best things to do in Sardinia? Which places do you recommend I visit during my trip to Sardinia? Now let me start by saying that if you're coming to Sardinia for the first time and only have five days, you will not be able to see everything that Sardinia has to offer. In fact, I am older than 40. I will not disclose my age here, you know, and I have yet to visit all the places that Sardinia has, enjoy all the activities that Sardinia offers. The good news is that whatever kind of traveler you are, whatever age you are, there's something for you. So if you're coming here with your friends and just want to have a good time in the sun, we have something for you. If you're older and want to go on hikes or enjoy Sardinia's culture, don't worry. Plenty to do for you. If you're coming with your family and kids and are worried that they may not find entertainment again, don't worry, they love Sardinia. It's a perfect place for a family holiday. So speaking of holidays, let me talk about the main reason why people come to Sardinia in the summer. That's the beaches. We have wonderful beaches in Sardinia. I have traveled all, all over the world. I've been to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Mexico, you know, Caribbean, you name it. And I have yet to see beaches and sea that are as beautiful as those we have in Sardinia. We have anything from long sandy beaches where your kids can play, build sand castles during the day, and shallow waters where they can swim really safely. And we have small rocky coves where you can spend endless hours snorkeling. We just have any beaches that can be reached only via strenuous hike or by boat. We have beaches where you can easily park your car, find a place that rents umbrellas and sunbeds and just enjoy your day in a very comfortable way. There's something for everyone now. We also have dog friendly beaches. So if you're coming with your dog, don't worry, there's places for you. We have protected beaches where you have to book in advance. The most famous one you may have heard of is La Pelosa in Stintino but there's also Cala Golorize in the Baunet coast and Punta Molentis in Villasimios. We also have secluded beaches, beaches that regardless of when you come, they're never crowded, even in the peak summer months. And these are a bit harder to reach, but they're worth it, trust me. Now, I will not mention the best beaches in Sardinia here in this podcast episode. I've talked about them yesterday on my last episode, and you have my blog post to discover them all. But I just want to reassure you that all the beaches in Sardinia are gorgeous and you shouldn't worry about visiting one area versus the other for beaches, because there's gorgeous beaches everywhere. Talking about beaches, I also want to mention boat tours. This is definitely one of the best things that you can do in Sardinia. In the summer we can offer you sailing tours. And some people love to spend a week sailing around the island. There's always some sort of wind or just regular day boat tours from a variety of starting places. Now, when it comes to boat tours, one of my favorite places is Maddalena Archipelago. It's made of a multitude of small islands. Seven are the main ones, including Maddalena and Caprera, and then there's lots of smaller ones. And it's a fantastic protected spot where to go sailing or beach hopping on a boat. There's also Azinara Island. Again, it's a national park and nobody lives there. There's no cars. When you go on a tour around the island, you just get the most unique vibe of a secluded place. You can go on a boat tour around San Pietro island or sant' Antioco island on the Sulchis coast of Sardinia. You can go on a boat tour in Villasimillos, which is a fantastic spot in southeastern Sardinia. Or you can go on a boat tour in Cagliari. Yes, the capital city of Sardinia has fantastic spots where you can visit on a boat tour. Last but not least, I obviously need to mention the Boune Coast. This is one of the most popular places in Sardinia for boat tours. It's just, you know, a series of tiny coves that can only be reached either by a really strenuous hike, which I don't recommend in case you're visiting Sardine in the summer or by boat. So note these places down as the best places for boat tour in Sardinia. Number three on my list of things to do in explore Cagliari. Oftentimes people visit Sardinia and they completely skip the capital. Now, I was born and raised in Cagliari. It's My hometown still. This is where I live and I love it. It's completely underrated, probably the most underrated city in Italy. There is so much to see, so much to do. First of all, you know, we were talking about beaches. If you visit Cagliari in the summer months, you have access to Poeto, which, yes, it's an urban beach, but it's so easy to reach. It's long and sandy, it's fully equipped with whatever you may need for a fantastic day, and it's gorgeous. And we have more beaches in Calamosca, Santeria, La Pallot, Calafiguera. So many now, Cagliari being the capital, it's a historic town, so obviously you can explore the historic center. We have four main historic districts which are connected one to the other. You'll find archaeological sites scattered in the city, such as the Roman amphitheater or the Tuviget du Necropolis, some lots of beautiful churches. We also have hiking trails. Yes, right within the city. You know, I always say, caller is a bit like a small version of Cape Town. We have our own. Our own Table Mountain, which we call Devil Saddle. And there's hiking trails that take you to the top, and from there you enjoy wonderful views of the city and of the bay. We have lots of good restaurants in the city, in case you like eating out, which obviously you will enjoy, because this is Italy, after all. And if you like bird watching, guess what? We have that too, because we have the Molentar Juice nature reserve, where you can spot pink flamingos. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have pink flamingos living here in Sardinia. Now, obviously, I cannot talk about Cagliari without mentioning other cities in Sardinia, and there's many. First of all, there's Sasseri, which is the second largest city on the island. It's located at the top, north of Sardinia, and it has lots of lovely churches, a very interesting museum, and the best thing about it is off the beaten track, not many tourists go. So if you go, you'll likely have the city to yourself. If you ever decide to visit in May, you can also enjoy the Cavalcata Sarda, one of the most impressive festivals in Sardinia. Another city I recommend Nuoro. It's a main city in the heart of the mountainous region of Sardinia, where you'll find an excellent ethnographic museum where you can learn loads about Sardinia's history and culture. And they also have a museum of modern art that is truly worth visiting. Then there's Alghero. Who hasn't heard about Alghero when Planning a trip to Sardinia. It's the Catalan enclave of Sardinia, located in the northwest of the island. It has its own airport. It's home to gorgeous beaches and a few interesting archaeological sites. Such as? Such as Palma Vera Nuraga, the Neptune Caves, which you can easily reach by sea if you prefer, or via a staircase located in Capocaccia, which will take you along the coast. Alghero is also home to excellent wineries in Sardinia. The best one is Cantina Selemosca, which is the largest one. So I recommend spending at least a few days in Alghero to make sure that you make the most of everything it has to offer. There are also a variety of smaller towns and villages in Sardinia that you should visit. Let me just mention my favorite ones. Boza. Boza is not just the prettiest village in Sardina, it's probably the prettiest village in Italy. It's so colorful. It has a hilltop castle that affords you incredible views of the coast, so you will want to visit. Then we have Castelsardo. It's similar in the layout. It's a coastal town with a hilltop castle, the Doria Castle, and it's just so pretty to explore. And then we have Orgozolo. Oh, gosh, I love Orgozolo. Orgozolo is like literally a museum. It's home to the most impressive array of murals in Sardinia. It's just incredible. And similar to that in the south of Sardinia. We have San Spirate, which also has lots of murals, and the Giardino Sonoro, the sound garden. Literally, that's a name of the place, which is a park of sounding stones carved by artist Pinucio Schola, one of the most famous Sardinian artists. Speaking of more villages, I need to mention Calazetta. Calazetta is a tiny town that was founded in the 18th century that is entirely white. And its main interesting thing is that it's a museum town. It's a museum town with fantastic museum of contemporary art. And it's a minority town, meaning that they speak a very unique language, Tabarquin, which is completely different from, well, from Italian, first of all, and from Sardinian, which is the minority language we speak in Sardinia. Now go there to discover what I'm talking about. When you come to Sardinia and you want to discover the history of the island, you obviously have to visit one of the local archaeological sites. Now, we have so many, I cannot possibly mention all of them, but let me just give you a few hints on the ones that you need to visit. Sunraji Sunuraji is a nurage. What is a nurage? Oh, gosh, how do I explain that? It's iconic structure built in stones that dates from 1900 and 7, 730 before Christ. Once meant to be a defensive construction with villages around them. There's still a lot of research run around Nurage to discover their purposes and their functions. Now, the best one in Sardinia is, as I said, Sunuragi. It's about 45 minutes drive from Cagliari in a village called Barumini. Then we have Nora ruins near Pula, again 45 minutes drive from Cagliari. It was founded by the Phoenicians and then taken over by the Romans. And it's a marvelous stratified site where you can see beautiful mosaics, columns and more. Similar to this, there's Tarros, which is in the lesser known Sinis peninsula. The site is pleasant because it's never crowded and it's overlooking the sea, so it's just stunning. And if you go there, you can also enjoy the San Giovanni di Sinis beach, which is perfect on a summer day. And also I actually quite love it in the winter time. I also need to mention Fordon Gianus. This is one of the best preserved Roman sites in Sardinia. The Romans built a fantastic thermal system here, so they obviously also have a spa in the city. But the archaeological site is just impressive. See, not to move too far from the ideas of visiting archaeological sites, let me talk to you about Sardinia's fairy houses, the Domus de Janas and the giant stones. We have lots of giant stones in Sardinia and these are just necropolis, you know, places where people were buried. But they are quite monumental. My favorite one is Sena Etomes, which is close to the village of Olena in Cerdinas, Barbaja region, not far from Nuoro. And it's in a private property. Imagine, you know, you just have animals at pasture and then you just one day realize that there are ruins in your land. And of course, being this Italy, they allow people to visit the Domus de Janas. On the other hand, they are even more unique. We call them Janus in Sardinian is a fairy, so we call them fairy houses. But we think that, you know, in the past fairies used to live there, but they're just again burial sites. And there's several interesting ones to visit. Now, if you like more recent archaeological sites, we have lots of mines, abandoned mines to visit in Sardinia. I have been to many. My favorite one is probably Ingurtosu, where you can see the remains of The Brassei Library and it's called to. It's quite close to Pisinas beach, one of the wildest and most isolated beaches in Sardina. You know, remember how I told you about the secluded beaches? You can hit two birds with one stone. If you go there, you can visit the beach Pisinas, which is really secluded and it's also. They also have a nudist stretch and you can go to Inurtoso mines. However, the most famous mine in Sardinia is the one of Porto Flavia, which again, by the way, is close to Mazua Pandizucaro Beach. Porto Flavia is a harbor that was built between 1923, 1924 and served as a harbor for the nearby mines. So basically the mined materials were taken all the way through these tunnels to the sea and unloaded on the boats that would take them away. Now it's a wonderful place to visit. You can only go on guided tours, but just make sure to book it. Now, this part of Sardinia, this Porto Flavia is located in southern Sardinia, close to Iglesias. So it's actually easy to visit on a day trip from Cagliari if you want. There are also lots of caves to visit in Sardinia. I'll mention the two most famous one, Neptune's Caves near Alghero. I've already told you about it before. And then we have the Grotta del Buemarino, the sea oxen grotto, which is located on the Baune coast. It's sad that sea oxen or, you know, actually seals used to live there and now they're not seen. Although a video I saw the other day on Instagram shows that this, this Foca Monica, which was the animal living here. So monk seal is still around. Now, we don't know if this is actually the case. You know, it was, it was just a quick video and it wasn't very clear, but you know, you may want to go check it for yourself. Let me continue. Another thing you want to do in Sardinia, find the hidden churches. Oh, we have so many, so many hidden churches around the island. You don't even have to drive far from Cagliari to see the best ones. My favorite, Santa Maria di Siviola in Serdiana. Serdiana is the village my mom is from. It's just 20 minutes drive from Cagliari and it's home to fabulous wineries. So if you go there, you make sure to explore the wineries and then you go visit the church. Or you can do it the other way around. This is the church where my mom and dad got married, where my sister got married and all my aunts got married, my cousins got married there. Next to Serdiana there is another village, Dolianova, where you can visit San Pantaleo church again. A gorgeous little church that nobody knows about, no tourists know about, and it's lovely to visit. If you are in the north of Sardinia, you will want to see Santa Trinita di Sacarja. It's a striped church in the middle of nowhere in the countryside. It's not far from Sassery, so it's a gorgeous spot to visit. Now I mentioned before going to Sassery to enjoy the Cavalcata Salda festival. Of course there are more festivals in Sardinia that you can enjoy. The most famous one is Santa Fizio, which takes place in Cagliari every 1st of May and it's been taking place since 1657. That's how old it is. To celebrate the time Sardinia got rid of the plague and the saint that helped Sardinia. On that specific occasion, it's a parade in traditional costumes in honor of the saint. And people from a number of villages in Sardinia parade the streets of Cagliari. So it's quite a show to see. Another festival that you want to consider attending is Sassartillha. I mentioned this before in a different episode now, Sassartilla takes place during Carnival in Oristano and you will see men and women wearing traditional costumes, wearing a mask on horses, galloping along the streets of Oristano to catch a star that it's hanging between the buildings. It's quite an adrenaline filled show. So it's definitely a show you want to see if you're visiting Sardinia in the winter months. Finally, there is Autun in Barbaja, probably my favorite festival because it takes place across a number of weekends during the fall. And each weekend two or three different villages in the Barbaja mountainous region of Sardinia host. The festival is just a wonderful occasion to learn more about the traditional culture of Sardinia, to try traditional food, to meet the locals. You know, it's. They always. These festivals always seem to be very crowded, but most people you'll see there are actually locals and people from other places in Sardinia that just enjoy them. So make sure you go. You know how I told you Sardinia is a great place for snorkeling? Of course, this is not the only water activity you can enjoy on the island. We have more, first of all, surfing and windsurfing and kite surfing. Sardinia is so windy that you will always find a spot to go surfing, especially if you're visiting in the winter months. So if you're into that, come with your board and just find a spot to go surfing, Driving. Yes, that is a fantastic thing to do in Sardinia. Remember that Sardinia is quite difficult to explore by public transportation. We have really windy roads and a lack of buses and trains. Now, if you want to drive around Sardinia, you will have lots of scenic roads to enjoy. Let me mention my favorite one is the Strada Satale Centu Vinticinque125 state road that connects Calia to Villasimius. You have to take the old road though, because that goes along the Co and the views are just stunning. Hiking and climbing. Oh, if you're coming to Sardinia in the fall and spring months, these are probably activities you do not want to miss. And you're never far from a great hike in Sardinia. The best hike I can recommend is the Goropo Gorge. It's in the mountainous region of Sardinia. And now the Goropo Gorge is the. Is the deepest canyon in Europe. You need to pay a ticket once you get to the immediate to the. To the entrance of the gorge. And getting there, there are several hiking trails. My favorite one is the one that starts in Sabarva Bridge, which is right outside of Dorgali. You know, I realized that I haven't mentioned one of my favorite things to do here, eating. We have lots of delicious food. Now remember that food in food in Italy is very, very regional. So you don't come here expecting to find carbonara on the menu or lasagna, because you'll be disappointed. We have our own dishes that are just delicious. And you want to try them, you will want to try Coulurgiones. It's our version of ravioli, but better they're made with potatoes and cheese. Each village, I want to say each family in each village has its own recipe. Each of them claim for it to be the best. I have my favorite one. It's from. It's from Seoul, a small town in the Ollastra region of Sardinia. Then you can try Maloredus, which is kind of like a pasta. It's a bit rough tasting, rough texture, sorry. And Italians call them gnocchetti sardi, but they're not even similar to gnocchi. I don't know how to explain it. And we have fregola freola in Sardinian. It's sort of like a thick looking couscous that we eat with clams and the brothy tomatoey sauce, which is just delicious. I wanted to mention, or maybe not the Sardinian cheese. We have lots of delicious cheeses in Sardinia. The most famous one is casu marzo, Sardinian rotten cheese. Now, I won't go into details about this cheese. Let me just tell you that it's not very easy to find. So if you find it, maybe try a little bit and see what you think. Of course, to make the most of Sardinian food, I recommend joining a guided food tour. The best ones are usually in Cagliari or a cooking class. Again, we have many around the island, a lot of them in Cagliari, but there's also some in Alghero in Olbia. Speaking of food, I became thirsty and so one of the best things to do in Sardinia is wine tasting. There's lots and lots of wineries around the island where you can enjoy wine tasting. I mentioned Alghero and Cantina Selemosca before. I mentioned Serdiana, the village my mom is from, which has some of the best wineries in Sardinia. One that I love to recommend is Argyolas. They make my favorite wine in the world. But there's also wineries in the Emerald coast region of Sardinia. For example, try and find Cantina Surround near Arzakena. They make excellent wines. While you are in Sardinia, consider enjoying a sunset. There are lots of excellent sunset spots on the island. Alghiro, Bascians, Santa Croce street in Calgary. They are top spots to enjoy a marvelous sunset view and a romantic time with your beloved one. Now, this is obviously not the end of my pick of things to do in Sardinia, but I cannot go on forever and ever. Next time, in next episode, I'm going to talk to you about Calyri, my hometown. So stay tuned for that. I hope you continue following me. If you like this podcast, give it a five star rating and a good review. Until next time, goodbye.