SARDINIA NOT COSTA SMERALDA

HOW TO GET THERE...

There are many routes, especially direct flights from most countries in Europe. UK visitors have a choice of Ryanair to Alghero, or British Airways to Cagliari. Air fares are getting more and more competitive, unless you have to go in August, which happens to be the most crowded and expensive time to go, on account of the holiday influx of mainland Italians who are, by and large, creatures of habit. There are a number of ferries from Italy to a number of different ports in Sardinia, so if you want to, you can take your own car. But it is much les stressful to fly to Genoa, Pisa or Rome and take ferries from nearby departure points.

 

There’ s usually a car rental office in all the ports and again, if you can avoid August, you can avoid the madness of crowds. May, June and September are the best bets. Driving around in Sardinia is not as hazardous as one would think. Most of the roads are pretty good, although driving around the hinterland can lead to sudden losses of tarmac without warning! But this is all part of the fun, especially when you realise that all the road maps are years out of date. There are a lot of new roads built with EC money of course, (or is it easy money?) which now take you from A to B with astonishing rapidity, but that’s no fun – it’ s the really wiggley ones that you really want to try! And the spectacular scenery that they go through makes the effort worthwhile.

 

Of course, by sticking to the little roads, you totally underestimate the time it takes to get from A to B, but Sardinia is not a big island and there are seaside resorts everywhere to cater for the homeless. Underestimate we did, which is why we only managed to see half the island in our allotted time. So we are looking forward to doing the other half next year when we will report on that and also our overall impressions of the island as a whole. In touring Sardinia, it doesn’ t really matter where you start or finish, the majestic scenery, the historical sites and above all the warmth of the people (unlike the Corsicans – but that’ s another story) will make you want to return again and again.