Trip To Sardinia: Quiet Beaches, Random Hospitality & One Of The Best Holidays Ever

Porticciolo: Bungalows, Empty Campsites & a 3km Hike to Paradise

I love how Ryanair opened up the door to travel to places that before were just not on my radar.

Sardinia for example. I kind of knew roughly where it was – it was an Italian island – meant to be quite nice, but that was about it.

But with a Ryanair sale for 49 quid on offer, I headed off with a friend for several days to go check it out.

We landed in Alghero and grabbed a taxi to Porticciolo Camping Village where we had a large fully equipped cabin booked – which at just 31 EUR a night, was a complete bargain.

It turned out that no buses ran near the village – the nearest a 3km walk away so we were going to be a bit stuffed as it was stuck in the middle of nowhere.

The campsite was in its final week before closing for winter, so everything was quiet: pool, shop, restaurant, bar – all open, all empty.

We took a walk down to Porticciolo Bay, about a 20-minute walk away with stunning cliffs and scenery, but a slightly underwhelming beach.

The nearest “proper” beach, Porto Conte , was 3km away, so we walked it. We sat for hours in blazing sun, no tourists, just the sound of the waves lapping up to shore. Bliss.

Alghero, Bus Rides & Butter Melting

Realising this was going to be a nightmare without a car, we booked one to collect in a couple of days’ time – in the meantime we relied on a lot of walking and the odd.

We got a bus into Alghero – Wandered the old town but soon found ourselves on the beach again.

On the way home, we grabbed some supplies for self-catering given we weren’t going to be walking a marathon every night to get fed.

We decided to walk the 3km walk back with all our shopping.

In the 30+ degree heat, it wasn’t the best decision.

Halfway back we stopped to grab a rest in some shade but it was too late, butter was already leaking through the bags in no longer a refrigerated form.

Sardinian Hospitality: Angelo, Renato & Half the Village

The next day, we set off on the 3km hike to the beach again.

A car pulled up – two locals, Angelo and Renato, offering what we thought was a lift, in very broken English – just a lot of sign language and the odd English word. We accepted.

I asked them to stop at the beach. They didn’t. They carried on straight past it and clearly did not understand our desperate attempts to get them to stop. Slightly nervous as to what on earth was going on and what their intentions were, we accepted our fate as they drove a few more miles down the road, up a hill and pulled outside a large posh-looking house.

We got out, thanked them, and prepared to walk back… but they insisted we come into the house, as the front door was opened by a chubby rosy cheeked man with an infectious smile and a broken English welcome. The only words we understood were “wine, food and beer”. Our nervousness instantly faded as we entered the huge house and out into the glorious backyard.

Suddenly half the village turned up:

Franco with loads of food
The local fisherman
Peter, who spoke the best English
And a dozen other elderly-looking men, all with hands full of food and drink of one kind or another.

It was a full-on alfresco lunchtime party!

Peter, the only one who spoke some basic English, informed us that this was Angelo’s house and he often randomly picked up tourists to bring them back for lunch.

We were blown away by the hospitality.

We sat there in Angelo’s garden, drinking local Sardinian wine, in the glorious sunshine, eating everything put in front of us, and talking with complete strangers through Peter’s broken translation.

Then came ice cream with Jack Daniels poured over it. Then more spirits. These guys really knew how to ‘do lunch’.

They took us up to a veranda for views over the bay. It was a simply stunning location – the view over the ocean and beaches magnificent. We had really landed on our feet – especially given that we had just a couple of manky ham sandwiches in our rucksack, that we had packed up for lunch, before leaving the campsite.

After two hours we left, slightly tipsy, belly’s full and feeling culturally enlightened by the experience, we were just in time for the bus into Alghero.

Rain started, so we hid in a café for tea and coffee, then caught the bus to the airport to pick up our tiny Fiat Panda that looked and drove like a sardine tin with wheels.

Stintino, Cape Falcone & Beaches Full of Flies

We drove north to Stintino – empty roads, beautiful scenery, very New Zealand‑like -very wild, remote and jaw-dropping scenery at every turn. At La Pelosa, one of Sardinia’s best beaches, the water was crystal clear but the wind was brutal so sadly, we didn’t hang around.

We explored Cape Falcone, at the most north-western tip of the island – where we found a rugged coastline with a number of old forts scattered around sinking into the sand dunes. There wasn’t much going on apart from the scenery so we wandered Stintino town. Stintino is a pretty fishing village, but with literally nothing going on, so we continued our journey to Lago Baratz. Lake Baratz is Sardinia’s only freshwater lake and it’s surrounded by dense woodland. We took a stroll along a short walking track – which was very peaceful as we had the whole place to ourselves.

Back in the car, the next mission was Porto Ferro beach. We followed signs but somehow missed it. So we dumped the car and walked half an hour until we found it – sometimes you can’t beat going by foot. We were rewarded with yet another gorgeous beach – clear water, beautiful sand and once again, no one around. We went for a dip but the water was freezing so we didn’t last long. We decided to sit on the beach and sunbathe instead.

Unfortunately, either we smelled, were lying on dog crap, or Porto Ferro is home to a million flies. They didn’t leave us alone, so we bailed and knew exactly where to go.

Back to Porto Conte – our favourite beach – for an hour and a half in glorious sun.

Still not satisfied with all that we had seen, we took a drive up to Capo Caccia for views over the bay and watch one of the most peaceful sunsets I’ve witnessed.

Bosa, Coastal Roads & One Last Beach Before Home

We packed up, checked out, bought picnic supplies, and left a bottle of wine on Angelo’s doorstep as a thank you.

Then we drove the coastal road to Bosa, a small community further down the coast. The road was stunning, winding, dramatic. This island just kept giving and giving.

We found another beach and chilled for a couple of hours, then drove back to Porto Conte for one final sunbathe at our favourite spot.

It was soon time to fly home but whilst sad to leave this infectious island -we were buzzing from one of the best holidays ever. We had only scratched a small portion of this large island sat in the middle of the Med. I would love to visit more one day as this little corner that we explored was truly epic – one of the sleepiest but most stunning parts of Europe I have visited.