Sardinia

Turn up at any of the beaches below without a booking and you will not get on the sand. These are not queues you can beat by arriving early — the binding constraint is the booking window, not what time you show up.

The windows bite. Tuerredda opens at 08:00 for the following day. La Pelosa holds back 1,000 of its 1,500 places until two days ahead, released at 09:00 — and at the beach a woven mat is compulsory, enforced with on-the-spot fines; a towel alone will get you moved on. San Teodoro opens at 18:00 two days ahead. Cala Goloritzé cannot be reached by boat at all — boats stop at buoys offshore, and the only way in is a 3.6 km walk down from the Golgo plateau, about an hour down and ninety minutes back, in closed shoes, with no facilities at the bottom.

Taking sand, pebbles or shells off a Sardinian beach carries a fine of €500 to €3,000, even in small quantities — and it is enforced at the airports, not just written down. Cagliari-Elmas seized around 125 kg in summer 2024 alone, Olbia more than 900 kg since 2020, and one visitor was traced and fined after flying home because she posted the sand on social media.

Spiaggia Rosa on Budelli is closed, and it is not pink. The famous beach has been off-limits since the mid-1990s: you view it from a boat behind a buoy line, walking on it draws fines that have run from about €300 to €1,800, and the recurring verdict from people who have made the trip is that the pink is long gone.

Dried seagrass banked on the sand is normal here, not a sign of a dirty beach — posidonia is protected, it is left in place deliberately, and how much of it there is varies through the year.

Locals do not write off a windy day — they move a few kilometres and put a headland between themselves and the Maestrale:

• Maestrale (NW)SkipLa Pelosa — its famously fine sand is exactly what makes it miserableGoMugoni, Le Bombarde, Lazzaretto near Alghero; or Cala Domestica, a closed bay ringed by cliffs
• Maestrale, Costa SmeraldaSkipthe exposed north-facing covesGoCala Moresca, Pittulongu, Porto Istana
• Maestrale, south-eastSkipopen west-facing sandGoCala Pira, Porto Sa Ruxi, Campulongu near Villasimius

Olbia against Cagliari is the useful pair. Southern and western Sardinia in August feel nothing like the north-east. If you have to travel in August, that is the lever to pull: base south or west, and treat the Costa Smeralda as a day trip at most.

The other trap is the date: the peak is the run-up to 15 August — Ferragosto — not the end of the month. Italian firms commonly shut for a fortnight around it, and in 2026 it falls on a Saturday.

Under the regional bathing ordinance, beach concessions are only obliged to open between 15 June and 15 September, 08:30–19:30. Outside that three-month core, whether a given lido, bar or sunbed operator opens at all is voluntary — the April-to-October bathing season is permission, not a promise.

The Costa Smeralda makes the point sharply: Porto Cervo’s Waterfront promenade runs 11 June to 7 September 2026 — under thirteen weeks, and that is its longest season ever. The big hotels run longer (Cala di Volpe reopened 16 April, Cervo Hotel 27 March), timed to the late-April Italian holidays.

Sardinia is fast on the SS131 spine — 70 to 86 km/h averages, free-flow — and then slows to Corsican mountain-road pace the moment you turn off toward a beach. Olbia to Porto Cervo is 30 km and takes three quarters of an hour.

Car-free is genuinely possible in two places, and nowhere else. Cagliari, where the airport has its own railway station and CTM runs eight dedicated summer beach lines to Poetto, the busiest every quarter-hour; and Alghero, with the Lido every 20–40 minutes. Everywhere else needs a car — the Costa Smeralda has one direct bus a day from Olbia to Porto Cervo.

For families, an official Green Flag standard certifies beaches whose sea "does not suddenly become deep near the shore" — including Poetto, Is Arutas, Capo Coda Cavallo and Alghero Lido.

Your hire car almost certainly cannot make the crossing. The ferries carry vehicles happily — the block is on the rental side. Local firms ban leaving the island outright, and one Sardinian contract voids all insurance if you do. Assume no unless your contract says otherwise in writing, or hire separately on each island. Weighing the two islands against each other? See Corsica vs Sardinia, measured.