Sardina

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Therealsouthstander
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Sardina

Post by Therealsouthstander »

I'm looking into the possibility of a 8 night 7 day cycle/Camping tour of Sardina in early July.
Has anyone been here and can you suggest a route? . Would rather stay in campsites but wouldn't rule out wild Camping if need be, do you have to pre book campsites at this time of year?
Any must see areas?was in Corsica last year and loved it.

Would the ferry be a possibility to reduce the amount of flights to get there? Would need 3 flights from Aberdeen but could reduce this to 2 if we get a ferry from mainland Italy..

Any help would be appreciated
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Sweep
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Re: Sardina

Post by Sweep »

Will try to get back later with more thoughts on sardinia itself, but in the meantime, re getting there, even two flights sounds like a fag.
If you could get yourself down south (uk) you could fly direct with ryanair to alghero/sassari or easyjet to cagliari.
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Therealsouthstander
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Re: Sardina

Post by Therealsouthstander »

I know what your saying about the 3 flights but it's better than a 10 hour car or train journey to the South of the UK. Being from Aberdeen we're Kinda used to the hassle of travelling to these less accessible destinations. Anyway it's all with the same airline so bike would be checked in all the way to Sardina.
I also wouldn't travel with my bike on any budget airline as I've got experience with them when things go wrong, not with my bike though..
The airline I'm looking at is Alitalia, anyone got experience of travelling with your bike with them?

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Sardina..

Many thanks
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Sweep
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Re: Sardina

Post by Sweep »

Hi there.#

First the mini rant out of the way.

I have never travelled with a bike with Alitalia.

In the past I have travelled a lot with the them to Rome and, mostly, to Sardinia.

And am glad to be rid of them - **in awful.

Some experiences (though some problems maybe partly due to shyster baggage people they used):

Suitcase broken into at Rome Leaonardo Da Vinci

Flight London-Sardinia (can't remember which way round) where I had to retrieve my bags for onward flight - had the Carabinieri (kind of military based police though now with nicer uniforms) called to me for daring to ask perfectly reasonable questions about what had happened to my bags, long delay on flight from Rome to London once where the ***ing toe-rags told us that the flight was delayed for hours because a runway had closed at Heathrow - I checked with a friend who had access to the log at Heathrow (he worked for BA) and this was a blatant lie. It had taken some time for them to come up with this lie - mostly they left us with no information at all.

This was all a few years ago - maybe things have improved - couldn't be much worse - of course Alitalia these days is barely Italian any more despite Berlusconi's BS in an election run-up saying he would ensure that it remained so. The Pope always used to fly Alitalia though i think he may do more shopping around these days.

Have flown a lot with Easyjet to Sardinia - one delay (these things happen) but generally excellent.

Maybe more on topic :)

Back to Sardinia.

It's beautiful.

Campsites - When you are going is not quite peak period so I would anticipate (though do check) that you wouldn't have a great deal of trouble. I am not a great fan of Sardinian campsites though. I tend to find them overpriced and not very nice - bearing in mind that the place is somewhat hot and not far from Africa there is naturally not a lot of grass. I'd far rather be in a field in Wales.

Wildcamping - it is my understanding that it is strictly illegal and Italy has more police forces than you can shake a stick or tent peg at so it is always possible that one of them might be inclined to do something/show that they are earning their money. I would think that that in practice, as long as you are prepared to get off the beaten track a bit and arrive late/leave early you would be OK.

I wouldn't try to free camp on a beach though - although many moons ago I did it I think you might be a bit too visible these days - sardinia has poshed up a lot, even well away from the Costa Smerelda.

I must say that your trip sounds like a bit of a fag for such a short stay.

Two suggestions.

1: I would normally much prefer to use my own bike but have you thought of hiring a bike? Cycle touring isn't a great Italian thing, (smacks too much of brutta figura) - they are far more into mamil land - perfect kit etc. But maybe a hybrid of some sort would suffice.

There''s a place behind Cagliari railway station called I think Ichnusa Bike which may be able to help. I also know a very good bike shop in the Cagliari suburbs which does also hire bikes though not sure if they would have something suitable/ Owner is a racer.

2: For simplicity go to the Western Isles. Sand, sea, not sure about the sun but on some days the beaches can look like the med as long as you don't put a toe in the water :)


Sardinia is truly beautiful - I love it - but your trip does sound like a hassle. I'd be tempted to take more time sometime and get there more under your own steam. There are also ferries from Genoa and, some times of the year, from Spain.

If you DO need more info on areas of Sardinia by all means ask away though.
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iviehoff
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Re: Sardina

Post by iviehoff »

Easyjet flies from Gatwick and Luton to Olbia in summer, so you can surely get from Aberdeen to Sardinia in 2 flights, in summer season, and without airport transfer in London, though you'd have to check the flight timings to see how well it works. There must surely also be options via Amsterdam etc. You just need recognise that there are 3 airports in Sardinia, Olbia and Alghero as well as Cagliari.

I think it will be getting very hot in the interior of Sardinia in July. The mountains to the east of centre are really nice, but very hard cycling.
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honesty
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Re: Sardina

Post by honesty »

Not cycled but have walked and bussed around the top of Sardinia. We got Ryanair, Stansted to Alghero. Seemed easy enough at the time, even though the pilot informed us on taking off that he had a warning light on the dash but was going to chance it...

Anyway. For Sardinia around the top there were a few stand out things for me.
Alghero. Lovely town, well worth seeing, and a campsite in town right on the beach. Was very busy even though we went in September. La Mariposa was I think what it was called. There's a very nice looking regional park on the headland there, and a national park just north as well. We didn't get to see them as we caught the bus across to Castelsardo.

Castelsardo. Amazing looking town on a rock jutting out into the sea.

La Maddalena islands, especially Caprera. Caprera is a lovely national park, chock full military ruins, from Napoleonic to 2nd world war sea forts. All of which were places that could be investigated. It's also the resting place of Garibaldi and there's his house there you can go around. We stayed at a campsite on Maddalena - Campeggio Maddalena - and it was great. The pitch was a little rocky, but the food on site was excellent.

The other 3 campsites we stayed out in the week or so we were there. One seems to have disappeared around Badesi, one in Valledoria called La Foce - good food again, it's own swimming pool, and a ferry across to the massive long beach on the other side of the river (walking 10 miles along a loose sand beach was a bad idea by the way...), and one call Baia Blu La Tortuga. We stopped there in all honesty because it was called Tortuga. It was a decent site though, even though we couldn't work out how to get hot showers...

We got a ferry from Olbia to Genoa when we left (and went and walked up Monte Tobbio in the Marcarolo park) It took 14 hours, was really smooth and was basically a mini cruise ship. We got an internal cabin and slept as it was an overnight ferry.
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Sweep
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Re: Sardina

Post by Sweep »

Am impressed by your knowledge of Sardinia Honesty.

I know Badesi and Valledoria.

Though in truth there are nicer places I think.

In season Valledoria/Beadesi beaches are just full of side by side Italians grilling themselves.

And there's not much in Badesi itself.



Some pics of my Sardinia pedalling here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/37034456@N06/

They are the pics with the green and cream brommie and orange Dahon Speed Pro.

Re the post above about heat, yes it will be getting hot at the beginning of July but I passed on this being a concern as the OP didn't seem to be planning a major expedition and seemed flexible on how much pedalling they did. So you could pedal at the beginning of the day, stay out of the sun for several hours and then pedal a bin in the evening.

But you do have to be careful of the heat in high seasion - it can very easily hit 35 pushing 40 degrees C.
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honesty
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Re: Sardina

Post by honesty »

Thanks :)

we went out of season, first week in September and the beaches were dead. Got to love the Italians really short high season.

Badesi town was small, though we did get a really nice restaurant meal in it (well it seemed to be after we had drank rather a lot of house red), and the camp site and beach was a bit of a walk away. Seems to have disappeared now anyway. Valledoria definitely seemed to be a tourist seaside resort, rather than having any other intrinsic value like Alghero. they we're mainly stop offs for us and we ended up spending 3 days in Maddelena/Caprera as it was so lovely.
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honesty
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Re: Sardina

Post by honesty »

Just uploaded my photos from Sardinia in 2003 to flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/onestia/sets/72157651185539638/ - any questions, just give me a shout.
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Sweep
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Re: Sardina

Post by Sweep »

Nice pics honesty.

Apologies if my earlier post came across as somewhat negative/grumpy.

Valledoria and badesi coasts are beautiful by most standards it's just that i'm not wildely keen on "resorts" or the italian fondless for arranging themselves like grilled sausages for a day on the beach.

Yes the sardinian season has historically been very short (italians can be very demanding/wimpy on weather) but sardinia is making real efforts eventually to extend the season.

Some interesting cycling also around iglesias to the west of cagliari.

Then north up the coast from there.

Fact is to be honest i find all of sardinia beautiful.
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honesty
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Re: Sardina

Post by honesty »

No its all fine, I know exactly what you mean. My families home village on lake Garda has changes slowly from the pretty little village by the lake I remember from 30 years ago toa resort town full of holidaying Italian city dwellers frying themselves either by the swimming pools or on the beach. With Badesi and Valledoria we had the places to ourselves and the beaches were beautiful.

I've not been into the centre of the island, but it is meant to be wild and beautiful. My cousins go every year to the south to get some winter sun and they love it, but it does seem to be a bit of a holiday resort location.
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Sweep
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Re: Sardina

Post by Sweep »

The interior is thoroughly recommended and in fact the regione is now making efforts to promote it more so that sardinia is not just seen as a beach destination for 8 weeks of the year.

Sardinia has changed a lot - old ladies widows dressed in black used to be very common in the villages.

The interior is very rich in archeological remains, some barely mapped (well only on very specialist maps)

I first went to sardinia in 81 - took me 3 days by train and ferry (slept on the deck from genova to porto torres) - these days young sards treat london as a suburb of cagliari - hop on easyjet.

You are part italian by blood i take it honesty.

All the best.

Let me know if you head that way again
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honesty
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Re: Sardina

Post by honesty »

Yeh, nonno and nonna were prisoners of war in WW2. They moved back to Italy in the sixties with my aunts but dad stayed in England to go to university.

Would love to go back to Sardinia but i haven't even managed to go to Italy for 5 years and I have family there than would put ne up for free!
kawa9999
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Re: Sardina

Post by kawa9999 »

Hi,
we did last year Corsica and north Sardinia in September.
Weather was quite good, well actually even too hot, towards 30 degrees.
You can have a look at some photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?tag_mode=all&sort=relevance&user_id=14297862%40N07&tags=sardegna&view_all=1

We did Santa teresa di gallura, Castelsardo, Porto Torres, Stintino, Alghero.
Castelsardo was very nice.
Stintino probabl one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen in my life.
On the Coast there were campings everywhere, as it is quite touristic. In September there was always place.

manuel
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