flywithlivCrystal clear waters, white sandy beaches, incredible cliffs – a visit to Sardinia looks like a trip to the Caribbean. To some extent, it is quite similar!
Sardinia is an island located just off of the coast of Italy. It is a common vacation spot for many Italians, as well as many celebrities. It seems like a wonderful destination for relaxation and beauty – so why should you avoid coming here?
Well… when you are visiting Italy, this comes with certain expectations. Authentic Italian pasta and pizza, friendly Italian locals that can recommend their favourite places in the city, a fun or buzzing night out in the town a few steps away from your place – this is what you usually expect from a trip to vacation hotspot in Italy.
What to eat
Unfortunately, Sardinia proved to be quite the opposite of these expectations. It was extremely commercialized and far from authentic Italy. The pasta was modernized and made more for presentation than flavour. It was hard to find affordable food, as many of the good restaurants had meals over 30 euros. A more popular dish in Sardinia contains seafood. You are more likely to find some amazing seafood on this island, so definitely indulge in this delicacy!
Getting Around
If you are travelling to Sardinia, you need to rent a car to make the most of your time there. Otherwise, you will be wasting a ton of money on taxis. Luckily, we found there was 1 summer bus you could take to all the beaches on the Costa Smeralda coastline, so we used this for our transport. However, not even our hotel manager knew about this!
Nightlife
The most surprising part of Sardinia was the night life. We were so excited about going to these lavish beach clubs and partying until 4 in the morning… but it did not exactly turn out this way. We found out soon enough that it was not the “high season” of Sardinia – that was in October. Going out on a Wednesday night was a hit or a miss – the nightclub could be “open” until 4 AM, but actually closing at Midnight. Cover charge was 30 euros per night to a nightclub that was completely empty.
Exception: The next club we went to, Ritual, was definitely much better. Definitely check this place out if you visit Sardinia!
The overall vibe of Sardinia
Sardinia is a place for the rich – the harbours are lined up with multi-million dollar yachts. Exclusive beach clubs are found all over the island. Everybody is carrying designer brands. This is not necessarily a place for budget vacationers looking for a wild time abroad. Unless you are sporting Gucci, you are not worth making friends with.
Overall, Sardinia was a beautiful place for a vacation. However, it wouldn’t be a place I would recommend to visit for the Italian experience.
Disclaimer: I will say that we may have had bad luck in the places we travelled to. We stayed in an area called Porto Cervo and the clubs we went to were north of the island. It’s possible that you would have a different experience in another part of Sardinia, such as south of the island.
I would love to hear how your experience was when you visited Sardinia. Was it the same? Was it different? Where did you stay?!
