Sardinia: The Villa Guide
What the locals tell their friends.
The Costa Smeralda is not the whole island and is rarely the best of it. Where to go when you want the water without the price of the postcode.
Inside
The nine parts
- 01The case for Sardinia at this level
- 02When to go, when not to
- 03Where to base yourself
- 04The table
- 05What the owners do
- 06Day plans
- 07Practicalities
- 08What to skip, and why
- 09Sources
How we source it
Venue names are built from mapped data and then verified one by one against each venue's own website, with the date recorded. We do not publish opening hours from third-party listings: during research for the Tuscany edition, a mapped listing showed a Chianti restaurant open through the winter when its own site says it shuts from December to February. A reader following the listing would have driven to a closed door.
Free background on the region: our Sardinia destination guide.
The series
Other destinations
Tuscany
Tuscany is the only one of the big four European villa regions that holds up for a long stay with a mixed group. This is the argument for it, and the three cases where it is the wrong call.
Amalfi Coast
Vertical, hard to move around, and worth it if you plan for that rather than against it. Where to base yourself so the coast road does not eat the week.
Mallorca
A large villa market with a high rate of repeat visitors, which means the good addresses are known and quietly held. How to get at them.