Cagliari

Cagliari is where I was born and where I grew up, therefore this lines might be a little biased by my affection for my hometown.

Cagliari - View from Castello

It is a lovely city laid on the sea: the city centre is a seafront that leads to a very nice urban beach (and the second longest in the world), called Poetto.

Cagliari: Poetto beach and the Sella del diavolo

The city centre is built around the port and it is formed by the three oldest city's neighborhoods: Marina (the closest to the seafront), Castello (high up on the hill at the back of the port), and Villanova (at the back of Marina). This is where the majority of restaurants and bars are, along with the main shopping district.

 

Piazzetta Savoia, Marina, Cagliari

From here the beach of Poetto is very well connected by a 15-20 minutes bus ride from Via Roma.

To those of you who are looking forward to spend some time on the beach, I would still recommend choosing an accommodation in the city centre and taking the bus. Lately the beach front hasn't been too lively at night time and buses to/from the city centre stop at around 11pm. However if you dead set on staying on the beach, we are including various accommodation options on the page Where to stay in Cagliari.

                                                                                                                             

----  Antonella

GETTING TO CAGLIARI

The most direct way of arriving is to fly into Cagliari is CAGLIARI ELMAS airport, which is located to the north-west of the city. Taxis into the city centre will cost about €20, but a new rail connection will now bring you into the main train station on Via Roma in about eight minutes (there are buses that go to the same place leaving at more frequent intervals). You cannot flag taxis on the street the way you can in some of the bigger Italian cities, but you'll find a queue of them waiting by specially designated taxi ranks, such as outside the train-station. All standard car hire companies operate out of Elmas, if you want to stay independent from the word go.

Cagliari is not brilliantly served by direct flights. If you're coming from Dublin, you're probably best by transferring in London, Rome or Charleroi; I usually take the latter, where transfer times are often only an hour or two. Antonella recommends taking an Easy-Jet from Stansted, but you'll need to check the availability.

Drive down from Alghero and say hello to the locals

If one-stop flights aren't your thing, then your best bet is to fly into ALGHERO in the north of the island. Alghero was one of Ryanair’s first forays into the Sardinian market, so you'll find a lot of cheap flights going in and out of there. The downside of going to Alghero is connections, or the lack thereof. There are no direct rail lines and the coach that goes from Alghero airport down to Cagliari (it's about three hours long and costs €20) only leaves twice a day. At time of writing, those times are ten in the morning and ten at night, so you might want to check what time you're due to arrive at.

Alghero is a very pleasant little port town with some excellent restaurants and nice beaches around it. Depending on how much time you have to spare, it might be an option to stay here for a day or so (more in the Further Afield page)...

Driving down on the coast road...

Alternatively, you could rent a car and drive down at your own speed (as at least two of you are doing!); it's a fairly straightforward set of motorways that cut down through the middle of the island. Cagliari is a little trickier to navigate, but all signs and roads will eventually bring you onto Via Roma.

(A word to nervous drivers; while Sardinian roads are significantly less stressful to drive on then on the mainland, parking in Cagliari can be somewhat frustrating. If a parking space is BLUE, you have to pay at a nearby ticket machine from the hours of 9am to 1pm and from 4pm to 8pm. After that, parking is free, though signs with 'ZTL' means parking for residents only, which primarily applies in Marina or Castello. An easier choice for visitors who don't have parking near their accommodation is to use the large car-park beside the train station.)

Lastly, you could arrive by boat! There are ferries traveling out from Rome, Naples, Genova and Barcelona, though the travel time can be quite hefty (anything from five to twelve hours). If you have your own boat, then come whenever you want but please check and see if there's anyone you can give a lift to on the way!

---- Jamie