Sardinia is bigger than Wales, with higher mountains, so be careful you don’t try to see too much of the island in one visit and spend a lot of time travelling around and not getting the most out of any one area. There are good roads from Cagliari (pronounced Caliari) but roads across the island are very windy and slow – see Transfers to/from airports and Sardinia without a car.

The main airports are at Cagliari, Olbia and Alghero. The small airport at Tortolì / Arbatax is open May-October and there are flights from Rome, Milan, Verona, Germany and Switzerland.

Flying from UK

Flights to Sardinia are operated by the low-cost airlines—here are the routes from the UK. See Bringing your bike for the cheapest way to bring your own bike for your cycling in Sardinia holiday. The links below have the airline’s policy on transporting bikes:

Easyjet Gatwick—Olbia, Bristol—Olbia (May to September);  Luton/Stansted—Cagliari all year, 3 per week winter , every day summer

Ryanair Stansted—Alghero all year, 3-7 per week

Jet2 Leeds, Edinburgh—Olbia on Saturdays May – September

bmibaby every Saturday East Midlands to Alghero 29 May to 11 September 2010

Meridiana also offer Gatwick to Olbia for some weeks in the year

British Airways fly to Cagliari in summer and sometimes fares are very reasonable

From 11 June  2010 there are scheduled flights with Meridiana Fly to/from Tortolì Arbatax to Roma Fiumicino, Milano Malpensa and Verona. See the details of flights on the Tortolì Arbatax airport site and you can buy tickets on the Meridiana Fly web site. The new flights operate all summer but the policy on winter flights is still not agreed. From Rome’s principal Fiumicino airport, you can fly with Meridiana to Olbia, with Alitalia to Cagliari and with Airone to Alghero.

You can also fly directly from Germany to Sardinia. There are flights to Alghero from Frankfurt Hahn and to Olbia from Berlin, Cologne/Bonn, Hannover, Munich and Stuttgart.

Bringing your bike

Easyjet (flies Stansted-Cagliari all year round) is by far the best option for bringing your road bike or mountain bike for riding in Sardinia, compared to Ryanair (Stansted-Alghero all year round):

Easyjet: You pay £37/€50 return pre-booking non-refundable for a bike in a box/bag, with a total hold baggage allowance of up to 32 kg. “* The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag.… No other items can be carried in the bicycle box (e.g. clothing)”. By booking sports equipment, you increase your hold baggage allowance from 20 kg to 32 kg, so with (say) a 20 kg bike bag/box, you still have 12 kg hold baggage allowance for a bag for which you pay £25. TOTAL PRICE FOR ONE BIKE AND ONE HOLD BAG £62

Ryanair Bike max 20 kg £80/€96 return. Other checked baggage: 15 kg £35, 20 kg £50. TOTAL PRICE FOR ONE BIKE AND ONE HOLD BAG £115

These prices also apply from mainland Italy to Sardinia, but here the ferry is an alternative to flying.

Transfers from/to airports

There are 4 possibilities from the airports of Olbia, Cagliari and Alghero (from Olbia and Cagliari it takes about 2 hours to drive to Ogliastra, and closer to 3 hours from Alghero, although the drive is easiest and shortest from Cagliari as the SS125 is progressively improved):-

• For cyclists (with their bikes) we can meet people at the airport with a van and bring them to Ogliastra. Rides start at the front door and beaches are within walking distance, so it’s not absolutely necessary to have the use of a car, although you may want to hire a car for the flexibility it gives (see below).  It will cost €42 a person, min 4 people, for each such transfer. Please give us a call before you book your flight  so we can organize transport.
• Note you can hire a car for one day from Europcar (some other companies also offer this) in Cagliari or Olbia and leave it at Tortolì which will cost about €90. Tel Cagliari: +39 (070) 240126 Olbia: +39 (0789)69548
• You may wish to hire a car for the whole time to give yourself more freedom to travel around. This is necessary if you’re climbing or walking to get to the start of the climb/walk. For a 9-day period, car hire costs about €250 for a Punto or Fiesta; about €350 for a Golf, Astra or Focus; and about €400 for a Passat, Megane or Vectra.  Some of our guests have recommended http://www.economycarrentals.com/ which was considerably cheaper than Europcar. “The only inconvenience is that you need to call them once you are at the airport and they come and collect you. The cars are cheap, full of scratches but at the price a bargain.” Contact us if you want details of the best  route to drive from the airport.
• You can get the bus.
  

  There is a good (and cheap) direct service from Cagliari, while coming from Olbia you have to change at Nuoro. From Alghero it is more difficult. See times at the ARST site.

Ferry : You can take a car on the ferry from Genoa, Livorno and Rome (Civitavecchia) to Olbia, Golfo Aranci, Tortolì  / Arbatax and Cagliari. It is quite expensive and probably would be cheaper to fly and hire a car than drive all the way from England. However, if you’re in Rome, you can come to Arbatax as a foot passenger for only €100 return including train fares, and for a weekend we can provide transport.

For more information on Ogliastra, see the Ogliastra province site, in English.

Sardinia without a car

Many guests, especially walkers, ask us if they can manage without a car. The answer is Yes, above all for a stay of 3-4 days when a combination of buses and short lifts from us lets you do lots of walking near to The Lemon House. There is a good bus service to/from Cagliari, while crossing the island to Alghero can be more challenging, and takes a full day. Note however that to catch a bus, especially in winter, you may have to get up very early—when he was here writing the Cicerone guide, Paddy Dillon regularly took the 0530 Giustizieri bus! Contact us for more information.

Concerned about climate change?

Many of our visitors are  keen to minimize the impact their trip has on the environment. The proximity of activities to The Lemon House and our apartment means that, once you get here, you’ll probably be driving less than you would at home to do the same activities—at most 45’ to reach your walk or climbing. Living here is also relatively low-impact in terms of emissions and on the environment: Sardinia is the size of Wales with only 1,6 million people and much of the island is covered in forests;  many people (like us) install solar panels to provide hot water throughout the summer; only 2 of the Lemon House’s 6 rooms have aircon since the 50-cm granite walls mean the others don’t need it and our guests use it only in the height of summer; Sardinia’s towns  have a sophisticated differentiated refuse collection system.  There’s also wind power, and much of the produce in the supermarkets is locally-grown.

However, you do still have to get here. While your emissions coming to Sardinia won’t be as great if you go to Thailand or Greece, practically-speaking you are likely to fly to one of the island’s airports and hire a car. You may wish to consider offsetting the emissions. Although there are many different schemes, a calculation from www.climatecare.org suggests that to offset two return flights from the UK to Sardinia and 600 km of driving costs generate about 1 tonne of CO₂ and to offset this costs about £7.

To find The Lemon House, you can use this Google map, but don’t trust Google’s “Get Directions” which may not take into account the new roads ! Our download detailed directions to find The Lemon House and to get to our Porto Frailis apartment.

View Larger Map

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