Sardinia Day Four, from now on will be known as 6 beaches, the flamingo-less lake, and a gorgeous little village.

Having enjoyed a fantastic stay and delicious breakfast at the THotel in Cagliari, we couldn’t wait to continue our journey around Sardinia. Our first beach stop was Spiaggia di Porto Sa Ruxi. Now, I’m not going to even attempt to talk the below up, they’re beaches, they’re all stunning beaches and it’s quite difficult to describe just how great these are so I can only hope that one day you’ll be fortunate enough to spend a week in Sardinia to experience these yourselves!

Day Four consisted of the following stops:

1.  Porto Sa Ruxi
2. Spiaggia di Campulongu
3. Villasimius village
4. Spiaggia di Porto Giunco
5. Timi Ama
6. Punta Polentis
7. Costa Rei
8. Arbatax

If you were to drive from start to finish, it would take only 2 hours 15, but of course, we stopped at each to enjoy what was on offer!

Porto Sa Ruxi

The drive was pleasant, not much traffic and plenty of scenery along the coastline, it’s worth noting that the exit to the Spiaggia is very easy to miss as it’s soon after a bend and even with the GPS we certainly weren’t expecting it! After a quick u-turn and a bumpy dirt track in our rental, we found plenty of parking bays.

The beach is the only thing around here, yet it’s still well signed and after a short stroll, you’ll walk on what feels like this remote and somewhat exclusive sandy beach, surrounded by rolling hills and not a building in sight.

Sardinia’s ocean as you will realise by now, consistently consists of the entire spectrum of blues and greens, even on a cloudy morning such as this you cannot help but feel like you’re in paradise. Knowing we had a list of beaches and a decent drive to Arbatrax, we had a quick swim and relaxed on the beach for around an hour before our next stop.

Spiaggia di Campulongu

Our second stop for the day was at Spiaggia di Campulongu.  This was a long stretch of white sand and gorgeous water with a few small waves close to the shore.  There were plenty of umbrellas up here and heaps of holiday makers!  It seemed to be a very popular beach! Suffice to say we didn’t stay too long as it simply couldn’t compare to what we just came from and what we knew we were heading to next (although I’m glad we popped by to see it as it is the main beach in the area).

Villasimius

Probably the nicest of the villages we passed through and perfect for a quick bite to eat. It’s around 35km away from Cagliari and is on the south-eastern tip of Sardinia. I’m not sure if these triangular flags are in town all year round but it certainly added to the village’s character!

Spiaggia di Porto Giunco

Having done some research – this was meant to be Flamingo central! We found plenty of photos online where this place was jam-packed with hundreds, if not thousands of Flamingos, unfortunately for us, you could count them on one hand and they were some distance away. Certainly worth a spot if you’re there at the right time of year but otherwise I would give this one a miss and head towards Timi Ama which is just around the corner.

Timi Ama

The beach was massive, yet had plenty of character and a small bay around a bend which provided some relief from the wind and was also away from the hotels and beach chairs for hire.

The beach sand was great, probably the finest we walked on during our time in Sardinia and there was also a great spot (just before you reach the small bay) to sit and watch the waves crashing up against the rocks!

After exploring the rocks and having a couple of swims to cool off, we were off to our second last beach stop for the day, Spiaggia di Punta Polentis!

Punta Polentis

Spiaggia di Punta Polentis was our second last stop of the day.  This particular drive seemed a bit off the beaten track!  Typically in Italy, you need to drive on some sort of dirt or rocky road to get anywhere! This was no exception, so off we drove on the extremely dirty and rocky road and we finally make it to a car parking attendant, there to take our money to park for the afternoon.  We kindly explained to the parking attendant that we won’t be staying for long (as it’s €5 a pop, so it adds up!) and just wanted to quickly check it out, he was very kind and let us pass for free!

This beach is completely rocky – so make sure you wear your flip-flops or rock shoes!  Particularly if you’re like Jenna and have ticklish feet!

Having had endless attempts at rock skimming and a short stroll along the beach, we felt bad staying longer given the attendant did let us park for free, so we decided to not top up our tan (not that we needed it!) and decided to head off to Costa Rei, our last beach stop for the day!

Costa Rei

Another long white sandy beach with scattered boulder rocks to play on!

This beach was also very popular with plenty of sun lounges and umbrellas. It was also a great opportunity to grab some snacks from a local convenience store before the last stretch of our journey to Arbatax!

Where to eat in Arbatax

It was then around a 1.5-hour drive to Arbatax where we stayed at the Arbatasar Arbatax.  We checked in and decided to go and explore where to eat for dinner.  After all, after the massive day, we had exploring and the 1.5-hour drive – we were starving!  Arbatax is a very, very small town! There aren’t that many restaurants to choose from.  We walked up and down the main street, checking Trip Advisor for restaurant tips, but it turns out that our hotel has the number 1 restaurant in the area!  So, we decided to eat there!  The service was fast, although the restaurant wasn’t that busy and the food came out fairly quickly.

There was a bit of confusion however as we asked about a couple of meals, so nearly ended up with 4 meals instead of the 2 we actually ordered – but aside from that, the food was delicious and certainly worth the top ranking on TripAdvisor. The hotel grounds and restaurant also provided a nice setting as there were plenty of candles scattered around the garden.

Where to stay

We stayed at the Arbatasar Arbatax Hotel.  It was one of the nicer hotels to choose from in the area and they have free parking for guests which is helpful if you’re driving around the island like us!

For us, the 4-star hotel didn’t compare (not even close) to the 4 star THotel we had in Cagliari but in terms of hotels in Italy, it was pretty good.  The room was spacious and it does have the on-site restaurant and a good breakfast.

As mentioned above, the dinner was delicious and the breakfast was a very typical Italian style breakfast.  There were plenty of cakes, fruit, and bread.  It is OK if you know you’re expecting such a breakfast!

Why visit Arbatax?

If you’re wondering why we stayed in Arbatax, you will have to wait to read our Day 5 blog as it will cover the incredible full day boat tour to the gorgeous beaches only accessible via boat! All I can say is that Day 4 was purely a precursor for us to reach what Day 5 had to offer!

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Alternative accommodation

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Check out our 7 Day Sardinian Love Affair blog for links to our other days!

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck