Sardinia: the beaches you have to book

Sardinia is the only Italian region where going to the beach can require a booking, a fee and a QR code, and four of its best known coves each run a different system.

La Pelosa: 1,500 people a day, €3.50 each

From May 15 to October 15, 2026, La Pelosa at Stintino admits 1,500⁵ people a day, with booking mandatory on spiaggialapelosa.it, the only authorized portal, and a contribution of €3.50 per person. Children under 12 neither book nor pay.

You can reserve a maximum of four places at a time. Of the daily quota, 500⁵ places are bookable at any point in the season and 1,000⁵ are released two days ahead at 9:00 am. The QR code is checked between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm.

The beach rules are enforced, and they surprise people: no towel directly on the sand without a mat underneath, no smoking, no dogs, no detergents, and nothing leaves with you, sand or shells included.

Cala Goloritze: 250 at a time, and you walk

Access to Cala Goloritze, in the municipality of Baunei, is limited to 250⁶ people at once, booked on the Heart of Sardinia platform, which opens three days ahead at midnight. The ticket is €7, free for under 5s and Baunei residents, with slots of 7:30 am to 5:00 pm or noon to 5:00 pm.

Landing from a boat is banned outright, so the only way in is the trail: 3.6 km, 2.2 miles, with 500⁵ m of descent, an hour and a half down and two hours back up. Plan for the climb out rather than the walk in.

Cala Mariolu and Tuerredda, two more systems

Cala Mariolu, also at Baunei, allows 700⁷ sea landings a day from May 1 to October 20, 2026. The contribution is €2 for a single cove and €3 for a multi cove itinerary, it applies only to arrivals by sea, and it has to be booked by 7:00 am on the day itself. Anyone arriving on foot, where that's permitted, pays nothing.

Tuerredda, in the municipality of Teulada, caps at 1,100⁸ places a day from June 2 to October 15, 2026, at €3 per person, booked on spiaggiatuerredda.it from 8:00 am the day before. Minors don't book, and the QR check runs 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. The complete comparison is at Sardinian beaches with a daily cap.

The 61st Italian World Heritage site, listed in 2025

In July 2025 the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee inscribed the serial site of prehistoric Sardinian art and architecture, the domus de janas. It became Italy's 61st listing and it takes in 17 sites out of the 26 proposed, spread over fourteen municipalities, with Alghero as lead applicant.

Among them are Anghelu Ruju at Alghero, Su Crucifissu Mannu at Porto Torres, Sant'Andrea Priu and Sa Pala Larga at Bonorva, Pranu Mutteddu at Goni and Montessu at Villaperuccio. Collectively it is the largest body of rock cut funerary architecture in the western Mediterranean.

Su Nuraxi, guided only, every thirty minutes

Su Nuraxi di Barumini, inscribed in 1997, can be visited only with a guide. Departures leave every 30 minutes and last around an hour, and the same ticket also covers the Casa Zapata museum complex, with the Su Nuraxi 'e Cresia nuraghe underneath it, and the Centro Giovanni Lilliu, each with its own 30 minute guided visit.

All three open every day of the year, though the archaeological area itself can close in bad weather. There is more at Su Nuraxi di Barumini.

Arriving: five passenger ports and two airports

Over the Ferragosto weekend in 2026, Olbia moved more than 47,000¹¹ passengers and over 16,000¹¹ accompanied vehicles in 48 hours, out of close to 100,000¹¹ passengers across the whole Sardinian port system. It's the main maritime gateway and it behaves like one in August.

The port authority runs eight harbors, of which five handle mainland passenger links: Olbia, Golfo Aranci, Porto Torres, Cagliari and Arbatax. The other three are Oristano, Portovesme and Santa Teresa Gallura. By air, Cagliari Elmas handled 5,254,433¹³ passengers in 2025 and Olbia Costa Smeralda 4,161,572¹², with Olbia's traffic heavily seasonal.

Pecorino Sardo DOP has been registered since July 2, 1996. Sardinian canto a tenore, alongside the Sicilian Opera dei Pupi, is one of the two oldest Italian entries on the UNESCO intangible heritage lists, both from 2008.

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