Are you preparing for your trip and don’t know how to get to Sardinia? Here you will find all the necessary information whether you want to reach Sardinia by ship or prefer to fly.
One of the first things to sort out when planning your trip to Sardinia is your means of transportation. Being an island without bridges connecting it to the rest of Italy, there are only two ways to get to Sardinia: by ferry or by plane.
You can reach Sardinia from many Italian cities as well as other European cities countries such as London, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, and more. Our easy tips on how to get to Sardinia will guide you through the different options as well as suggest where is better to land whether you want to visit the northern side, explore the southern provinces, or relax on the western coast.
How to reach Sardinia – A simple and practical guide
Depending on your itinerary or how you are planning your Sardinia trip, you will have to land or disembark in the port closer to where you have decided to stay overnight. If you are visiting the Cagliari area, for example, you should land in Elmas, while if your holiday will take place in Costa Smeralda or in general in the northern provinces, the most convenient airports are Olbia or Alghero, while the best ports will be Porto Torres or Olbia/Golfo Aranci.
The same thing if you have planned to stay 10 days in Sardinia and see it from north to south or from east to west. It is ideal to reach the island from the most convenient port/airport and closest to the first leg of the journey to leave from another area or side of Sardinia. In fact, the cost of tickets, both by plane and by ship, does not change or change only slightly if you decide to arrive at one port and leave from another.
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How to get to Sardinia by ferry
If you decide to reach Sardinia by ferry, you need to understand where to start your journey and if the season is right for traveling during the day or only at night. There are, in fact, several ferries landing in Sardinia, many ports from which to leave and many to dock both in Italy and other neighboring European countries as well as different companies, routes, and timetables.
Generally, daytime ferries are mainly in summer because the fast ships travel when the sea is not very rough and when there is not too much wind. The night routes, on the other hand, are run all year round, even if, obviously, in winter there are fewer journeys since there is also a much lower demand.
To understand whether it is better to go to Sardinia by ship or by plane, you must first decide whether you want to leave with your own car or not. To move around Sardinia, a car is essential since public transport, both urban and especially extra-urban, is not very efficient.
Upon your arrival, you can always rent a car, but if you want to leave home with your own car to be able to carry more luggage or maybe because you have small children, the ship is the only way you can opt to reach Sardinia.
Among the things to consider, if you travel at night, you won’t waste a full day because you will sleep on the ferry and in the morning you will be well-rested and ready to start exploring. In that case, it’s definitely best to book a cabin for a better-quality journey.
How to book the ferry
I use the FerryScanner website because once I enter the route that interests me, I get the different companies that operate it with the relative prices and timetables.
Booking is quite intuitive. Once you have chosen the company and the route, just fill in the booking form with your personal information, and the departure date and specify if you are traveling with a vehicle. In this case, you will need to enter information such as brand, model, dimensions, and if you have a trailer.
How to get to Sardinia by plane
Traveling by plane is certainly faster than by ferry. From Rome to Cagliari and from Rome to Olbia it takes less than an hour’s flight, while from Rome to Alghero just over an hour. From Milan to Olbia, the plane takes an hour and 15 minutes, to Alghero an hour and 20 minutes and from Milan to Cagliari about an hour and a half.
Rome and Milan are probably the busiest airports when it comes to flying to Sardinia.
From Rome’s Fiumicino, Ita Airways is connecting Rome to Cagliari, while Ryanair departs from Rome’s Ciampino airport. If you are landing in Olbia from Rome, the operating airlines are Volotea and Aeroitalia. To land in Alghero from Rome, you can take Aeroitalia Airlines from Fiumicino.
From Milan to Olbia, Aeroitalia will take off from Milano Linate, while EasyJet from Malpensa. If you are landing in Cagliari, you can take Ita Airways from Linate and Ryanair from Malpensa. Finally, to land in Alghero from Milan, you can take Ryanair from Malpensa and Ita Airways from Milano Linate.
Ryanair also leaves from Pisa and Verona, Volotea from Verona. From most of the other Italian cities, you have to make a stopover.
To compare prices, timetables and routes of the different companies, I consult the Omio website to have a comparison of prices, airlines, and schedules. You can also book directly the ticket on the website of your airline of choice. Among the companies that operate more flights to Sardinia from Rome, there are Ita Airways from Fiumicino and the low-cost Ryanair from Ciampino.
How to book the plane
Booking the plane to come to Sardinia is very simple. If you live near several airports and aren’t sure where to fly from, you can check any of the price comparison sites such as Omio to see what the prices are applied to each route and the differences between the airlines.
If, on the other hand, you already know where to leave from and with which company, then buy the ticket directly on the company’s website. This is usually what I do since when I go to Sardinia by plane I always book with Ita Airways.
Reaching Sardinia on a cruise
Finally, if you are still wondering how to get to Sardinia and are a fan of luxury travel, you can always decide to arrive on a cool cruise.
The cruise is not exactly a daily means of transportation, but there are several companies that stop in some ports of Sardinia such as Cagliari and the Costa Smeralda. Generally, they are several cruises and cruise routes in the Mediterranean where some depart from Sardinia and others make intermediate stops there.
Among the main companies landing on the Sardinian coastline are Costa Cruises, MSC Cruises, Crystal Cruises, and Seabourn Cruise Line. These cruises normally call at the coasts of European countries and Northern Africa.
