Long Weekend Travel to Sardinia

I started a tradition in 2019 to visit a new country or city for each birthday. Then, I visited Switzerland. Twenty-twenty was a downer but this year, I am grateful to have been able to travel to Sardinia, Italy

Sardinia is about 2 hours and a direct flight from Prague. I have wanted to go there for a while, to escape from winter and to enjoy a variety of seafood. I figured I’d also sightsee but that wasn’t the big draw for me. The food was the real draw. (Ever heard of the blue zones?)

Public Travel around Cagliari

Public travel is affordable and well scheduled in Sardinia. There is a train from Cagliari airport to the city center for €1.30. From there, CTM buses are available. The cost is €1.30 for 90 minutes, €2.00 for 120 minutes, €3.30 for a full day or €13 for 12 tickets. During COVID, it’s not possible to buy tickets on the bus but you can buy them online using the Bus Finder app. In that case, there is a QR code on each bus that you can scan to validate a ticket.

For regional travel, ARST buses are available. Tickets cost €4.50 each and are available for purchase in the (different) app. It cost less than €9 for a full day pass. I only used the Bus Finder app, and so I’m not sure if Dropticket works in the same way. However, I needed data access to see my purchased or validated tickets.

Buses were roughly on time but it’s best to arrive early at the bus stop. I missed multiple buses as I watched them drive by 3-5 minutes before they were scheduled.

Food in Cagliari

Sardinia is known for a variety of dishes including multiple preparations of bread, fish, seafood, and pork. I have to admit that this is the main reason for me to travel to Sardinia.

I was surprised by the number of Japanese restaurants and I’m not sure what the relationship is. Is it just that Sardinian people like Japanese food?

Sightseeing around Cagliari

If you’re going to travel to Sardinia, you will likely land in Cagliari where the main airport is. It’s a city that offers several activities for sightseeing, and you can stay here or use it as a jump off point to visit more of the island.

If you’re going to Cagliari, make reservations for tours for day trips at least two days in advance of the date of the tour. Agents will cancel tours by then if there is inadequate interest. You may also want to rent a car to drive around, but that would add stress to my holiday so I decided not to.

I’m not much of a beach person but there are lots of beaches in Sardinia. Poetto beach is easily accessible by bus from downtown Cagliari. Close to Cagliari, you could go hiking up Devil’s Saddle, or walking around town, along the beach, or in the Molentargius natural park.

Archeology in Sardinia

There are lots of archeology sites in Sardinia. From Cagliari, you could go to several of them in a day. I’m not a history buff, especially not Roman history, but one of the sites is a UNESCO world heritage site (and not strictly Roman).

When I first started traveling, I didn’t know what I liked, what I wanted to pay attention to. When I learned about the UNESCO world heritage sites, that gave me a starting point for planning my trips. From this early beginning, I still treasure those sites. For that reason, I decided to visit Su Nuraxi di Barumini.

Like the pyramids in Egypt, the nuraghes were incredible, huge stone structures. While the pyramids were used for burials, and are a place for death, the nuraghes were used likely for ceremony and defense. They were incredible, with walls that were three feet wide. Like the pyramids, they were built of huge blocks of stone, many of which weighed several tonnes, and people wonder how they were transported. One fun local mythology is that giants built the nuraghes.

It’s possible to visit the excavated ruins of many nuraghes in Sardinia. Su Nuraxi di Barumini is supposed to be the most impressive of them. You can go inside of the nuraghe and see some of the features of its construction. You can only visit with a guide, which is included in the entrance fee. The €14.00 fee includes entrance into two nearby museums. I only went to one of them, at the church. The museum is named Casa Zapata after the last Spanish baron who owned it. A nuraghe was discovered under the house, acting as a foundation, during the reconstruction of the house to turn it into a museum.