Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Sardinia (Rough Guides)

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Having planned and taken a trip to Sardinia, I can add that this book was very helpful. In planning this trip, my girlfriend and I found it next to impossible to find information on Sardinia. The information on the web was ok at best, and the coverage of Sardinina by the all encompassing "Italy" guide books was almost non-existent. Everything pointed in the direction of Costa Smeralada, but since we were on a budget, this jet setting town was out of the question.

Taking a trip to Sardinia during their off-season was no walk in the park... the limited bus service got our trip off on the wrong foot. But after getting to Santa Teresa di Gallura, we spent 5 days at a hotel in a room with a balcony overlooking a beach and one of THE MOST AMAZING views we have ever seen. This place cost us only $40 a night, and this Guide Book was the only one that reviewed the hotel.

I would recommend this book just for steering us in the right direction and pointing us to this hotel. A definite must have if you're planning on visiting this beautiful island and can't afford the Costa Smeralda.

Sardinia is not one of the easiest places to spend a holiday. I went with a friend this July and had two bonuses that may not apply to everyone who travels there. The first was that my companion spoke Italain, the second, we rented the house of a friend of hers and we had a car, I guess that makes three.

We landed on the ferry with car at the Golfo di Arancia. Our destination was on the south west coast. The driving was one of the hard parts of the trip. The larger roads are easy enough to navigate but the secondary roads can get very confusing and those lower graded than that can be impossible. Road signs don't always lead you in the right direction, and somtimes actually stop before you get there, and so it's so easy to find yourself lost and waisting time.

July is HOT. For a New Yorker like me who is addicted to air-conditioning this created another challenge.

With that said, did the book help? I felt that the author described places in an unbiased way, which made it up to me to decide if it was worth going on the road in the heat to find. The main island and the two others in our area, San Pietro & Sant'Antioco have some fantastic beaches that make all the troubles worth while. Still the directions were a little weak. From my experience it was best to ask locals, Don't count on English to help.

We checked the book on a daily basis, followed directions for places to eat and were not disapionted. All in all there were areas that lacked info but this booked was a real help.

Enjoy your trip!

With much disappointment as a sardinian, the picture on the cover is not a picture of anything sardinian. In the picture you can see Alberobello's (Southern Italy) trulli, constructions that are similar to sardinian nuraghi (which I suppose should have been put there), just Nuraghi are over 2000 (two thousand) years older than trully, and much, much bigger. If you want to write a guide, do it right. Would you buy a guide of the USA that has a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it ? I wouldn't.

I just want to react to the reaction of the Sardinian in Los Angeles: the photo on the cover may not be Sardinian, but it is definitely Alberobello neither, as at Alberobello those tiles are unknown. I think the picture doesn't even hail from Italy, but perhaps from Portugal. Or it is maybe the house of a Portuguese, emigrated to Sardinia...