Every guide to this coast tells you it is expensive and then declines to say how expensive, which is not much use to somebody trying to work out whether they can come.
So here are numbers. They are for a week in high season, they are per couple unless I say otherwise, and they are what I saw rather than what a press release says.
The headline: the expensive version of this coast is genuinely one of the most expensive weeks in Europe, and the ordinary version costs about what a week on the Amalfi Coast costs. Both are available on the same beaches, which is the part nobody explains.
The three versions of the week
The cheap version. Flights, a small hire car, a rented apartment inland or in Cannigione, supermarket lunches on the beach, dinner out three times, one boat day. Roughly €1,400 to €2,200 for two, for a week, excluding flights.
The middle version. A good four-star with a pool in Baja Sardinia or Porto Rotondo, a hire car, dinner out most nights with one on the quay at Porto Cervo, a boat day, a few loungers. Roughly €3,500 to €5,500 for two, excluding flights.
The expensive version. One of the famous hotels, dinner out every night at the level that implies, a chartered boat rather than a shared one, and evenings in the clubs. €20,000 upward for a week and there is no ceiling at all.
The gap between the first and the third is not a gap in the beaches. It is entirely a gap in what you sleep in, sit at and drink.
Beds
The four historic hotels run into the thousands a night in August, with €2,500 to €4,000 the figure quoted around the coast for the peak weeks. Below them, good four and five-star hotels along the coast sit around €400 to €900 a night in high season.
Move a few kilometres and the numbers change completely. Baja Sardinia and Porto Rotondo run maybe €150 to €300 for something decent with a pool. Cannigione, San Pantaleo and Arzachena drop into normal Italian territory at €90 to €180. Olbia is cheaper again.
For four or more people, a rented villa or apartment inland is almost always the best value on the coast, and the good ones are gone by winter.
The full comparison of what each base actually feels like is in where to stay on the Costa Smeralda.
The car, which is the cost people forget
This is where budgets go wrong.
A hire car is not optional here, because there is no useful public transport to any of the beaches. Out of season it is €20 to €40 a day. In August, booked late, small cars on Sardinia can reach three and four times that, and occasionally there is simply nothing left to hire.
Book it when you book the flights. Not later. It is the single easiest way to save a few hundred euros on this trip, and it is the mistake I see most often.
Add fuel, which on an island is a little above mainland prices, and beach parking at €5 to €8 a day.
What a day on a lounger costs
Two loungers and an umbrella at a beach club on this coast run somewhere between €40 and €120 a day, depending on the beach and the row. Front row costs more than back row, everywhere, always.
At the very smart beach clubs attached to the famous hotels, a day bed is a different order of number again, into the several hundreds.
And you do not have to buy any of it. The beaches are free and public, including the ones in front of the hotels. Bring an umbrella and a towel and you pay for parking and nothing else. Most of the people on these beaches are doing exactly that.
Food and drink
- Coffee at the bar: €1.50 to €2.50. Sitting down at a table in Porto Cervo: €5 to €8.
- Aperitivo at a sunset bar on the rocks: €15 to €25 a drink.
- Pizza and a beer in Arzachena or Cannigione: €15 to €25 a head.
- Dinner at a farmhouse restaurant inland, full set menu with wine: €35 to €50 a head.
- Dinner at a good fish restaurant on the quay at Porto Cervo: €120 to €250 for two with wine.
- The top tables in the village: considerably more, and worth booking a long way ahead.
- A supermarket beach lunch for two: about €12.
That last line is the useful one. Bread, tomatoes, pecorino, prosciutto, fruit and water from a supermarket in Arzachena costs a fraction of anything available at the beach, and there are days when the alternative is a long walk back up to a bar.
The comparison between the two kinds of dinner is in where to eat on the Costa Smeralda.
Boats
A shared full-day boat trip to the La Maddalena archipelago is €55 to €65 a head, plus a cash national park fee of €5 in high summer and €2.50 in the shoulder months. A catamaran with lunch goes to about €185.
Hiring your own small boat without a licence is a few hundred euros for the day plus fuel, which split four or five ways is competitive and gets you where you like.
Chartering anything with crew is a different conversation entirely and starts in the thousands per day.
Nights out
A drink at a sunset bar is €15 to €25, and the sunset itself is free.
After midnight the clubs work on table minimums rather than door prices, starting in the several hundreds in August and going up without limit. Standing entry, where it exists, is often around €50 with a drink. How that evening actually works is set out in the nightlife guide.
The way most people actually do it
Walk any of these beaches at eleven in the morning and count the cool boxes. That is the real Costa Smeralda: families and couples who drove down from an apartment inland with lunch in a bag, who will pay for parking and nothing else all day, and who are swimming in exactly the same water as the people on the day beds.
I do not say that to be worthy about it. I say it because the coast’s reputation puts people off coming who could easily afford the version of it that is actually good, and the version that is actually good is the granite and the water and the light in the evening, all of which are free.
Where the money is worth spending
If you have some to spend but not an unlimited amount, my order would be:
1. A pool and a terrace. You will be off the beach from noon until four whether you planned to be or not, so the quality of wherever you retreat to decides how the week feels. 2. The boat day. The archipelago water is better than anything you can drive to. 3. Two dinners inland at a farmhouse. More memorable than one dinner on the quay, and half the price for both. 4. One evening at a sunset bar, arriving at seven and leaving before the clubbing starts.
And where I would not spend: front-row loungers, the club after midnight unless it is genuinely your thing, and any accommodation chosen for its proximity to a beach you could drive to in twelve minutes.
When it is cheaper
June and September are noticeably cheaper than July and August across hotels, hire cars and boats, and September has the warmest sea of the year besides. The first three weeks of August are the peak of everything. The best time to visit goes through the months properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How expensive is the Costa Smeralda?
It depends entirely on how you do it. A week for two staying inland with a hire car, supermarket beach lunches and a few dinners out runs €1,400 to €2,200 excluding flights. A comfortable middle version is €3,500 to €5,500. Staying at one of the famous hotels starts around €20,000 for a week and has no upper limit.
Can you visit the Costa Smeralda on a budget?
Yes, and most visitors do. The beaches are free and public, including those in front of the expensive hotels. Stay inland or in Cannigione or Olbia, hire a car, buy beach lunches from a supermarket, and you get the same water, the same granite and the same evening light for ordinary Italian prices.
How much is a sunbed on the Costa Smeralda?
Between €40 and €120 for two beds and an umbrella at an ordinary club, with the front row always dearer than the back, and several hundred at the clubs belonging to the famous hotels. None of it is compulsory. Carry your own umbrella and the day costs you the parking and nothing else.
What is the biggest hidden cost on the Costa Smeralda?
The hire car. Nothing here is reachable without one, and a late August booking on Sardinia can come in at several times the shoulder-season rate, assuming there is anything left to book. Reserve it the day you buy the flights and the trip gets a few hundred euros cheaper for no effort at all.
Is the Costa Smeralda worth the money?
The parts that cost money, the hotels and clubs and shopping, are priced at a level where only you can answer that. The parts that make the coast remarkable, which are the granite bays, the water and the evening light, cost nothing beyond a parking fee. On that basis it is very good value and rather better than its reputation suggests.
Read also: Where to Stay on the Costa Smeralda | Costa Smeralda Nightlife, and What It Really Costs | The Complete Guide to the Costa Smeralda
