Three days is the minimum that works here, five is the sweet spot, and a fortnight is a lot unless lying still is the whole point of the holiday, which is a perfectly respectable position.
The reason three is the floor is that this coast owes you three quite different days: one on its beaches, one on the water north of it, and one inland where the granite stops being scenery. Do only the first and you will come home thinking the Costa Smeralda is a set of small pretty bays with parking problems, which is true and is not the whole of it.
How the days actually join up
Two things shape every plan here and neither is obvious from a map.
Nothing connects on foot. The bays are separated by granite headlands that run straight into the sea, so each one is its own turning off the coast road, its own car park and its own decision. You cannot walk the coast. You drive it. The full argument for the car is in how to get to the Costa Smeralda.
The middle of the day is dead. From about noon to four in high summer the beaches are hot, glaring and shadeless, and the sensible move is to be somewhere else. Every plan below is built around a morning and a late afternoon with a long gap in between, because fighting that rhythm ruins a week.
Distances are short. Porto Cervo to Arzachena is fifteen minutes, to San Pantaleo about the same, to Palau forty-five, to Olbia thirty-five to forty-five. Nothing here is far. The granite bends just make everything take longer than the kilometres suggest.
Day one: the beaches near you
Arrive at your first beach by half past eight. This is not enthusiasm, it is parking: the car parks are small and fill between nine and ten in July and August.
Make it a long beach on the first day rather than a famous small one, because a long beach absorbs a crowd and gives you room to work out what you actually want from the week. Swim, walk the length of it, come off at half past eleven.
Lunch and the afternoon somewhere with shade. A pool if your hotel has one, a long lunch in Arzachena or Cannigione if it does not.
Back out at half past four to a different bay, a small one this time, when the car parks are emptying and the light is turning. Stay until the sun goes.
Then Porto Cervo in the evening: walk the marina, go up to the terrace by the white church for the view down over the harbour, and sit in the square while the whole coast walks past in both directions. Which beach to pick in the morning is in the best beaches guide, and the village evening is in the Porto Cervo guide.
Day two: the boat
Give the whole day to the La Maddalena archipelago. It is the best thing you will do here.
Boats leave from Palau mostly, which is about forty-five minutes north, with departures around nine, so it is an early start. Cannigione and Baja Sardinia are shorter drives with longer sails. Take cash for the national park fee, take far more water and sun protection than feels necessary, and expect three or four stops with swimming off the boat in water paler than anything on the coast itself.
You will come back sunburnt, salt-crusted and tired at about five. Plan an easy evening: something local and unambitious near where you are staying rather than a smart dinner you will not enjoy.
The choice of departure port and what the day costs are in the La Maddalena boat trip guide.
Day three: inland
This is the day people skip and it is the one I would defend hardest.
Start at nine at the bronze age sites around Arzachena. Three of them makes a good morning: a nuraghe with the village around its foot, and one or two of the tombs of the giants with their great carved slabs. Ten euros, three hours, and on a weekday morning you may well have them to yourself. There is no shade at any of them, so this genuinely has to be the morning rather than the afternoon. Full details in the Arzachena guide.
Lunch in San Pantaleo, fifteen minutes away, under the granite peaks. If it is a Thursday, come here first instead and do the market from eight, then the sites afterwards.
Afternoon back at a beach, late, or at a winery in the hills if the wind is up.
Dinner at a farmhouse inland: a set menu, four courses, wine included, around €35 to €50 a head. This is the best meal of the trip and it needs booking. See where to eat on the Costa Smeralda.
Day four: north, and slowly
Drive up the coast past Baja Sardinia toward Palau, stopping at the bays along the way, which are less famous and much easier to park at than the ones on the Costa Smeralda proper.
Climb to the wind-carved granite above Palau for the view over the strait, then come back down for a swim.
In the evening, the sunset bars built into the rocks between Porto Cervo and Baja Sardinia. Arrive at seven, take one drink, watch the light go, and leave before the part where it becomes a nightclub and the arithmetic changes. The nightlife guide explains that arithmetic.
Day five: the one you choose
By now you know what you like about this place, so spend the day on more of it.
If it was the water: a second boat day, or hire a small boat yourself, up to 40 horsepower without a licence, and go where you like.
If it was the beaches: pick the three you liked best and do all three, early, midday off, late.
If it was inland: the rest of the Arzachena sites, a winery with a tasting booked, and a long lunch.
If it was the coast further out: drive south to Tavolara and the wider beaches around San Teodoro, allowing that a couple of those beaches need booking online in advance, which nothing on this coast does.
More options in the day trips guide.
Start early, this is the whole trick
If you take one thing from this page, take this.
A cove on this coast at eight in the morning is a genuinely different place from the same cove at eleven. The car park is empty, the water is glass, the light is soft and low and coming across rather than down, and there may be nobody else on the sand at all. At eleven it is full, the parking is a walk, and the light is flat and hard.
The difference is three hours of sleep, and it is the single biggest quality difference available on a Costa Smeralda holiday. Everything else here you have to pay for. This one you just get up for.
If you only have two days
Beaches and the boat. Skip inland, reluctantly, and come back.
If you have a week
Add a second inland day and a slow one. A week here without at least two days of doing nothing in particular is a waste of the terrace you are paying for, and the coast is much better at slowness than it is at itineraries.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days do you need on the Costa Smeralda?
Three at minimum: one on the beaches, one on a boat to the La Maddalena archipelago, and one inland at the bronze age sites and the villages. Five is comfortable and lets you go further up the coast without rushing. A week works if you intend to spend part of it doing nothing.
What should you do on your first day on the Costa Smeralda?
Get to a long beach by half past eight before the car parks fill, swim through the morning, spend the hot middle of the day in shade, then go to a second smaller bay from half past four. Finish with an evening in Porto Cervo walking the marina and sitting in the square.
Is three days enough for the Costa Smeralda?
Yes, if you use them for three different things rather than three beach days. Beaches, the boat trip north, and a morning inland at Arzachena gives you the full range of what this corner of Sardinia is. Three beach days would leave you thinking the coast is smaller than it is.
What is the best order to do a Costa Smeralda itinerary?
Beaches first, while you are working out what you like, then the boat day, which is the highlight and needs decent weather, then inland. Keep the boat day flexible so you can move it if the forecast turns windy, since a rough day makes the swimming stops cold and unpleasant.
Do you need to book anything in advance on the Costa Smeralda?
The hire car, well in advance, especially for August. Restaurants from mid-July, including the farmhouse ones inland. Boat trips a day or two ahead outside peak August. The beaches themselves need no booking at all, unlike a few beaches elsewhere on Sardinia.
Read also: The Best Beaches on the Costa Smeralda | The Best Time to Visit the Costa Smeralda | The Complete Guide to the Costa Smeralda
