Sunning Myself in Sardinia – Staying in Alghero

Well looky here! Look who’s back!

Soz about the mini, totally unintended hiatus. I just lost my blogging mojo and decided to stop. I’m not really sure I’m all that ready to start up again – I’ve got some seriously lacking motivation where lil old haveyouheardthelatest is concerned but I thought I’d at least try and bash out something that resembles a blog post to see whether it might kick-start a bit of inspiration and get me blogging again.

Anyway – I thought a good place to start would be sharing some snaps from my trip to Sardinia back in June. I took the boyf as a birthday treat and it was a really lovely little break.

One of the best things about Sardinia is it’s only a 2hour jaunt through the skies from London. And when you’re flying with the likes of Ryan Air, a short flight makes all the difference.

(I had sworn not to ever fly with Ryan Air again after they left me stranded in Tenerife during the volcanic ash cloud incident but unfortunately no-one else seems to fly to Sardinia. I am pleased to report it wasn’t all that bad, although they do still sound the horn after another successful landing – which still worries me terribly, like, isn’t that just standard practise for an airline…to y’know, land safely?! I don’t think there should be such a fanfare for doing what they’re meant to).

We flew from Stansted airport and after a bit of a kerfuffle with our Stanstead express tickets (someone didn’t realise they had to print the tickets at home, most definitely not me – I’d never do something like that) we arrived at the airport, downed a delicious Leon sausage & egg muffin and then swiftly boarded our flight to Alghero in the north west region of Sassari.

On arrival we toyed with getting the bus from the airport to the old town but were told it would be an hour wait for the next one. So instead we took a taxi. 15minutes & 25 euros later we were in the centre of the Alghero old town and searching around for the entrance to our Airbnb apartment.

Luckily our host, Marieke stuck her head out the window at just the right time and beckoned us over to the entrance. We eased the old wooden door open and climbed one set of stairs to the little flat. You can check it out in full here on the airbnb website.

This was my second time staying in an Airbnb apartment (the first was in Amsterdam) and I have to say it’s a really great experience. I love the ease of having a whole apartment as opposed to just a hotel room and I always find you get better tips from your local host.

Our apartment was in the heart of the old town of Alghero making it the perfect location for exploring! In the evenings, we were right in the hub of all the best restaurants and bars and also in prime spot to watch the stunning sunset.

I nearly booked us an apartment in another part of town nearer the (not so great) beach (more about that in a bit) and I’m so glad I didn’t as the last thing you want to do it be walking for hours to find somewhere decent to eat. And the Old Town was so pretty too it would have been a shame to stay anywhere else.

Most evenings we headed to Buena Vista to watch the sunset – it’s right on the seafront and the ideal spot for a bit or pre-dinner drinking and sunset watching.

It’s very small, there are only 5 or 6 tables outside but if these are all taken you can grab a spot on the wall opposite and still get served, just be patient as there is only one, very friendly but hard-working waitress.

Also may be an idea to go easy on the Aperol spritz if you’re on the wall you wouldn’t want to lose your balance and fall overboard into the sea below!!

We favoured the radioactive orange of an Aperol Spritz, a drink which the Italian are synonymous with.

Definitely giving the sunsets of Ibiza and Mykonos a run for their money!

Once the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon we’d head off in search of dinner. We had a couple of hits and misses where the restaurants were concerned. Night one we went full on tourist and chose one that sat right along the sea front. However we were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed a really lovely meal at Angedras Restaurant. The food in Sardinia is, unsurprisingly, mainly of the seafood variety (bring right by the sea ‘n’ all) but they also have a very Spanish influence with some tapas style meat and cheese sharing bits.

Two of the five nights were spent at Paco which is one of the top listed places on Tripadvisor and worth every vote. It really is absolutely delicious.

I had a goats cheese starter that was HUGE and followed it with the steak. I think for the second visit I had beef carpaccio followed by pasta and again it was faultless. In addition the staff are really welcoming, they make you feel like a regular.

If you’re in Alghero this really is the only place you should book to go for dinner.

The other nights we dined in a couple of disappointing places. Pasta & Co being one – which wasn’t overly bad it just wasn’t overly good. Which actually says a lot. I mean shouldn’t all pasta restaurants in Italy be good?!

The other place, I can’t even remember the name of but we fell for it thanks to lots of romantic looking greenery and fairy lights. It looked so inviting and cute sitting in the piazza. The food, however was very disappointing and the service really half-hearted – clearly a tourist trap serving mediocre food. It was such a shame.

Still we more than made up for it with some incredible ice-creams after dinner. I mean you can hardly go to an Italy and not sample some Gelato!

Nutella ice-cream with extra Nutella. Molto bene!

Apart from Buena Vista, we found there weren’t a huge amount of bars in Alghero – most places seemed to be restaurant / bars as opposed to somewhere just to stop for a drink however another place we liked was Cafe Latino.

We popped in here on the first day to escape the rain (errrr, yeah it rained on our first day!!!) and then again later in trip for a couple of Aperol Spritzers (of course) and a little spread of snacks (it’s customary for crisps, cheese & meat to be served with drinks in Sardinia and probably most of Italy – they do love to feed people up).

We came back on our final day for breakfast and a round ice-cream coffee. Yum.

It overlooks the beautiful harbour and it seems like a fair few locals go there – so it’s a good little spot.

With a distinct lack of bars, most nights after dinner we simply wandered back to our apartment – we were also often struggling to keep our eyes open after a day in the sun and with a belly full of food. It’s really not a lively town so don’t expect all night parties but it’s the perfect place to stay if you’re a couple looking to relax.

I mentioned above that there is a beach in Alghero but for us it wasn’t great. I don’t know if it was specifically this time of year or just when we were there but the water wasn’t clear at all and there was a not very nice smell of sewage at one end. There was also a lot of seaweed you had to wade through to get into the sea and I know this can make people a bit squeamish and scared of what lurks beneath!

As such we decided to hire a moped, and then later in the trip a car, and did a bit of venturing out to other parts of the island in search of a better beach which I’ll share soon in another post…should my blogging mojo continue to return.

So that was my stay in Alghero a beautiful medieval town overlooking the sea. If you’re after a relaxing weekend break than I’d highly recommend it!

And here a few more pictures of the sky at sunset – it was just beautiful.