From our start in Olbia and Sardinia’s Costa Esmeralda, we traveled north a short distance and took (with our rental car) the 15-minute ferry ride from Palau over to La Maddalena Island and town, which is part of the La Maddalena Archipelago, located at the very north east edge of Sardinia, Italy. We spent 3 nights on La Maddalena, which gave us enough time to see La Maddalena Island, Caprera Island (reached by bridge from La Maddalena) and then a day-trip boat tour of some of the other islands in the Archipelago. I’ll share a bit about each day below.
We caught a morning ferry to La Maddalena from Palau, no reservations were needed in October and the ferries run continuously all day. A round trip ticket for car and passengers was about 40 Euro.
Upon arrival. we immediately headed for Cala Francese beach, not far from the main town and then explored a few other beaches around the island before checking into our hotel later in the afternoon. La Maddalena is not big, you could probably drive around the island in 30 minutes or less.
The town was fun to explore, and many boat tours are offered from the harbor.
After a wonderful day on La Maddalena, we decided to spend our second day on Caprera, an island connected to La Maddalena via a bridge. Caprera is far less populated, and largely National Park land. There are numerous beaches and hiking trails and to start our day we decided to do a hike on the north end of the island, to the Batteria de Candeo, a really interesting site.
There are some beaches on the south end of the island also, such as Spiaggia Due Mari, for example. We visited the south end and spent a while lounging on Spiaggia Due Mari beach after our hike, but unfortunately I did not capture a photo!
Note: I had wanted to visit Cala Coticcio beach on Caprera, one of the most famous beaches in Sardinia. The only way to visit is with a guide (they limit access to this beach to preserve its natural state). I reserved a date with the guide, but I also needed a Park pass, and for some reason this was difficult to do online, so I gave up and cancelled our visit to this particular beach. It is a fairly long hike to Cala Coticcio and if we had done that hike, we would not have had time to do the hiking discussed above. I think it’s just a trade off on how you want to spend your time. As shown above, there are other stunning beaches and sights that don’t have the limitations of Cala Coticcio.
On our final day in La Maddalena, we decided to do a 6-hour boat tour of some other islands in the La Maddalena Archipelago and we’re glad we did. Below are photos from our various stops during the boat tour. It was a perfect day.
As with every other region of Sardinia, it would be easy to spend a week or more in these islands. The water was super clear, and the beaches were beautiful. If you go to Sardinia, don’t miss La Maddalena!