The island’s top left-hand corner offers unspoilt coast, untouristy towns and a wild ‘donkey’ island. Just don’t follow the Instagram crowd
People rave about La Pelosa beach in Sardinia’s north-west: it has “stunning white sand”, “clear turquoise water”, “breathtaking beauty” and is one of Lonely Planet’s best beaches in Italy. But please don’t go there. Even a decade ago when I was first checking out Sardinia’s glorious coast, crowds and costly parking at La Pelosa put me off. Now a private beach, it is a sad victim of its own success and a million social media posts. Would-be beachgoers hunch over their phones at 8am when online sales open, hoping to bag a ticket (€3.50pp, parking extra, 1,500 available).
They have to arrive armed with straw mats or microfibre towels: until terry towels were banned in 2019, each sunseeker would carry away up to 100g of that white sand, and the beach was visibly shrinking, leaving even less room for sunbathers to fight over. (The shallow, warm water attracts young families, but parents report attendants banning sandcastles because digging damages the now-fragile beach.)
What’s truly stunning about all this is that north-west Sardinia has dozens of lovely beaches, most of them not only free but relatively crowd-free. Close to Alghero, the beaches of Lazzaretto and Le Bombarde offer soft sand, a bar and a small sunbed concession, and are accessible by bus, cycle track or (longish) walk from welcoming Hotel Punta Negra (doubles from €130), which has a big pool and its own small beach.
