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“Lovely Italian Island”
Review of Alghero

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North Wales, United Kingdom
Level 5 Contributor
56 reviews
86 helpful votes
“Lovely Italian Island”
Reviewed 29 July 2008

Have just returned from a weeks holiday in Alghero on the Island of Sardinia. We had a lovely week at the Hotel Florida, which was situated along the sea front approximately a mile from the Old Town. the hotel was well placed, clean, tidy, food very good, excellent pool and other facilities. the Old Town of Alghero was exceptional. At night it just came to life. Many pleasant places to eat or in the day time lovely cafe bars to sit and relax and watch the sea and drink coffee or a glass of wine./would recommend the 'Casablanca' as an excellent eating place at night or Nutteno which overlooked the Harbour - a little expensive but lovely views.
The resort is only 20 minutes from the Airport so there is no need for a car. There is a City tour bus that takes you for a 2 hour tour to the countryside which is a hop-on - hop-off service and takes you as far as Nuttuno Caves - which you could spend the day. The service buses are also very good if you wanted to get away for the day.
I would hightly recommend a holiday here - especially for a 'relaxing- chilled out' break!

Helpful?
2 Thank Elizabeth Jane J
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
bedford
Level 2 Contributor
2 reviews
5 helpful votes
“Beautiful”
Reviewed 16 July 2008

Beautiful place, good weather & fantastic views across the bays. Good home cooked food especially shellfish in many restaurants. Pleasant people the Sardinians!

Helpful?
1 Thank domBedford
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Galway
Level 6 Contributor
170 reviews
110 helpful votes
“Alghero - our trip”
Reviewed 13 July 2008

OK, just back from Alghero after a 12 day visit. I got a lot of good info from this site and from other places so I reckon I should pass on some tips while they're still fresh in my mind (hopefully this doesn't turn into one of those 'My Summer Holidays' essays from school days ;).

Getting there - Four of us (Mum, Dad, 2 kids - 7 and 5) flew with Ryanair from Dublin into Alghero. We were met at the airport by a pre-arranged taxi - more expensive than the bus but useful for handling bags and trying to find our apartment for the first time.

Accommodation - We stayed in the Residenza Buganvillea along the Lido sea-front. Pros - pool (essential for the kids), modern facilities, air con (extra but worth it). Cons - 25 minute walk into Alghero (good bus service though), some noise from restaurant downstairs (avoid an apartment overlooking the main road - nice views but lots of traffic noise).

Car hire - got a car for a week from Enrico Farris who had been recommended on this site. Excellent service (even collected the car from us after we were finished) but beware of the large excess and extra insurance costs. Driving in Sardinia was fine, drivers tend to quite agressive though so you need to go with the flow.

Alghero - The town of Alghero itself is split into old walled town and new modern town. The old town is very attractive and is well preserved. Lots of shops (not exactly cheap!) and restaurants (more on this later). Beautiful walk along the sea front on top of the city walls. We took a guided mini-tour on the little 'Catalan Train' which was entertaining. Also, there is a decent-sized park between the old town and new town (McDonalds on this side....) which has a very good, well-shaded play area for children.

Food and restaurants - there is plenty of info to be had on places to eat in Alghero. As we went self-catering, we did eat-in quite a bit as the local food is fresh and very edible. The restaurants we did visit were all pretty good, especially Paco's and Casablanca. Note: we did get out order mixed up once or twice so make sure you let the waiter/waitress know what is your 'primi plati' and what is your 'secondi plati' or else you may get chips for starters!

Attractions - Beaches all over Sardinia are excellent, crystal clean water, shallow and safe swimming and stunning views. The ones near Alghero are good but can get very busy (beware Sundays when every Italian In Sardinia goes to the beach on their day off, traffic and parking mayhem!). We found some beautiful spots further away, La Bombarde and especially Spiaggia Munoni (on the way to Cape Caccia) - this was our favourite in terms of location and views.

We drove over to the caves at Cape Caccia (Grotta Nettuno), well worth the visit. Stunning descent down the stone steps to the entrance followed by a guided tour of the impressive cave network. You can also get a boat from Alghero to the caves (entrance fee not included).

The kids persuaded us to visit the Parc Aquatico in Marina De Sorso on the north coast of Sardinia (about an hour and a quarter drive). A little bit hard to find but it was good fun. Some great slides and some smaller ones for younger kids although the wave machine was broken and another slide was closed for some reason. Very strict life guards. A good afternoon trip rather than an all-day one.

L'Ardia - We did a day trip to a local festival in Pozzemaggiore, about 90 minutes inland from Alghero. The drive there was stunning, hairpin bends for a lot of the way, then through wooded valleys and over bridges, most definitely a taste of authentic Sardinia. When we got to the town, at first we thought the whole thing had been cancelled, as we couldn't seen anything happening. Suddenly the church bells all over started ringing and next thing, we turned a corner to see about 5000 people milling about waiting for the whole shebang to kick off! L'Ardia is basically a big parade and horse race around the church and streets of Pozzemaggiore, with accommanying bands and guys shooting VERY loud blanks into the air. Great day, very entertaining and we were surrounded by locals. Found a tiny pizzeria for food afterwards and managed to order in pidgin-Italian.

Note: I found a neat Java app for my phone before I went which was very handy for Italian phrases and pronunciation (see http://www.getjar.com/products/3536/MobileTranslatorEnglishItalian)

Bosa - We drove down to Bosa, a 40km trip along stunning cliffs and sea views. The itself was very nice too, lots of old buildings and palm-lined streets. Made a change from Alghero.

Nuraghi Palmavera - stone age settlement a few km from Alghero, interesting if you're into a spot of archaeology and handy for a hour's break from the beach.

Overall - I would definitely recommened Alghero as a destination for a family with kids. If you're staying for any decent length of time, a car is very handy for getting into town in the evenings and for trips further afield. If you can, take the opportunity to explore the interior of Sardinia, a very different experience to the coast. Accommodation with a pool is also very handy when kids are involved, they had a great time.

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6 Thank MayoForSam
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Ireland
Level 2 Contributor
6 reviews
18 helpful votes
“Alghero a BIG disappointment”
Reviewed 10 July 2008

I spent a week in Alghero in June 2008 with my husband . We stayed in Hotel las tronas for the first two nights of our holiday . The hotel was a great disappointment overall it lacked five star stand ,service and the food was less than satisfactory .
We then moved onto the hotel florida where we stayed another two nights and then we moved up the coast to a the fishing village of stinitto which is definately recommened .
One thing I feel I must comment on and feel very strongly about having spent four days in Alghero is the overall lack of service , rudeness in snack bars , cafes and resturants .We ate out on many occassion along the beach front snack bars and cafes and also dined in the evening in many of the resturants in the old town however the service we recieved was appalling , The majority of the waiters did not even have the courtsey to say thank you when paying for bills and we where left sitting on quite a few occassion before being served and when we where served we where greated with utter rudeness . One resturant that we did find and was a saving grace was Machievelle along the top of the walls , it was a fantastic resturant with excellent food , wine and above all excellent service from polite happy waiters who where delighted to deal with tourists , this resturant restored our faith in decent people of alghero .
The other very frustrating thing which I found on numberous occassion was the use of microwave pasta and pre sealed pannins that may of the snack bars and resturants serve at lunch time . This to me was appalling as nothing was cooked from fresh and is a very inexpensive way to make alot of money out of selling lunch and most definately not the nice Italian cooking you would recieve in other places such as rome of venice .
All in all I would definately NEVER return to Alghero as I found the service in bars , resturants and general overall attitudes to tourists not very positve compared to some countries like Greece and Turkey . It is also note a cheap place to holiday with meals for two costing around £70 euros and wine and beers expensive as well .With hindsight I would have definately choosen another destination beside Alghero .

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4 Thank Cibha
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
London
Level 5 Contributor
54 reviews
65 helpful votes
“Good place to visit for a few days”
Reviewed 21 June 2008

We found Alghero to be a very enjoyable place to visit. We really enjoyed looking around the old town and spending time on the beach. This is a good place for a relaxing holiday with evenings eating and drinking followed by a stroll around the ramparts!

Would not stay here for too long as activities are limited. 5 days was enough but if we stayed in Sardinia longer we would defintely visit more places.

Activities we did included going on the Andrea Jensen boat trip which is defintiely worth doing. We also hired bikes which was a good way to get out and see the surrounding countryside. If we went again we would probably get a car and visit more of the surrounding area.

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1 Thank richardwkirk
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

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