Which beaches now have to be booked before you arrive?
Most of the famous ones, and the systems are unforgiving. La Pelosa at Stintino admits 1,500 people a day at €3.50 each from 15 May to 15 October 2026, with a maximum of four per booking, one booking per person per day, QR access controlled 08:00–18:00 and mats compulsory; 500 places are bookable in advance and a further 1,000 are released two days ahead at 09:00. Cala Goloritzé caps 250 visitors a day at €7, booked through the Heart of Sardinia app from 72 hours out. Cala Mariolu allows 700 a day from June to November; Tuerredda 1,100 since 2020; Cala Brandinchi and Lu Impostu roughly 1,500 each through the Comune of San Teodoro. This is the fact that decides the shape of a Sardinian week.
Can you land on the pink beach?
No, and no relationship changes it. Spiaggia Rosa on Budelli sits in the strictly protected Zone A of the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park: no landing, no swimming, no walking the shoreline, no anchoring or stopping. Boats view it from roughly seventy metres, and that is the whole experience. Navigation inside the park requires a permit, speed is capped at 7 knots within 500 m of the coast and 10 knots between 500 and 1,000 m, and the general ban on overnight anchoring was lifted under the park's 2026 regulations. We plan the yacht day around what is legal and say so in advance.
Which coast is the trip?
The Costa Smeralda if the trip is social, the south or Ogliastra if it is not. Porto Cervo, Porto Rotondo and the Gallura coast hold the island's best-known villas, hotels and marinas; Cala di Volpe and the inlets toward Baja Sardinia are quieter; Chia and Pula in the south give superb beaches with far less scene. Five to seven nights, usually in a private villa or a coastal house, with helicopter or chauffeured links because the distances are considerable and the best coves are reached by sea.
When, and what does August actually cost you?
Late May to June and September to October, as listed here. August is when Porto Cervo reaches its glittering peak and prices climb sharply — and it is also when every capped beach above is hardest to enter, since a 1,500-place allocation does not expand for a good client. The season runs May into early October and then largely closes.
What is there beyond the water?
An interior almost nobody books. The prehistoric nuraghe towers, the Vermentino di Gallura vineyards in the hills behind the coast, and villages where the pecorino and the bread are the point. A day inland with a guide is the strongest contrast available to the Costa Smeralda, and it is the part of Sardinia guests remember arguing about and then loving.
For whom is Sardinia wrong?
For anyone who wants a spontaneous beach day in August, a short trip, or culture as the spine of the week. Sardinia is a sea holiday with a booking system attached. Travellers wanting layered history should take Sicily instead, and those wanting sea plus towns the Amalfi Coast. If the boat is the point, Italy by yacht is the honest frame; for how it fits a longer trip, see the Italy guide.