As someone who goes on holiday all year round and chases the sun as much as reasonably possible, I probably care about the seasons less than most. However, this year felt like I had a very natural slope into autumn. The end of August in France, and then a weekend in Jersey that actually required a jacket, and then a lovely leafy glamping trip to Shropshire. It felt like the next natural step would be to start getting cosy, lighting candles, and embracing the 'ber months. But... I don't love doing what's expected so bam! It was time for a full on summer holiday with the girls, soaking up an extra bump of sun, sand, and vitamin sea.
The destination of choice was Sardinia and it's somewhere I've wanted to travel for a long time since it looked so beautiful and less touristy than a lot of other Italian options. Normally the flights seem to be quite expensive and few and far between though, so when we found flights to Olbia in September for just over £100 per person, that was the holiday all set!
After an afternoon flight and a very stressful villa check-in experience where the host left us waiting outside for them (being bitten by mosquitoes) for 40 minutes, we got ready at the speed of light so we could decompress with a glass of wine and some good food. Luckily being in Sardinia meant that good food was in plentiful supply! It was actually pretty tricky to decide where to stay in Sardinia because Olbia itself is more of a city than it is a beach break, but a lot of the beachy towns were very isolated and lacking in things to do there. We weren't hiring a car so that eliminated a fair few options, especially since taxis on the island were really expensive (€40 for a 10 minute drive). After quite a bit of research, we landed on San Teodoro because it was a slightly bigger town, it had beautiful beaches, and loads of restaurants and bars within a 10 minute walking distance. Trattoria Don Giovanni, the spot from our first night, was literally a 5 minute walk from our villa and it was divine. Obviously I had to start the trip strong with spaghetti vongole!
I was feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed the next day, which was perfect since it was our big excursion day. It's always my favourite, it's my go-to whenever I'm by the coast - a boat day! We set off nice and early so we'd have chance to grab a bite to eat before the boat and we got our first glimpse of the gorgeous ocean. Sardinia as an island is really just so pretty. Not only is the sea wonderful but the whole place is really lush and green. Not ideal from a bug point of view (spoiler alert: I got bitten to smithereens) but perfect from a visual one.
Then it was boat time! We'd pre-booked this trip on GetYourGuide and it was described as a 5 island boat tour day. I loved that it was such a small group and since there were only 12 people on our boat, we literally made up half of it. Our guide didn't really speak English so we didn't get much commentary on each stop (our problem obvs) therefore I'm not sure exactly which stop was which! The itinerary shows that we went to Puntaldia (photo stop), Spiaggia di Lu Impostu (photo stop), Brandinchi Beach (actual stop), Isola Ruia (photo stop), Isola di Proratora (photo stop), Molara Island (actual stop), Tavolara Island (actual stop, plus lunch), Isola Cana (photo stop), Cala Girgolu (actual stop), and Spiaggia di Capo Coda Cavallo (actual stop). So I'll make some assumptions as we go through but let's assume that these first few pics are from the first 2 photo stops!
The water at our first stop was so incredibly clear and blue! Most of the stops throughout the day were anchors-down deep water, but this first one was more of a beachy spot (Brandinchi beach) so we eased ourselves in gently with a bit of shallow water since it was still pretty chilly at this time.
The next stop, Molara island, was where all the fun began! After driving in to admire some beautiful caves, we stopped off for a swim and naturally you have to jump off the side when the water is deep. Not only did Harriet somehow fall into the sea on her way in, but she also managed to fall backwards off the ladder on her way out too, basically landing on poor Lillie-Mae. We were absolutely dying of laughter because she literally styled it out like some kind of cartoon character (imagine when their arms spin in big circles as they try not to fall). One injury down, but we had an amazing time swimming here and the water was so gorgeous.
We stopped off for another swim just across the bay and this area was so serene and peaceful it literally looked like a painting! Our tour guide clearly had a sense of humour though because he decided to play the Jaws soundtrack to give (mostly himself) a giggle.
We then docked at on the island of Tavolara, which seems like it's a main attraction of the day and is a pretty famous spot! It was super beautiful and we had a leisurely 90 minutes to enjoy ourselves here so we went and got some lunch. There wasn't much question of where, since there was only 1 restaurant on the island! Obviously I had to have seafood because eating seafood at the seafront is one of my favourite experiences and although this mixed seafood plate was a faff to eat, it was absolutely beautiful. It also felt like a crime that we'd been in Italy for coming up to 24 hours and hadn't had any limoncello yet so we righted that wrong straight away. Pronto!
We continued our island hopping after lunch with another 3 stops to swim, sunbathe, and enjoy the ocean. I honestly always feel at my happiest when I'm at sea! The funniest part of the day though came at the very end because we had to get back to our starting point, against a sea that had become very choppy. We all got a bit suspicious when our tour guide started putting on a jacket and zipping it right up to the chin and we quickly learned why! We got absolutely drenched, thrown around, and slapped in the face by the water more times than I could count as we drove back. We were all finidng it so hilarious and literally couldn't see a thing as we were getting splashed too much to open our eyes. Poor Scarlett and Charlotte had gone to great lengths to keep their hair dry all day and honestly by the time we got off the boat, everyone was wetter than we'd been from actually jumping in in the sea and going underwater!
Because we'd arrived late in the evening the day before, we hadn't really explored the town much up until this point. So after getting ourselves dolled up, we headed out to explore. San Teodoro was a really cute little town with lovely colourful buildings and lots of cute little night markets. I was glad we'd taken the time to research where we were staying because it really was a lovely spot!
We stopped off for a cheeky cocktail and then went to find somewhere to eat. The restaurant we initially liked the look of was fully booked, so we went to a place called Flamingo instead and had quite an odd experience. Firstly, when 4 of us tried to order pasta they told us it was impossible to make that many pastas? I've been to Italy many, many times and have quite literally never heard that. Then when the woman reluctantly let us order them, it took about 45 minutes for it to arrive. They say that good things come to those who wait though and this was all fresh, handmade pasta. While the wait was annoying, my dish was very good! I ordered the local favourite culurgiones because I always like to sample the regional dish of wherever I am.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We'd loved the croissants at Arya beach club so much the day before that we returned again on this day before settling in for a beach day. While the boat trip was amazing, it was all very go-go-go so it was nice to have a day at a more leisurely pace. We read, we swam, we chatted, we drank cocktails. The girls also went for a nice lunch at the nearby restaurant but I opted for a panini on the sun lounger because I knew we were feasting at our next experience and I wanted to save room!
Our beach day was slightly shorter than normal because we were off wine tasting! We'd originally booked a tour on GetYourGuide but it didn't include transport and when we started getting quotes for taxis, they wanted €400 for the round trip, despite it being only 35 minutes away! Obviously we didn't want to spend that much just to drink some wine (even I have my limits on my love for the stuff), so I managed to cancel that tour and found something much closer that was pretty much perfect. Tenuta Teo D'Oro was everything we were looking for. It was only 10 minutes up the coast and it was a vineyard slash restaurant with the option of a wine tasting experience but not the mandate for one. So everyone who wanted to do a full wine tasting experience could (with the choice of 3 different tiers), and everyone who just wanted to enjoy a glass with some nibbles could do that too. It was also a nice excuse to get dressed up because the scenery and the place itself was stunning. Me and Jess accidentally twinned in our matching yellow ensembles, which felt very fitting since we arrived at golden hour.
For me, nothing beats a wine tasting with a gorgeous view of the vineyard itself! It's probably the same reason I love eating seafood with a view of the sea. Because I love wine and this year has been a wine tasting heavy extravaganza, I obviously opted for the set wine tasting menu. I decided to go all out with the 'platinum' choice which was 4 wines and 4 paired plates. Jess joined me and did the same (the outfits weren't the only twinning choice), while the other 4 ordered wines by the glass with Scarlett and Harriet sharing a cheese board and Charlotte and Lillie-Mae sharing a bruschetta assortment. All the wines were incredible! Our tasting menu included a sparkling, two whites, and then a red. The food was all lovely too; we had a ricotta cracker stack, followed by 2 mini pies, followed by culurgiones that were basically mini pies, and then a charcuterie board. If I'm being critical I could've done with one fewer pie dish, and subbed in for something fresher, but honestly it was all delicious. It was lovely to watch the sun go down as we enjoyed our wines, while the night slowly descended into chaos with lots of funny TikToks being filmed. Me, Jess and Harriet continued the night when we got back into town, and even though we were already 5 glasses of wine deep, we managed a further 3 bottles between us PLUS 3 limoncellos each! What can we say, we obviously took the decision to taste wine very seriously.
Needless to say, the three of us were feeling VERY worse for wear the next day! Luckily it was a nice chilled beach day again, this time at Arya (the place we'd been repeatedly going to for croissants). It was a lovely spot that I managed to enjoy for about 3 hours, since I didn't make it out until 3pm! Then when I did make it, it clouded over and promptly chucked it down so clearly the universe was having a laugh at my expense on this day. But everything came good again at the same time. After eating, I felt fully recovered, and the sun came back out so I could enjoy a bit of sunbathing before the day was done.
It was pretty much a given that our final night would be a much tamer one after the night before. We went out for a pretty early dinner to this really lovely spot right near our villa. Osteria del Mar Griglieria had loads of lovely seafood on offer and I decided to go for the fregola since it was another local delicacy. It was really lovely; I hadn't had it before and it was kind of halfway between gnocchi and couscous. Although it was a rather stressful eating experience because there were loads of wasps that were just as obsessed with the dish as I was. If there's ever been an argument to stick to Mediterranean eating times like I do, then that was it!
We finished off with a nice little post-dinner stroll around the markets, and then got some gelato to end the night. The gelato here was so good! I'd gone for the extra dark chocolate on the first night, and then hazelnut and melon on this night.
For our last day, we returned to Arya beach club again! I actually personally preferred the beach spot we went to on the second day because the sand was gorgeous, we were super close to the sea, and it had those amazing Italian sunbeds with the little sun roof. By comparison, Arya beach club was a manmade beach so it had that horrible kind of clay sand that makes your feet filthy. It also meant you had to walk through the trees and then all this weird paper-mache-like stuff to get into the sea. So it wasn't to the same standards of natural beauty! However, it was much more well-equipped with showers, changing rooms, and luggage storage. All of which was definitely needed on our travel home day. We didn't fly until like 10pm so we had pretty much the whole day to enjoy, soaking in the sun and eating the last of the gorgeous Sardinian food. Naturally it was a double whammy of seafood for me; calamari and lobster pasta. It was also nice to get cocktails delivered to the sunbed, so before we left we had a lovely little spritz o'clock to cheers to a good holiday! And now, I will accept that it's time to get ready for autumn.
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