When most people think of Sardinia, they picture glamorous beach clubs and luxury resorts. And whilst all of those things absolutely exist, we personally wanted a trip that felt slightly more adventurous and authentic so we could experience a different side of the island. Cue Cagliari… Sardinia’s colourful capital, which completely stole my heart.

We spent five days exploring Cagliari in September 2024 and honestly, it ended up being one of my favourite city breaks we’ve done in a long time. It has all the things I love when travelling: beautiful architecture, fantastic food, walkable streets, a relaxed pace of life and enough character to keep me happily wandering around with my camera for hours.

My Cagliari travel guide…

What I loved the most about Cagliari is that it feels really authentic. It doesn’t feel too polished or designed purely for tourists. Yes there are tourists, but there’s also lots of locals going about their daily lives and chatting outside cafés and you’ll regularly stumble across beautiful little streets that aren’t packed with crowds.

So I figured I would pack everything we did into one big post for you and create a Cagliari travel guide with all of the best things we did. If you’re planning a trip, here are my favourite places to stay, eat and explore in Cagliari!

Where We Stayed In Cagliari

For this trip, we stayed at the Bijou Apt on Via Manno and I honestly couldn’t recommend the location more.

It was a really cute, 2 bedroom apartment situated right in the heart of the centre, and it overlooked one of Cagliari’s main shopping streets. There’s a balcony in both the living room and the bedroom (which is great for people watching!) and it’s within walking distance of pretty much everything you’d want to see.

For me, the location of where you stay can completely make or break a city break and this one got it absolutely spot on.

The apartment itself was really stylish and comfortable and had excellent air conditioning (which was very much appreciated after long days exploring in the Sardinian sunshine!). It also had a lovely mix of old and new, with characterful interiors that felt in keeping with the historic surroundings whilst still being practical for a longer stay. I was especially obssesed with the pretty tiled floors!

One of my favourite things was simply stepping out of the front door each morning and immediately being in the middle of the city. There was no wasting time getting from A to B, you were in the thick of everything, immediately. It’s also probably worth noting that no, it wasn’t noisy at night time. They have large wooden shutters that completely blocked out any sound.

For five nights, including cleaning fees, we paid approximately £540 which felt like excellent value given the location.

Explore the botanical gardens

The Botanical Garden of Cagliari (Orto Botanico) ended up being one of my favourite places in the city.

It’s spread across several acres and the gardens are home to hundreds of plant species from around the world, and if you know me well, you’ll know I love plants!

It’s safe to say I was completely in my element. It felt like a welcome escape from the city for a few hours and offered a completely different side to Cagliari. There are lots of quiet corners to sit, read or simply enjoy the surroundings and I found it incredibly peaceful compared to some of the busier tourist attractions.

If you’re anything like me and enjoy gardens and nature, I’d definitely add this to your itinerary!

Hire bikes and explore the coast

One of the best decisions we made during the trip was hiring electric bikes for the day. I cannot recommend this enough as you get to fully explore at your own will and venture to the nearby beaches.

We rented ours from Easycletta (which was just a 3 minute walk from our apartment) and spent hours cycling around different parts of the city and coastline. Having the electric bikes made everything really easy and allowed us to cover much more ground than we would have on foot.

The route out towards Poetto Beach was particularly lovely and gave us the chance to see a different side of Cagliari beyond the busy centre.

I always think hiring bikes is one of the best ways to get a feel for a destination because you notice so much more than you do from a taxi or bus… You can stop whenever something catches your eye and take little detours without worrying about transport schedules.

Spend a day at Poetto Beach

By the third day of adventures, we were both feeling pretty knackered so we decided to have a beach day. We caught a bus to Poetto Beach (which we’d scoped out the day before on the bikes!) and spent the day at Spiaggia del Poetto di Quartu and hired sun loungers at Emerson Beach Club.

This ended up being one of those very much needed, simple holiday days where you don’t really do much other than swim, read and enjoy being by the sea. Win win!

The water was beautifully clear and the beach itself felt much more relaxed than some of the more glamorous beach destinations you find elsewhere in Europe.

Emerson Beach Club also served some surprisingly good food. Their salads were particularly delicious and made a nice change from the endless pizza and pasta we’d been enjoying (ha!)

Take a boat trip along the Sardinian coast

If there’s one activity I’d tell everybody to book, it’s the boat trip. Without a doubt one of my BEST experiences whilst we were there. We booked ours with Nauti Sardinia and it was honestly one of the highlights of the entire holiday.

The trip lasted around three hours and included four cave swimming stops, lots of snorkelling opportunities and Prosecco onboard. For approximately £95–£100 for two people, we thought it was great value. The tour guides were both so lovely, giving us all the information about the history of the caves and they made sure we took a route that avoided any other boats being at each stop at the same time.

The coastline around Cagliari is absolutely stunning and seeing it from the water gives you a completely different perspective. The swimming stops were gorgeous and there was something so special about jumping straight from the boat into crystal-clear water… The prosecco made this even more fun I must say!

I genuinely can’t recommend this experience enough. Please, if you do go to Cagliari, book a boat trip!

Visit Cagliari’s famous graffiti street

This was a really unexpected highlight for us as we kinda just stumbled across it whilst venturing around the city. Via San Saturnino is the road which is known for its colourful street art and graffiti, and boy, it sure was colourful!

I always love finding slightly less obvious attractions when travelling and this definitely fell into that category. The artwork added so much personality to the area and created a completely different atmosphere to the surrounding streets.

If you enjoy looking at art work or want some good holiday snaps, it’s well worth making the short detour.

My Cagliari travel guide…

It’s worth mentioning here as well that there are so many beautiful streets in Cagliari. Every corner you turn leads onto another road with towering colourful buildings with pretty balconies and trailing planters… Simply just having a ‘mooch’ around is an attraction in itself…

Now, let’s face it. Cagliari means Sardinia. Sardinia means Italy… and Italy means darn good food!

Is it embarrassing to admit that one of the main reasons we chose Cagliari was purely for the pizza and pasta? I have absolutely no shame in admitting it.

I can honestly say, hand on heart, we didn’t have a bad meal during the entire trip. We picked a mixture of places, some of which were recommended ‘Instagram hotspots’ and others that were far more traditional, tucked away in the quieter streets of the city. Here are just a few that really stood out to us.

One of the things I liked most about visiting Cagliari was how easy it was to navigate. Here’s a few handy things to note before you go regarding travel!

• The train from the airport to the city centre takes around 10 minutes and costs approximately €1.30 per person (it is also extremely well signposted when you leave the airport!).

• The local bus network was also straightforward to use, with tickets costing around €2.00 and regular services connecting the city centre to Poetto Beach.

• It’s also handy to note that if your accommodation check-in is later in the day, there’s also luggage storage lockers conveniently located in a shop next to the train station on Via Roma. Don’t quote me on this because I lost the receipt, but I think it cost roughly €8-10 for two small suitcases to be stored all day. We used this service on our return date too!

Why I think Cagliari is 100% worth visiting

What I loved most about Cagliari wasn’t any single attraction or restaurant, but the overall feeling of the place. I think a lot of people can be put off by big city breaks because they worry they’ll feel overcrowded and packed with tourists, but I can honestly say Cagliari felt like the exception.

It somehow manages to feel vibrant and full of life without ever feeling overwhelming. It’s colourful without trying too hard, you still get lots of lovely locals and authentic meals and it feels really historic but without feeling too stuck in the past.

There always seemed to be something interesting around the next corner, which made the whole trip feel really exciting. And as someone who normally doesn’t travel to the same place more than once (Marrakech is my only exception!), I would definitely say I’d happily go back to Cagliari again.

I hope my Cagliari travel guide has been helpful for you! If you’re looking for a destination that combines culture with beautiful beaches, plenty of character and LOTS of pasta and pizza… I genuinely think Cagliari deserves far more attention than it gets.

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