Published on: 13 December 2016  | Last updated: 23 December 2019

Overview

The first part of this section takes you out from Stintino to the Cap Falcone and the beach at La Pelosa which looks out onto the national park of the Isola dell’Asinara. From here it heads south to the Capo Caccia and Alghero. The Capo Caccia is another dramatic headland topped with a light­house. If you have the energy you can visit the caves of the Grotte di Nettuno. The final leg takes you past the Nuraghe Palmavera as well as some beautiful beaches before ending in Alghero (L’Alguer) a city with its distinctive Catalan heritage. 

Highlights

• Asinara national park. Once a prison-island and now famous for its wild albino donkeys.
• the Capo Falcone and Spiaggia della Pelosa and its watchtower
• the Capo Caccia and Grotte di Nettuno
• the Nuraghe Palmavera
• Alghero’s bastioni (city walls)

Beaches

The most famous beach near Stintino is probably the Spiaggia La Pelosa on the road north from Stintino, but other options include the Saline and Ezzi Mannu beaches.

After Stintino the best and most accessible beaches are between the Capo Caccia and Alghero: 

• the Spiaggia Mugoni
• the Lazzaretto and Le Bombarde beaches
• the Spiaggia Maria Pia

Map and altitude profile

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Distances
Stintino to Capo Falcone loop	10 kms
Stintino to Capo Caccia	54 kms
Capo Caccia to Fertilia	25 kms
Fertilia to Alghero	4 kms

Route description

Stintino to Alghero

Heading north from Stintino the route takes you to the Capo Falcone and the Spiaggia della Pelosa - one of Sardegna’s most famous beaches, with its fine pale sand and clear turquoise water. It also has a much-photo­graphed watchtower.

Unfortunately, the beach has also been a magnet for some fairly unsym­pathetic devel­opment. So you’ll need to look the other way towards the Asinara national park famous for its white donkeys. 

After the Capo Falcone its back to Pozzo San Nicola and the junction with the SP57 road to Alghero.

You may notice as you pass through Pozzo San Nicola that the signs with the village’s name are in three languages. The three languages are (I think) Italian, Gallurese and Sassarese. Gallurese is the language spoken in much of northern Sardegna (and southern Corsica) while Sassarese is thought to be a hybrid of languages from Toscana, Liguria and Corsica. If you’re curious about Sardegna and Italy’s mosaic of languages wikipedia is a good place to go ( en.wikipedia.org: Sassarese en.wikipedia.org: Gallurese)

The SP 57 (from Pozzo San Nicolà) was an unexpected pleasure: hedgerows filled with spring flowers, the occasional car, and apart from that, nothing but the sound of the birds, and occasionally sheep-bells (cow-bells for sheep). The SP57 comes to an end in the outskirts of the village of Palmadula. Turn left, following the signs for Alghero onto the SP 69. If you fancy a side trip (and a bit of climbing), you can turn right and go down to the old mine at Argentiera on the coast.

The SP69 is mainly downhill all the way to the coast. There are a couple of very short climbs. After one of them, there’s a bend in the road and a view over the Capo di Caccia. The SP69 comes out onto the SP55, at the junction you have two altern­atives: turn right and head for the Capo Caccia or turn left and head for Fertilia and Alghero. 

The Capo Caccia

The Capo Caccia is another dramatic headland with limestone cliffs rising sheer out of the sea. Perched at the top of the cliffs (168 metres altitude) is the Faro di Capo Caccia (Capo Caccia light­house). At the very bottom of the cliff are the Grotte di Nettuno (en.wikipedia.org: Neptune’s Grotto) the caves that are probably Alghero’s major tourist attraction. Most people arrive by boat, but you have the option (if you have the energy) of descending the 654-step Escala del Cabirol (goat’s steps) that are carved out of the cliff-face and lead down to the caves (and of course climbing back up again). Admission is €13.

As you head for the Capo di Caccia it’s worth making the short detour to visit the Torre del Porticciolo - another pictur­esque watchtower overlooking a scenic cove. 

The road continues into the Porto Conte Parco Naturale Regionale. A little further on, you come to a turning on your right-hand side with a sign saying panor­amica and a viewpoint symbol. It’s defin­itely worth the climb which takes you to the Belvedere Foradada (on the right-hand side of the road) where there’s a dramatic view over the Isola Foradada. Unfortunately, you cannot continue to the light­house itself as it’s a Zona Militare.

Nuraghe Palmavera

On the weekday and out of season the road between the Capo Caccia and Alghero was really very calm, but there is a popular beach (the Spiaggia Mugoni), so on weekends, it is likely to be busier. The road takes you past the Nuraghe Palmavera arche­olo­gical site.

The site contains the remains of the village as well as the nuraghe at its centre and a communal meeting room ceremonial chamber. It’s thought that the village dates back to about 1500 BC. The village seems to have been destroyed by a great fire in about 1200 BC. There are, or were, about 120 homes here for approx­im­ately 600 people. 

Admission is 3€, although you should defin­itely get the audio guide (available in several languages) which costs another €3.50. There is also a ticket that covers both the Nuraghe Palmavera and the nearby Necropoli di Anghelu Ruj. The site is open from nine in the morning until seven in the evening from the beginning of May until the end of September.

Lazaretto and Le Bombarde beaches

If you’d rather visit the beach, turn right at Porto Conte and pick up the Via Degli Eucalipti - a bliss­fully quiet country lane which takes you to Lazaretto and the Spiaggia di Lazaretto where there’s a couple of beach bars and that’s about it really. Further on is the rather more developed Spiaggia Le Bombarde. Next door to the beach is the beautiful Le Bombarde pineta. Also on the way is the Parco Avventura Le Ragnatele - which might be a welcome treat for kids.

A little under 900 metres beyond the nuraghe there’s a cycleway that runs for two and a half kilometres into the outskirts of Fertilia. The cycleway is on your left-hand side separated from the road by trees and bushes. 

Fertilia

The cycleway comes to a junction with a little bar-chiosco. Cross over the road and then follow the cycleway as it makes a brief detour to the remains of the old Roman bridge over the Stagno di Calich. 

The road into Alghero bypasses Fertilia. The village was built in the 1930s when the marshland in the surrounding area was reclaimed. It was originally settled by immig­rants from north-east Italy, and then in the aftermath of the second world war, by Italian-speaking refugees from Istria and Dalmatia in what is now Croatia and Slovenija.

Between Fertilia and Alghero there is a long stretch of pale sandy beach (the Spiaggia Maria Pia). The beach is surpris­ingly uncom­mercial and unspoiled, behind a quite beautiful stretch of pineta where there’s a percorso sportivo (outdoor gym) if you feel like you need some exercise. 

Expect the beach to be busy on summer weekends as people come out from Alghero. 

Alghero

After the Camping La Mariposa there’s a long stretch of cycleway which takes you all the way into Alghero, and the Forte della Maddalena on the edge of the centro storico.

As you ride into Alghero you’ll quite probably see Catalan flags flying on the beach. Catalan (alghereseis one of the official languages of the city (L’Alguer in Catalan). 

If you’re in a hurry you can bear right and follow the road as it skirts round the centro storico, but the most scenic option is to follow the bastioni (the defensive seawalls). To do this you need to turn right onto the Banchina Dogana quayside and then turn left through the Porta a Mare. There are no entry signs on the Porta a Mare —but there’s also a cyclist-pedes­trian sign which I assume trumps the no-entry sign. Turn right into the Piazza Civica which takes you past the Duomo (Cathedral) and then turn right again in front of the Duomo and onto the Via San Erasmo. Just a little further on (after the Movida restaurant) is the Piazza San Erasmo where there’s a ramp that takes you up to the Bastioni Magellano. (Note that the piazza seems to have been renamed the Piazza Pasqual Gal). On a clear day, you can see from the walls across the golfo to the Capo Caccia.

Parts of the centro storico are a pedes­trian zone however, you can ride along the bastioni, but you need to apply common sense and discretion: if it’s crowded, you may need to get off and walk at the narrow points.

You can follow the bastioni to the Torre Sulis where you pick up another cycleway which takes you to the Mirador Giuni Russo at Calabona on the edge of town. From here you pick up the SP105 heading for Bosa.

Options

The route takes you to the Capo Caccia. However, it may be easier to visit it unloaded so you don’t have to worry about your bags. You could easily visit it as a loop from Fertilia or Alghero, or there are some places to stay in the immediate area (including a campsite/holiday village) so you could compromise and stay somewhere nearby. You can of course also visit the caves, without your bike, by boat from Alghero. 

If you plan to end your tour in Alghero, but you’d like to extend it a bit, then a good option would be to take the gorgeous coastal road to Bosa, stay overnight in Bosa, and then return to Alghero via Villanova Monteleone. 

Articles in this series

• Sardegna North Coast: Introduction
• Sardegna North Coast: Part 1: Olbia to Palau
• Sardegna North Coast: Part 2: La Maddalena national park
• Sardegna North Coast: Part 3: Palau to Castelsardo
• Sardegna North Coast: Part 4: Castelsardo to Stintino
• Sardegna North Coast: Part 5: Stintino to Alghero