Practical Information for visiting Olbia

Olbia is the best-connected place in Sardinia in summer and a quiet one in winter.

Olbia Costa Smeralda airport is the busiest on the island in the season, with flights across Italy and Europe; the winter schedule is a fraction of it.

Ferries run from the port and from nearby Golfo Aranci to Civitavecchia, Livorno, Genoa and Piombino, several daily in summer. This is the standard way to bring a car to Sardinia.

Trains go south to Cagliari in around four hours with a change; the bus is often better.

Roads are good by Sardinian standards: the SS131 DCN runs across the island to Sassari and the SS125 down the east coast.

Alghero is about two hours west by road.

Coverage for mobile networks is good along the coast, patchy in the granite valleys inland.

Olbia is a safe town and the province is safe generally.

Petty theft rises around the port, the airport and the beaches in high season; do not leave anything visible in a hire car, which is the single most common problem on this coast.

The real hazards are on the water and the roads. Boat traffic in the Maddalena strait is heavy in August and the weather turns fast; if you hire a boat without a skipper, take the forecast seriously.

Currents around the headlands and between the islands can be strong, and many coves have no lifeguard.

Coastal roads are winding and busy in summer, with a great deal of unfamiliar hire-car traffic.

Wildfire is a serious risk in the maquis and cork forests; Gallura has burned badly in living memory, and roads close without warning.

Emergency services are reachable on 112.

No vaccinations or special precautions are needed; standards are those of Italy generally. Malaria was eradicated from Sardinia in the late 1940s and has not returned.

Sun and wind are the usual problem on boats, where the breeze hides the burn.

Jellyfish appear along this coast in some summers.

Granite coves have sharp rock and deep water close inshore; entry and exit are harder than on a sand beach.

Ticks are present in the maquis and cork woods inland.

Pharmacies are plentiful in town with a posted out-of-hours rota, and the coastal villages have seasonal cover only.

The Ospedale Giovanni Paolo II in Olbia has an emergency department and is the main hospital for the north-east.

EHIC and GHIC cards are accepted; travel insurance remains worthwhile.

The single emergency number across Italy is 112, reaching police, ambulance and fire, generally with English-speaking operators.

Other numbers still in use: 113 police, 118 medical, 115 fire.

The Ospedale Giovanni Paolo II in Olbia has the nearest emergency department and serves the whole north-east of the island, including the Costa Smeralda.

There is no foreign consulate in Olbia. The nearest consular representation is in Cagliari, and embassies are in Rome.

Report thefts to the Carabinieri or Polizia di Stato for the report an insurer will require; there is a police presence at the airport and the port.

At sea, the Capitaneria di Porto handles rescue through 112. If you are on a boat, know your position — the Maddalena strait is busy and a vague location costs the rescue service time.