Sardinia - Coast to Coast (Self-Guided MTB)

Sardinia from the inside

Most visitors to Sardinia stop at the coastline. This trip turns its back on the sea for the better part of a week and pushes east across the island's mountainous spine — through Sulcis-Iglesiente, the Gennargentu range, and the strange dolomitic outcrops of the Tacchi d'Ogliastra, named because they look like the heel of a shoe. The riding alternates between dirt tracks and quiet asphalt, with steep climbs and the long, generous descents that follow them. It is graded 3 out of 5, which puts the demand squarely on fitness rather than technical skill.

You sleep mostly in agriturismi — working farms that feed you what they grow. The home-made pasta at the first stop near Montevecchio is something the operator returns to in the trip notes, and Cannonau, Sardinia's headline red, follows you across the island.

The coast-to-coast route over eight days

You fly into Cagliari and transfer about an hour up to Montevecchio. From there the route runs eastwards, opening on plains and olive groves before tightening into oak woods and granite uplands. The early days take in Piscinas Beach, which has the tallest sand dunes in the Mediterranean, and the Nuraghe of Barumini — a UNESCO-listed Bronze Age tower complex unique to the island.

Day five sees you climb into the Gennargentu Mountains, the demanding heart of the trip and the part most riders remember. From there you drop through Seulo and Ulassai, villages that sit inside one of the world's five Blue Zones — places identified for unusually high life expectancy. The vineyards around here are Cannonau country, and the final stage is a long run through them down to Bari Sardo on the east coast. A swim in the green Tyrrhenian, a beachside pizzeria and a glass of the local red close out the week.

Bikes, bookings and who it suits

The holiday is self-guided, with route notes, GPS files and luggage transfers between farmhouses handled for you. Mountain bike hire is included in the package and an e-MTB option can be added when you book — useful if you would rather take the climbs without the suffering, though shared sections are paced to riders on regular bikes.

Prices start from £1,495 per person, with eight days covering seven nights of accommodation, most dinners, support vehicle transfers and bike hire. International flights to Cagliari are not included, and a few lunches and the odd evening meal sit outside the package, especially in the coastal towns at either end. A guided version of the same itinerary is available if navigating yourself isn't appealing.

It suits riders who are reasonably fit, comfortable on dirt for several hours at a stretch, and more drawn to the inland Sardinia of stone villages, oak forests and farm tables than to resort-coast Italy. The pace is steady rather than racy, and the rewards — the Tacchi, the Gennargentu, that final descent through the vines — sit firmly on the side of landscape and character rather than mileage covered.