Travel Eye on Porto Cervo (Sardinia, Italy)

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Overview:

Porto Cervo the most important and famous village in Costa Smeralda is a modern purpose-built resort begun in 1962, the village is a contrived but nonetheless stylish collection of traditional-style Mediterranean low-rise buildings in peach, cream and white stucco with terracotta-tiled roofs. The village comprises an attractive pedestrianised centre known as the Piazzetta, along with a web of narrow hilly roads behind a sizeable harbour. The marina, which accommodates up to 650 mainly fast and flashy craft boasts a huge yacht club and mall as well as its own shipyard. The developments surrounding the village itself are purpose-built extensions which have grown up around a handful of self-contained hotels and private villas. One or two of the former are too remote to be genuinely considered part of the resort.

Locality:

Porto Cervo is located on NE coast, in the Costa Smeralda area (20 mls N of Olbia airport, 85 mls E of Alghero). It is positioned on a deeply incised inlet with village occupying S slopes and marina on N side. Porto Cervo lies at heart of 7,500-acre Costa Smeralda resort area which includes numerous neighbouring hotel and residential developments like Pevero, Romazzino and Cala di Volpe.

Entertainment/Facilities/Attractions/Things to do:

The area is mainly suited to upmarket couples and older families seeking sophistication, picturesque scenery and comprehensive sporting activities. The accommodation is predominantly 4- or 5-star, generally stylish, with quite extensive upmarket village-style complexes dotted along the rugged coastline N and S of the resort and harbour; the farthest is almost 10 mls distant. Most have self-contained facilities and own beach with water sports.

Beaches barely existing in Porto Cervo, just a rough patch of sand adjacent to the harbour can be found. A series of far better sandy bays, with their own anchorages and water-sports centres, lie at varying intervals N and S along the heavily indented coast.

The area also comprises a number of upmarket boutiques, fashion outlets and jewellers (Gucci, Cartier, Bulgari and so on) are concentrated in the pedestrianised Piazzetta area.

Entertainment in Porto Cervo revolves around the beach and comprehensive waterborne activities including sailing, diving and windsurfing. Tennis and golf are also popular sporting activities. By night entertainment is mainly confined to hotels, although there are a number of restaurants, bars and cafes providing live music around the Piazzetta.

A handful of eateries in the resort centre augmented by numerous informal beachfront snack bars and grills, all of them expensive by Sardinian standards cater for the holiday makers.

Excursions tend to revolve around various boat trips along with trips to scattered prehistoric tombs and weirdly shaped rocks around the town of Arzachena.