Sea caves and a boat trip – in Sardinia
August 23, 2008 by HeatherCowper
One of the highlights of any stay in Cala Gonone is to take a boat trip in the Gulf of Orosei to visit the many beaches that can only be reached from the sea.
 Sea caves and a boat trip - in Sardinia |
 Sea caves and a boat trip - in Sardinia |
We left at the unfeasibly early hour (for the children) of 10 am, in a largish boat, laden down with picnic, beach towels and plenty of drinking water. The smaller open boats looked inviting, but we soon realised that we had made the better choice, as we were able to take in the views of the coastline from the shady lower deck, rather than being fried in the merciless sun. First stop was the Grotto Di Bue Marina, named after the Monk seals (or beef of the sea as the local fishermen named them) that once colonised these caves but are now virtually extinct in the Mediterannean.
 Sea caves and a boat trip - in Sardinia |
 Sea caves and a boat trip - in Sardinia |
You pass through a series of caverns on a wooden walkway, with fanciful names like Organ Pipe cavern and Cave of mirrors and finally end in the Monk seal cavern where the seals once came to breed.
 Sea caves and a boat trip - in Sardinia |
 Sea caves and a boat trip - in Sardinia |
After this the boat took us to the furthest end of the gulf, past more sea caves and beaches which are only accessible from the sea. On the return trip we landed on a couple of the beaches for an hour or two’s swimming.
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In your dreams you might picture a deserted sliver of white sand with cliffs rising behind and rocky outcrops for snorkling and diving. Then picture the reality of boat after boat, coming on shore, each offloading a hundred holiday makers ready to stake their claim with beach towels and sun umbrellas.
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I’ve heard that the Italians spend their lives always in the company of family and friends and never more so than when on holiday in August. They care little for the space and tranquility that the English might seek on holiday – in Sardinia a crowded beach means lots of people having maximum fun. Although I’d have liked to have the place a little more to myself, we enjoyed our snorkling in the clear blue water and jumping off the large flat rocks that made a natural diving platform.
Finally we arrived at the largest of the beaches at Cala Luna with more sea caves and a river behind the beach. By now it was late afternoon and we decided we were all beached out, so we hopped on the next boat back to port and back to the welcome shade of our campsite. See all all my photos on Flickr from the boat trip here and from the Grotto di Bue Marino here.
More Sardinia articles to enjoy
A tour of the best beaches in Sardinia
Swimming in rock pools near Gola di Gorrupa in Sardinia
A prehistoric village with a sea view in Sardinia
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mary on Thu, 23rd Apr 2009 7:27 pm
hi
i was just going thru ur blog on sea caves in sardinia. the pictures r beautiful!!. I am planning a holiday to the gulf or orosei this summer,
i had a question, how easy and cheap is it to get a boat frm any of the beaches and goto other beaches?? r these boats get on and get off boats? can we get off on any beach and take another boat back to the hotel later. how expnsv r these boats?
hope u can help
thx
mary
admin on Thu, 23rd Apr 2009 9:10 pm
@ Mary
You’ll love the Gulf of Orosei, the turqoise blue sea sparkling in the sun.
The boat trips are not that cheap and it’s probably best value to take a day trip which drops you off at 3 or 4 beaches and picks you up from each an hour later. The price I seem to remember is €25-30 per person but varies with the season. In July/August all the beaches are packed but you can still have fun swimming and snorkling from them. Take a beach umbrella if you can as there’s not much shade.
Also in high summer, make sure you take one of the larger boats with some shade, as it can be very hot out on the water. And take all you need in the way of food and water for the day, although they sometimes have snacks on the boats.
You can take a trip to the nearest beach of Cala Luna and then pick up a different boat on the way back if you prefer, but I think the smaller beached are only reached as part of a day or half day trip.
If you’re feeling adventurous I saw some people in Kayaks which I liked the look of for a bit of independent exploration.
For a much more uncrowded and free alternative, do try the river swimming on the way to Golo di Gorrupu – see my post
http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/category/europe/sardinia/page/5/
and check out all my other Sardinia posts for things to see nearby – there are some interesting things to do if you drive inland.
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arlene on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 8:22 pm
Wonderful pictures. How large are the sea caves? I am on the claustrophobic side. But would love to experience them.
admin on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 8:25 pm
@Arlene We found the caves that you go in by boat are pretty large. You might find parts of the Grotto Di Bue Marina a bit small but mostly the caverns are quite large and open.
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Amazing waters. I bet that was a sight to behold!
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James on Mon, 15th Aug 2011 8:06 am
I have enjoyed your site very much. I have gone over a lot of information and it has helped with my research.
teresa on Sun, 28th Aug 2011 9:11 am
Hola! somos un grupo de “cuarentones” que vamos en octubre a Cerdeña y nos gustaría hacer una excursión en barco. Estamos muy despistados respecto a si es mejor en el norte o en el sur, sobre todo por el tiempo. Me puedes aconsejar qué excursión es la más acertada para pasar un día,en qué zona y dónde puedo contratarla antes? muchísimas gracias!
admin on Wed, 31st Aug 2011 10:33 pm
Thanks teresa, I really enjoyed our boat trip from Cala Gonone and can recommend that – it is easy to find trips if you just go down to the harbour. I’m afraid I’m not sure where else you might find such trips in Sardinia.
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