10487 Travelling by road (and sea) to Sardinia

Never done it yet(maybe next year).I think your best bet would be either via Genoa or Marseille.Good luck let us know how you get on try this link;
[url=http://www.aferry.co.uk/ferry-to-sardinia-ferries-uk.htm]Ferries to Sardinia - Ferry Crossings | Book Cheap Ferries to Sardinia[/url]

thanks patrician

Hello both
We too have a home in Sardinia, in the south west area near to Muravera and have travelled by car a few times from the UK and have always gone through belgium, luxembourg, france(mulhouse) and basle using the st gothard tunnel, this apparently is the quickest and cheapest way. For ferries we always use corsica/sardinia ferries from Livorno to Golfo aranci as they are by far the cheapest and offer a very good service. It really depends on your budget and as ours is always very tight we use this route. We have bought a lot of garden furniture from B&Q recently(sitting in back bedroom at the moment) waiting for a decision on how to tranport it there as it is too big for our present car and in fact we are looking at purchasing a Galaxy in the next few months.
Is Uras in the Oristano area? How did you find you house there?
Cheers
JoJo

Jojo,
what sort of cost are we looking at to travel by ferry and how long did it take in total from the Uk.

Hi Jojo
have lookead at route you told us about, but seems to add about 400 miles to the trip, we are from Leeds West Yorks, and although money is tight, we think it would be cheaper to go to Marseille with only 1 o/n stop on the way down. Our house is not far from Oristano and the people who we stay with in Uras (bed and breakfast - Il Portico) found us the house, (if you are interested they would look for you too.) Good luck with the galaxy, the 2nd hand car market should be flooded with larger engined cars soon, (the road tax will be much more expensive over here next year) so you may want to wait until the cost is announced by alistair (anything but darling) in the next budget.

We always use Eurotunnel and generally book the £49 each way fares and blag our way onto earlier crossings (of course you can use your Tesco Clubcard vouchers on these now) and on ferry to G Aranci we usually pay around 100 to 12o euros return (you have to look for the jackpot/or 1 euro fares) and we always take the day crossing but we book a cabin when on board for 25 euros. The crossing is only 6 hours and facilities on board very good.

As my husband is used to working night shifts we generally leave in order to pick up a midmight crossing and travelling stopping as infrequently as possible (with children) usually arrive in the milan area that same evening but that really is pushing it. .We have on a few occassions made it to Viareggio where there are campsites which offer wooden chalets at reasonable costs. Cost wise we tend to pay for tolls more in the North of Italy but overall we pay no more than 70 euros, plus of course you have the Swiss toll charge.

Once in Sardinia of course it is a lovely drive down to our end of town and takes generally 2 and a half hours as you probably know.

The beauty is that you then do not have to pay out for car hire which usually cost moe than the entire journey itself.

JoJo xx

Thanks for the info Jojo

Hi vince and sharon

We have a house near to San Priamo but my family are from the Sassari region dont know if you have heard of it Pozzomaggiore, and when we were young we would visit our relatives in Oristano.

One of our very favourite beaches in the whole of Sardinia is in that area Putzu Idu though since we have had our we have not had a chance to go there too much., t it is indeed a lovely area.

JoJo

Dont Know if anybody has looked into it, But i noticed but whilst i was looking on the Tirrenia site for ferries the other day, I had a quote for 440 Euro return on a luton van from Genoa to Porto Torres but out of interest I re-enterd the quote but ticked the resident box and low and behold the price had halved to about 220 Euro. When I have looked into it, aparantly it seems that you have the same rights to a resident fair if ( you are an EU resident and own a property in Sardinia or Sicily and of course have your Codice Fiscale. I was wondering if anybody has done this themselves or regulaly do this and could give any advice, as we did the trip last Nov and paid full fair but have another trip to do in Jan and the saving would be a big bonus

Corsica sardinia ferries also offer a discount for residents but they told us that you have to initiate the journey in Sardinia itself, also I believe that some italian based airlines will also give you a different fare if you are resident.

JoJo

Thanks craig and leigh,
We will try to find resident box when we book, but we are sailing out of Marseille in december this year (just before xmas) - Sharron & Vince

Hi Jojo
We have not heard of the place you visited when you were younger, but there will be plenty of time over the years to discover new and wonderful places on Sardinia, we tend to go to Pistis beach which is about a 20 min drive from Uras, we have also visited bugera beach, but didn't like the trip that much. Also have driven down to Pulia (I think ) in the south, lovely beach down there, but horror of horrors got lost in Cagliari on the way back. thanks again for info on ferry's etc. Vince & Sharron

Had a look on moby site for the residential box, you can use this only if you have all the necessary documents with you, if not they will invalidate your ticket and make you buy a new one. We would not be able to use this method because our son does not have a codice fiscale, we do but mine is in my married name (I don't need one in my maiden name until we take up residance it Sardinia ( Itailian embassy in Manchester - told us this last year when we applied for same)

Hi Jojo
We will be travelling to Sardinia from Lovorno to Golfo arance in December, have you ever done this in the winter months, bit worried about the weather in N.Italy that time of year. We can not find a ferry from Marseille that will get us back in January, the date box will not bring up the dates we want for our return - has anyone else had same probem ?

Hi Both

We have done it in the early part of november and late February March weather in North Italy was awful lots of very heavy rain (no snow on the roads at that time thank heavens) but on one of the journeys my husband undertook the St gothard was closed and he had to follow diversion signs which was quite a hairaising experience as fuel was low and he ended freewheeling on the decline prayingfor sight of a petrol station.

Ytbe prepared for every eventuality inclug snowchains which I believe is a requirement in certain countries.

JoJo

Hi Jojo
Thanks for that, not sure if we will go ahead with journey, may wait till the spring early summer, but it just seems a long while to wait. Want to get things finished in the house, and you know what girls are like, tomorrow is just not good enough. Will try again for the Marseille crossing.
Vince and Sharron

Hi, just noticed your post...sorry it might be too late. We have built a house not far from you in Portixeddu, in fact we more or less pass you on the way. I usually tow a boat so have used both the Marseille and Genoa route, Marseille is much easier if you are towing by the way. We actually took a slight wrong turn one year onto a single track road just outside Uras whilst towing the boat, then crossed a small railway crossing, the barriers came down between the car and the boat. Having held up the train, met half the Uras population, including the police, it all ended up fine but what a drama. My youngest son still takes great delight in saying the phrase 'we got stuck in Uras!!'.
Anyway I have digressed slightly, our house is finished now but not furnished. I have considered buying everything here and taking it by road in a van/truck. I will also take and leave the boat there if I do that which will offset the costs. I need to do this before next 'season', it may be that we can combine forces or I can take some stuff for you.

SNCM and VIAMARE are companies we have used. The costs drop substantially in Winter, but its still quite an expensive crossing especially when you add in cabins and in our case a trailer.

I noticed one or two posts about the Ikea type store outside Cagliari, referred to by the chap from Villasimius, which is the other option. Been twice and the stuff looks okay but I still favour accumulating it all here, loading up and taking it across, for one thing it means I wouldn't have to spend time there being dragged around shops!!

I bet you are the only Brits in the village!!!

Isn;t this supposed to be the Basilicata forum?

Hi Muchmirto
Have decided against travelling down in December, and will wait till next year to make the trip, we will use the Livorno route suggested by Jojo, do not tow things so we should be fine. Will ask our friends in the village if they remember the man with the boat getting stuck, will let you know if they do. We are not the only Brits in the village, our friends have also bought a house there that they are in the process of doing up, and the b&b that we have stayed in until now is owned by Piero & Jackie, Jackie hails from Bradford, so although we are a bit of a novelty (everyone knows when we are there) we are not the only ones. As to shopping, If you need paint and stuff just take it from home it took us about 3 hours to buy ours, no B&q or similar over there,you order it they mix the colour for you and it costs a small fortune, you also have to paint thin watery stuff onto your walls before you paint them, this stops the paint falling off,something to do with the damp (although our house has no damp.) Also take english light shades/fittings with you, same thing again very expensive and just hard work buying them.The Semeraro shop down near Cagliari is a good place to look there is also a shopping village next door, so you may find things there(just remember it's not cheap to buy anything in Sardinia) I think we are used to being able to buy modern stylish furniture cheaply at home, and it is just not that way in Sardinia. cookers fridge freezers are the same sort of price as over here so would buy them there, we bought ours in Santa Gusta or Oristana. We are going to buy our tv over there as well. Hope this helps, best regards Sharron