I visited island in Europe with world class beach down almost every road

It’s the Mediterranean island with the perfect mix of hot weather, amazing food and beautiful beaches, reaching 30C in summer and still hitting up to 23C even in October.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit several times, getting to nearly all four corners and sampling its wonderful beaches, which are almost never crowded despite their natural beauty and easy access. Perhaps this is because the island doesn’t make the top 10 most visited by British tourists, a list which includes Tenerife, Majorca and Lanzarote in Spain, and Santorini, Corfu and Rhodes in Greece.

But you won’t convince me that any of those islands, lovely though they are, come close to the Italian island of Sardinia as a holiday destination. It’s a paradise island lying halfway between the coasts of Italy and Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. And one of its major selling points is the frequency of beautiful beaches that you’ll find every few miles along the coast.

During my stays, it has sometimes felt like every small road that turned off the main routes circling the island was destined at its end to reveal a beach worthy of a magazine shoot. Even unplanned random beach stops would end up at stunning white sands and azure blue seas.

And the beauty of them all is, given the large size of the island and its relative lack of reputation among British tourists, that they are rarely busy. Despite this, they will often have excellent facilities, including beach-side bars and restaurants where you can grab a cold beer and a piadana (a flatbread often containing parma ham or cheese).

Sardinia also has a big city, Cagliari, on its southern tip, so you can experience the bustle of city life, complete with a lively restaurant and bar scene. On the opposite end of the island is Alghero, a reasonably big town also with a lively restaurant scene.

It also feaures luxury in abundance, and its north-eastern shore is a magnet for wealthy European tourists who flock to Porto Cervo, where you can entertain yourself by examining the heavily-guarded yachts and trying to guess who owns them.

The food scene is sensational, as you’d expect from anywhere in Italy, and there are so many options to eat. Given Sardinia is less overwhelmed by tourists than the likes of Majorca, you’ll still find that many of its restaurants still cater mainly for locals and the quality of food is high.

But Sardinia’s main selling point is the frankly extraorindary number of jaw-droppingly beautiful beaches, any one of which would be a national treasure if they were in a different European country. In fact, in a recent list of the world’s 50 most beautiful beaches, two from Sardina made the list, one of which was ranked in second place.

The best beaches in Sardinia

It’s almost impossible to pick out the “best” beaches in Sardinia, because there are so many that could deservedly make the list located around the entire island. So here is just a selection, and you may well find ones that you prefer through your own research. As well as the main island of Sardinia itself, there is also the archipelago of Maddalena, a series of islands just off Sardinia’s north coast, which has its own collection of gorgeous beaches.

1. Cala Mariolu

2. Siaggia della Pelosa

3. Spiaggia del Pirata

4. Spiaggia Rena Bianca

5. Cala Corsara, La Maddalena

Sardinia is a popular holiday choice for the stars

This summer, Bradley Cooper and girlfriend Gigi Hadid were spotted in Sardinia. Stars including Beyoncé, Sir Elton John, Leonardo DiCpario and Cristiano Ronaldo have all enjoyed holidays there over the years.

And Costa Smeralda is the celebrity hotspot and the area of the island where wealth is most obvious. If you fancy a bit of celebrity-spotting, this is definitely the place to go, with Spiagga del Principe the best beach to potentially see a Hollywood star, music mogul or business leader. Lonely Planet says: ” A number of beautiful coves necklace the fabulous swoop of coastline where Gallura’s wind-whipped granite mountains tumble down to fjordlike inlets in the emerald sea. One of the finest is the Spiaggia del Principe, a stunning crescent of pale sand snuggled among low cliffs named after Prince Karim Aga Khan, who has given it his seal of approval.”

Where to stay in Sardinia

Where you choose to stay in Sardinia depends on the sort of holiday you want. Cagliari is the island’s largest centre of population, a bustling city with a perfect mix of the historic and modern. It is not really a tourist city, so the restaurants here cater mainly for Italians so you can be sure of their quality.

Even Cagliari has a beautiful beach to call its own, the massive Poetto, a short ride out of the city, where people from the city flock as often as they can.

At the opposite end of the island is Alghero, a comfortably-sized town with several beaches and interesting sites nearby, including the most gorgeous country villages. From Alghero you can get a boat to Grotta di Nettuno (Neptune’s Cave), a dramatic seafront cavern where stalactites hang above the water.

On the east coast you have the luxury destinations of Porto Cervo and the Costa Smeralda, a haven for the rich and famous. If you’re not ready to mingle with the wealthy just yet, then Cannigione is an understated small town nearby, where there are lots of options for hotels, restaurants and bars.

Similarly, if you want a location that is close to the city but also has a good selection of beaches nearby, try Villasimius in the south, a short drive from Cagliari.

Where to eat in Sardinia

Your options are almost endless, with all the major towns and cities having lots of authentic options which are still for the most part geared more to Italians than tourists.

But one eating experience not to be missed is the agriturismo. This is an Italian concept which has seen traditional farms adapt to cater for visitors who want to eat or stay (or both). The menus can be extensive and fantastic, and you will find yourself very full of the most excellent locally-produced food. There’s nothing like it.

How to get to Sardinia

The main airports in Sardinia are at Cagliari on the south coast and Olbia on the north-eastern coast. You can get frequent flights to either from UK airports.