Santo Stefano: the first island off Palau, from naval base to granite coves

Everyone sees Santo Stefano and almost nobody recognises it. Three square kilometres of granite sitting mid-channel between Palau and La Maddalena, minutes from the harbour, it is the island the ferry runs past and the one tours out of Palau use for the first swim of the day or the last one before turning for home. Its recent history is a good deal more interesting than its low, quiet profile suggests.

This page covers the former US Navy base, the granite quarry, the two coves where boats stop, and which tours include it.

The American base, 1972 to 2008

For thirty-six years Santo Stefano hosted a support base for US Navy submarines: a depot ship moored permanently in the roadstead, with workshops, stores and accommodation on the island itself. The American presence shaped La Maddalena for a generation, bringing work to the town and, at the same time, protests over nuclear-powered submarines in the channel. The base closed in 2008 and the depot ship sailed.

What you see from the water today is quays, buildings and fencing. Part of the island is still a military area and closed; the rest is park, under the same rules as everywhere else in the archipelago. There are no guided tours of the old base. You look at it from the boat, and skippers tell the story as they pass. For the wider history of the town and its naval life, see our page on La Maddalena.

The granite quarry

On the flank facing La Maddalena there is an old granite quarry, its cut faces and abandoned blocks still in place. Granite from Santo Stefano, like granite from the rest of the archipelago, went into quays and buildings for centuries. Here the work stopped, and what remains is an amphitheatre of pale stone above the water. It reads best from the anchorage at Cala Villamarina, and in afternoon sun the walls turn almost white. Nothing has been laid out for visitors: no marked paths, no information boards, just the view from the boat or the shore.

Cala Villamarina and Spiaggia del Pesce

Cala Villamarina is the island’s main anchorage, facing La Maddalena: sheltered water, a bottom of sand and granite, the quarry behind. It is the cove the Palau boats fall back on when the open sea is lively, or when there is half an hour left before the run home. Small boats put you ashore; from the motor ships you swim off the stern ladder.

Spiaggia del Pesce is the second cove in regular use, smaller, with pale sand. Again there is nothing here: no bar, no toilets, no shade beyond the boat’s own awning. The rules are those of the Parco Nazionale dell’Arcipelago di La Maddalena: no sand or pebbles taken home, no fires, drones only with authorisation, mooring buoys rather than the Posidonia seagrass. Anyone hiring a RIB in Palau needs the park navigation permit; the detail is on our page about private tours and boat rental.

Insider tip: if Santo Stefano is the last stop of the day, use it for your longest swim. The boat is ten minutes from Palau, the skipper has no more schedule to keep, and the water in the roadstead is at its warmest by late afternoon.

Which tours stop at Santo Stefano

Santo Stefano is rarely a stop the listings actually name. It is the one skippers add or drop depending on wind and timing. The tours leaving Palau include it most often, because it sits on the way out and the way back.

These figures are as shown on GetYourGuide at the time of writing, September 2026. If the Santo Stefano stop matters to you in particular, message the operator before booking, or ask the skipper at departure. Nobody can promise it, but saying you care about it helps. All the Palau boats are compared on our tours from Palau page, and the formats in our guide to the archipelago tour.

Santo Stefano from the ferry and from Palau

You get a good look at the island even without booking a tour. The Delcomar or Maddalena Lines ferry from Palau runs alongside it on a crossing of 15 to 20 minutes, and from the Roccia dell’Orso (the Bear Rock), the granite outcrop above Palau reached by a short paid walk, the whole channel opens up with Santo Stefano in the foreground and La Maddalena behind. It is the best place to make sense of the geography before you set foot on a boat.

Insider tip: on the ferry to La Maddalena, stand on the port side going over and the starboard side coming back. That is the Santo Stefano side, with the quarry and the old base quays a few hundred metres away.

When to go

The stop earns its place on moderately windy days, when the coves in the channel stay calm while Razzoli and the western side of Spargi are unusable. On those days Santo Stefano goes from bonus to main event. In a hard mistral the tours are cancelled anyway, with a refund or a new date according to the GetYourGuide listings. June and September remain the best months for the rest of the archipelago, and they hold true here too.

The short version

Santo Stefano is the first island of the La Maddalena Archipelago you meet coming out of Palau: a former US Navy base, a granite quarry and two sheltered coves that tours use as their first or last stop. It is not the reason to book, but it is the stop that saves the day when the wind shuts down everything else. For the classic day with four swim stops, check availability and prices for the archipelago tour on GetYourGuide. The other islands are covered in the overview of the archipelago islands and in the page on Spargi, the next stop on most routes.