Unsalted Society Palau review: what is verifiable about this RIB rental, and how to rent a boat from Palau safely

Unsalted Society is listed as a boat and RIB rental (“noleggio gommoni e imbarcazioni”) at the Porto Turistico in Palau, the port from which most La Maddalena boat tours and the Delcomar and Maddalena Lines ferries leave. Beyond that business listing, we found almost nothing public about the company in September 2026: no website, no price list, no fleet page and no reviews that we could attribute to it. The Italian wording, noleggio rather than escursioni, tells you it is self-drive rental, not guided tours.

That leaves us with a short review and a longer checklist. We would rather tell you plainly what is unverified than dress up an Unsalted Society La Maddalena page with guesses. If the company publishes more, we will update this.

What we could verify

• Name and category. The listing describes a boat and RIB rental business.
• Location. Palau, Porto Turistico. No street address, pontoon number or opening hours are published where we could see them.
• Everything else is unpublished: boat models, engine sizes, whether licence-free RIBs are offered, prices, deposit, fuel policy, season, skipper option, and booking channels beyond turning up or calling.

We searched for Unsalted Society reviews on Google Maps, Tripadvisor and Facebook and found none we could tie to this business. A rental desk with no online reviews is not necessarily new or bad; some Palau operators sell mainly to walk-in customers and campsite guests. It does mean you carry the checking yourself.

What a Palau RIB rental normally offers

For context, the pattern among rental companies at Palau’s port, drawn from the ones we have reviewed:

• Licence-free RIBs of 5–6 m with engines up to 40 hp (30 kW), the limit below which Italian law requires no boating licence. The ones we have seen listed carry six to eight people depending on the model.
• Larger RIBs with more powerful engines for licence holders, or with a skipper supplied by the company.
• Half-day and full-day slots, typically a morning departure and a mid-afternoon return, from spring to October.
• Fuel paid separately at the end, a cash or card deposit, and the park navigation permit either bought for you or left to you.

Ask Unsalted Society which of these it matches. If the answers are vague, walk fifty metres to the next desk.

Prices and what’s included

No Unsalted Society prices are published. We do not quote rental rates from other companies as a proxy, so the only advice is procedural: get a written quote that separates the boat rate, fuel, deposit, the park permit and any skipper fee, and ask what happens if the mistral cancels the day. Free cancellation is not standard on walk-in rentals; a platform booking usually includes it.

The park permit matters more than people expect. According to the Parco Nazionale dell’Arcipelago di La Maddalena, every private boat needs a navigation permit, priced by boat length and bought online from the park, and anchoring on Posidonia seagrass is forbidden. Landing on the Spiaggia Rosa of Budelli is forbidden; you view it from the water or from the marked viewpoint reached from Cala di Roto or Spiaggia del Cavaliere.

Departure logistics

Palau’s Porto Turistico is compact: the ferry ramps, the numbered tour piers and the rental pontoons are within a few minutes’ walk of each other. Free parking fills by 9:30 in August, so use the paid multi-storey car park. Olbia airport is about 40 km away, roughly 45 minutes by car, and ARST buses take about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

A licence-free RIB from Palau reaches Santo Stefano in minutes and La Maddalena town across a two-nautical-mile strait. Spargi’s Cala Corsara and the Porto della Madonna pools between Budelli, Razzoli and Santa Maria are further north; plan them as the outbound leg while the sea is flat. Our Palau departures guide has the port layout and the day plan we suggest.

Insider tip: Rent for the full day and go north first, to the Porto della Madonna pools, while the water is calm and the tour boats are still in transit; work your way back south past Spargi and Santo Stefano in the afternoon, when the breeze usually picks up and you are running with it.

Who should book it, and who should not

Unsalted Society could suit visitors already in Palau who want to compare rental desks face to face, and experienced boaters who can judge a RIB on the pontoon and know the questions to ask.

It is not the right choice for a first-time renter who wants to read reviews before paying, or for anyone who needs a confirmed booking ahead of a peak-season trip. For a comparison of renting versus a private skippered boat, read our private charter and rental guide.

How to book

We found no online booking channel. Booking would be in person at the port or by phone using the number on the business listing. We did not find the company on GetYourGuide or any other platform. Other Palau rental companies we have checked are on the operators hub, including Sealife Sardinia and Noleggio Gommoni Palau.

Insider tip: Photograph the hull, propeller and tubes before you leave the pontoon and again on return, with the desk staff present. It is the simplest protection for your deposit with any rental company, reviewed or not.

Alternatives you can book online

If you want the same idea with reviews and free cancellation up to 24 hours before, GetYourGuide lists the licence-free inflatable boat outing with a guide from La Maddalena and the private RIB trip for up to eight, which stops at Cala Coticcio and the natural pools. Compare every format on all La Maddalena boat tours; prices are on each listing.