Things to do in La Maddalena in one day or two: the town, Caprera and the boat trip

The things to do in La Maddalena in a single day come down to one decision: boat or island. The archipelago trip eats 7–8 hours and leaves room for nothing else, while the town, Guardia Vecchia and Caprera fill a whole day on their own. Give it two days and you get both, in that order.

Below you will find a one-day plan, a two-day plan, short profiles of each place with what you need to organise it, a paragraph on eating, and a fallback for rain and wind. Distances are short: the main island covers about 20 km², Caprera 15.7, and the Passo della Moneta causeway joining them runs roughly 600 m.

Things to do in La Maddalena in one day: the itinerary

With one day, take the boat. Spargi, Budelli and Santa Maria, the islands everyone comes for, cannot be reached any other way, and the town fits neatly around the trip.

Staying on the island means you can board straight from the La Maddalena marina, because the classic archipelago tour leaves from both here and Palau. Arriving from the Costa Smeralda or Olbia, it is simpler to start in Palau and skip the ferry altogether. Olbia Costa Smeralda handles summer flights from several UK airports, which puts the harbour within an easy transfer of your arrival.

Insider tip: the town looks best at eight in the morning, before the loaded ferries land. Walk the square and the quay then, and keep the late afternoon for a drink by the water.

Two days: what changes

The second day belongs to the island and to Caprera, by car, bike or bus.

Morning. Drive up Monte Guardia Vecchia (about 156 m) and Forte San Vittorio to see the archipelago from above and pick out the islands you sailed past the day before. Then the Museo Archeologico Navale “Nino Lamboglia” in town if it is open: the cargo of the Roman ship from Spargi earns the visit.

Middle of the day. Cross the Passo della Moneta and head for the Compendio Garibaldino. Allow an hour and a half for the house, the tomb and the garden. The Memoriale Giuseppe Garibaldi inside Forte Arbuticci is separate and means another drive.

Afternoon. A Caprera beach (Cala Portese, Cala Andreani, Spiaggia del Relitto with the wreck timbers lying in the sand, or Due Mari), or back on La Maddalena, Spalmatore or Bassa Trinita along the panoramic ring road.

A third day buys you the ring road at a proper pace, beach by beach, or a second outing on the water at sunset. Planning the stay itself, ferries and accommodation included, is covered in our guide to La Maddalena.

The town

The centre of La Maddalena sits between the ferry harbour and the streets immediately behind it.

• Piazza Garibaldi: the main square, with the town hall, and the place everyone gathers in the evening.
• Via Garibaldi: the shopping street, pedestrianised in the middle section, where you buy the hat, towel and sun cream the day before the boat.
• Museo Archeologico Navale “Nino Lamboglia”: displays the cargo recovered from the seabed of a Roman merchant ship that sank off Spargi around 120 BC. Times on the official site.
• Museo Diocesano: sacred art beside the main church, and again the times need checking.
• The quayside: fishing boats, patrol vessels and the constant traffic of ferries from Palau. This is where you understand how much the navy mattered to the place, an Italian naval base through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Two hours covers all of it, museums included.

Guardia Vecchia and Forte San Vittorio

The highest point on the island, around 156 m, holds Forte San Vittorio and the best land-based view of the archipelago: Caprera to the east, Spargi to the west, Budelli and Santa Maria to the north, Corsica behind them on a clear day. It is a few minutes by car or bike from the town. On foot it is a steep climb, best done early or at sunset in the August heat.

Go before your boat trip if you can. Seeing the islands laid out from above makes them far easier to recognise from the water.

Caprera

Caprera is the second island of the archipelago and the only other one reachable by road, over the Passo della Moneta. Monte Tejalone, roughly 212 m, is its summit, and the Centro Velico Caprera is the sailing school you will see signposted along the way.

Compendio Garibaldino

The house where Giuseppe Garibaldi settled in 1856 and died on 2 June 1882. The museum takes in his rooms, his tomb and the garden. After the beaches it is the busiest place on the island, so in high season arrive at opening. Times are on the official site.

Memoriale Giuseppe Garibaldi

The second Garibaldi museum, opened in 2012 inside Forte Arbuticci: a more modern display covering his life and campaigns, with sea views from the gun positions. An hour is enough.

Cala Coticcio and the beaches

Cala Coticcio, nicknamed “Tahiti”, has come with a firm rule since summer 2021: according to the Parco Nazionale dell’Arcipelago di La Maddalena, it can be reached on foot only with an authorised guide, a daily quota and a booking. The path from the Caprera road runs about 3 km each way over rock, and closed shoes are compulsory. The guided walk with an aperitivo on GetYourGuide covers 3.2 km and 160 m of ascent in about an hour and a half, driving yourself to the trailhead. Our Cala Coticcio guide explains how the booking works.

With no booking you still have Cala Portese, Cala Andreani, Cala Garibaldi, Spiaggia dei Due Mari and Spiaggia del Relitto, reached along a wooden boardwalk, with the timbers of an old wreck lying in the sand. Cala Napoletana and Cala Brigantina need a walk.

The beaches you can drive to

The beaches on La Maddalena itself line the ring of the panoramic road: Bassa Trinita, Monti d’Arena, Cala Lunga, Spalmatore, Cala Francese, Punta Tegge, Nido d’Aquila, Testa di Polpo. Coarse sand, granite, shallow clear water and small car parks. Our guide to the beaches of La Maddalena takes them one by one, along with those reachable only by sea.

A working rule for August: beach early, museum or town in the middle of the day, second beach after 5 pm. The car parks empty out by mid-afternoon.

The boat trip: the main event

Everything above is the supporting cast. People come to La Maddalena to see Spargi, Budelli, Santa Maria, Razzoli and Santo Stefano from the water, and that means a day of 7–8 hours with 3–4 swim stops.

The full comparison sits in our archipelago tour guide. Keep in mind that the maestrale (the north-west wind) cancels sailings: with two days, put the boat first and the island second, so you can swap them if the wind arrives.

Insider tip: book the boat under GetYourGuide’s “reserve now, pay later” option, with free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead. If the forecast turns windy the evening before, move the date and lose nothing.

What to eat

The cooking here is Gallura and seafood. Three things to try: zuppa gallurese, a baked dish of bread, cheese and broth that is the local land dish; fish and shellfish, which in town come off the boats at the quay; and mirto, the myrtle-berry liqueur served at the end of a meal. Restaurants cluster between the harbour and Via Garibaldi, and in August you want a dinner reservation.

With or without a car

Local and ARST bus times shift with the season, so check them on arrival or on arst.sardegna.it.

Plan B: rain or mistral

In the rain. The Museo Archeologico Navale and Museo Diocesano in town, then the Compendio Garibaldino and the Memoriale on Caprera: four indoor sites, enough for a full day. Check the times, because out of season some close on certain days.

In the mistral. The boats stay in, but the sky is usually scrubbed clean. Drive up to Guardia Vecchia for the sharpest view of the year, then pick a beach on the sheltered side: the wind comes from the north-west, so the coves facing south-east stay calm. Caprera and the ring road are the best use of a day like that, as we explain on the panoramic road page.

Where to start

Things to do in La Maddalena in one day means getting on a boat; in two, you add the town, Guardia Vecchia and Caprera. For the time on the water, the classic archipelago tour on a vintage motorboat leaves from La Maddalena or Palau, runs 8 hours with 4 swim stops and is listed at €76 on GetYourGuide, rated 4.5 from 215 reviews. If you sleep on the island and have only half a day, look at the small-group hybrid tour with aperitivo from the La Maddalena marina. The rest you reach on foot, or by crossing the bridge.