Nascar Hotel

Rooms

Rooms are spread over the first and second floors with a lift to whisk you up. Superior Balcony Rooms have French windows opening onto tiny balconies; the top-floor rooms give views past the church with glimpses of the village and sea. Although not huge, we liked ours a lot and they’ll do you fine for a couple of days; bear in mind, you’ll spend most of your time down on the beach or exploring the hills.

If you’re here for a week - and why not, it’ll rush by in a flash - you may want a little more space. Step forward the Junior Suites, which run the full depth of the house. Both have four-posters and double-aspect windows, plus bathrooms at the back with corner bathtubs and showers. For the same price, there are a couple of first-floor Deluxe Terraces, which both have wicker sofas and armchairs on large shaded terraces. They’re rather peaceful, but they don’t have the open views.

All rooms come in a similar style: traditional wood ceilings, whitewashed walls, pretty art, terracotta-tiled floors and comfy beds dressed in crisp white linen. Some have exposed stone walls, all have a splash of colour, while good bathrooms come with excellent power showers. You find shuttered windows, beach towels, flat-screen TVs and-air conditioning, too.

Features include:

• Air conditioning
• Bathrobes
• Beach towels
• Central heating
• Fan
• Hairdryer
• Minibar
• Safe box
• Toiletries
• TV
• WiFi

Eating

You eat in one of 3 places - out on the terrace, in the vaulted dining room or in the inside/outside dining room, which is completely open to the elements at one end, but other than that has a ceiling and 3 walls.

Breakfast is a help-yourself affair, but it’s delicious, too, and you may well find yourself drifting back for a second dip. For the first and only time on our trip we found freshly squeezed orange juice. Well, actually, what we found was a bowl of oranges by an extremely efficient squeezer, but that was fine by us and quite fun, too. On top of that, there was lovely bread, croissants and pains au chocolat, bowls of fruit, plates of cheese and ham, even cakes and pastries. In short, an exceptional breakfast and you wash it down with strong coffee or a selection of teas.

Lunch isn’t served - you’ll probably be cruising the Golfo di Orosei or down at the café on the beach. However, dinner is a remarkable feast. The food here is extraordinary - impeccably sourced and full of flavour, proper Italian country food (not a pizza in sight!). We started with flawless Sardinian ravioli stuffed with fresh cheese, moved on to one of the best pieces of beef we’ve ever eaten (and which cost half the price it would in the UK), and polished things off nicely with an espresso Tiramisu. This was the best meal we ate in Sardinia by a country mile.

If you want to eat out, try Tanaku for a good pizza or Lungo Mare for fish. Both are in the village, but it’s highly unlikely either will come close to the food here. However, there are a couple of agriturismo restaurants out of town that are worth visiting. Franca’s - she’s your host and cook - is a farmhouse where you eat communally around the same table with Franca’s children pottering about. Her husband farms and you eat his fare, impossibly fresh and apparently extremely good. Also, drive up to Golgo, the mountain behind you, and find Il Rifugio, a community project where they cook every night. We doubt the food is particularly refined - suckling pig, local fish, grilled meat - but the landscape is wild up here and it no doubt makes for an entertaining evening.

Features include:

• Bar
• Restaurant
• Restaurants nearby
• Room service

Activities

• The beach - 200m from the hotel, flanked to the back by a curtain of pine, with golden sands, sunbeds and crystal-clear water. There are a couple of cafés, plus pedalos and kayaks to hire; it's a great spot for a lazy day in the sun
  
  
• Tour the Golfo di Orosei, the spectacular coastline that stretches north for 50km and is accessible only by boat or foot. Daily boat trips leave the village harbour and take in all the iconic beaches and caves - unmissable!
  
  
• Visit Golgo - the mountain behind you. Drive up and discover this accessible wilderness. There are all sorts of strange features to see - an ancient old church in the middle of nowhere, an excellent viewing platform and ‘the mask’, a rock formation that appears to have been sculpted millennia ago to resemble a human face
  
  
• Don't miss remote Cala Sisine - one of the best beaches on the Golfo di Orosei. If you drive up to Golgo and the old church, you’ll see a sign to the beach. If you think your car is up to it, you can drive along a bumpy unsealed road for about an hour, then park and walk in for the last 30 minutes
  
  
• Climb the Supramonte - the limestone mountain range to the north that rises from the sea, its cliffs towering 1,000 feet high in some places. The drive up to Dorgali is seriously beautiful. There’s excellent trekking, but you can explore on quad bikes or horseback, too
  
  
• Visit Tiscali, the extraordinary Bronze-Age village buried in a cave. It’s an awesome 2-hour hike in, so you’ll need to allow 5 hours for the full tour. It’s a proper trek and you’ll need walking boots and lots of water
  
  
• Explore Sardinia's lovely interior: head west towards the mountains and check out the land around Osini - the ancient nuraghic complex at Serbissi and the beautiful gully and rock formations at Gola di San Giorgio. Again, you need good walking boots and lots of water
  
  
• Finally… for adrenalin junkies, Selvaggio Blu ('Wild Blue'), the legendary hike that follows the Golfo di Orosei from this village up to Cala Gonone. One minute you’re scaling peaks that tower above the sea, the next you're passing wild goats as you drop down to tiny coves. You need a guide, it’s hairy in parts (there are various routes) and it takes anything from 3-7 days

Activities on site or nearby include:

• Boat trips
• Cycling
• Fishing
• Hiking
• Historical sites
• Horse riding
• Kayaking
• Mountain biking
• Private guided tours
• Quad biking
• Scuba diving
• Snorkelling
• Swimming
• Trekking

Kids

Children 12 years and older are welcome, though there is not that much for them to do here. There are no extra beds or cots, so families will have to book adjacent rooms.

Best for:

Teens (over 12)

For more family-friendly places, see our Kids Collection

Location

Nascar Hotel is set in the village of Santa Maria di Navarrese, in eastern Sardinia. It is about 2 hours' drive from Cagliari, 2.5 hours from Olbia and 3.5 hours from Alghero.

By Air:
Cagliari and Olbia airports are the closest, but only receive seasonal flights. Alghero (227km away) receives year-round flights. Click on the links below for a list of airlines serving these airports.

From the Airport
We'd recommend hiring a car to get here. You can park for free in the village.

By Ferry:
Sardinia is well-served by car ferries coming from elsewhere in Italy. You can arrive from Naples, Genoa, Fiumicino, Livorno, Palermo, Trapani and Civitavecchia. The quickest is Civitavecchia to Golfo Aranci (4 hours), the longest Naples to Cagliari (17 hours). They sail into Palau, Olbia, Porto Torres and Golfo Aranci in the north and Arbatax and Cagliari in the south. Car ferries also connect Sardinia with Corsica.

By Car:
See our car rental recommendations.

Detailed directions will be sent to you when you book through i-escape.com.

More on getting to Sardinia and getting around