Some places can only be understood from a certain angle. The La Maddalena Archipelago is one of them: seen from the mainland it is a line of islands on the horizon, elegant and generic. Seen from the deck of a boat, at water level, it becomes a labyrinth of pink granite, narrow channels and seabeds that turn from deep blue to pure white within ten metres.
A day at sea here is not an outing: it is a small exercise in planning. The wind decides, the park imposes precise rules, and the best coves fill up at predictable times. This is the day as we plan it for our guests, hour by hour, with everything worth knowing before you step on board.
The park, in a few figures
La Maddalena Archipelago National Park was established in 1994. It protects around 5,100 hectares on land and more than 15,000 at sea, along over 180 kilometres of coastline. It is the only Italian national park that coincides entirely with the territory of a single municipality, and one of very few to include both a land and a marine area.
There are seven main islands: La Maddalena, Caprera, Santo Stefano, Spargi, Budelli, Razzoli and Santa Maria. Around them lie dozens of islets and rocks — Spargiotto, Barrettini, Mortorio, the Nibani — that complete the picture. The park is home to more than seven hundred plant taxa, around fifty of them endemic, and the area is part of the international marine park project of the Strait of Bonifacio, shared with Corsica.
These figures explain one thing only: here, sailing is a regulated privilege, not a right. And that is why the archipelago, unlike many other Mediterranean destinations, is still like this.
Before setting off: the wind decides everything
The evening before, you don’t choose the itinerary: you check the forecast. The mistral, the north-westerly wind that dominates this stretch of the Mediterranean, can go from a pleasant breeze to twenty-five knots within a few hours, and in the Strait of Bonifacio — where the channel narrows between Sardinia and Corsica — the effect is amplified.
With a strong mistral, the coves exposed to the west and north become uncomfortable or inaccessible, and the whole programme shifts to the eastern and southern sides, which remain sheltered. This is a normal change, not a fallback: no serious skipper announces the final itinerary more than twelve hours in advance, and when they do, you should listen.
The second factor is timing. Scheduled tour boats move en masse mid-morning and stay in the main coves between eleven and four. Leaving at nine — or even earlier — means having Cala Corsara or Porto della Madonna to yourself for a good hour, which is exactly the hour you will remember.
The day, hour by hour
9:00 — Casting off
You leave from Porto Cervo, Cannigione or Palau, depending on where you are staying. From Palau the archipelago is a quarter of an hour away; from Porto Cervo it takes about forty minutes along a coastline that alone would be worth the day. This is when breakfast is served on board and the skipper explains the plan — the real one, updated to the morning wind.
10:00 — Spargi and Cala Corsara
Spargi is the first natural stop. Cala Corsara, on its southern side, is the most photographed bay in the archipelago and deserves it: dazzling white sand, a seabed that shades gradually, granite formations shaped by the wind into figures that guides point out with names from a bestiary. Arrive early and you will find it almost deserted.
A little further along the same side are Cala Granara and Cala Soraya, smaller and almost always quieter. If Corsara is crowded, the skipper will know how to move two hundred metres and change the whole day.
11:30 — Budelli, Razzoli, Santa Maria
This is the heart of the archipelago, and where geography performs its best trick. The three islands draw so close that they leave between them a natural pool of very shallow, transparent water, known as Porto della Madonna. You stop, get into the water and swim from one island to another. On a calm day it is the finest moment of all.
From here you skirt Budelli to see the Pink Beach. To see, not to touch: since 1994 landing has been prohibited, as have swimming in front of the beach and anchoring in the fully protected zone. The ban stems from a simple and sad story — in the 1980s and 1990s trampling and tourists taking sand home as a souvenir had almost erased the colour. Boats pass at a regulated distance, close enough to admire its hue, and that is all you can do. Anyone who suggests landing is suggesting a fine.
On the opposite side, Cala Lunga on Razzoli offers a sheltered anchorage when the mistral starts to make itself felt, with the nineteenth-century lighthouse closing the horizon to the north.
13:00 — Lunch on board
The long stop is made wherever the wind allows and there is no traffic. This is when a day on a private boat clearly stands apart from a group excursion: you eat at leisure, at anchor, in a cove chosen because it is quiet and not because it is on the schedule.
It pays to be practical with the menu. Raw fish, vegetables, a cold fish dish, pane carasau, fruit: anything that doesn’t suffer in the heat and doesn’t need an elaborate kitchen. And just one wine, well chilled — a Vermentino di Gallura is in its natural place forty-five minutes from the vineyards that produced it.
15:00 — Caprera
Caprera is the wildest island and the richest in history: Giuseppe Garibaldi settled here in 1856 and died here in 1882, and his house is now a museum open to visitors. But from the sea, it is the outline of granite and pines that dominates.
On the north-eastern side lies Cala Coticcio, which everyone calls the Tahiti of Sardinia. From the sea it is a spectacle; from land it is a restricted-access site, reachable only with an authorised environmental hiking guide, booked in advance, and with a park entry ticket. The same rules apply to Cala Brigantina, a little further south. Anyone who wants to walk there must plan weeks ahead, and in high season months: the path takes about an hour going down and an hour and a half coming back up, and it is no stroll.
Those who stay on board have excellent alternatives: Cala Napoletana, wide and sheltered, and Cala Portese on the southern side — known as Due Mari (“Two Seas”) because a thin strip of sand separates two stretches of water at different temperatures.
17:00 — La Maddalena, or not
Here the day forks. Those who want to go ashore stop at the port of La Maddalena: an eighteenth-century town of low houses and shady squares, with a few good addresses for an ice cream and an aperitivo before heading back.
Those who prefer the sea stay offshore for the best hour of the day. At five the tour boats have already gone back, the light drops, the granite turns from grey to pink and the coves that were full at midday are empty again. It is time for the last swim, and it is the one you will remember.
19:00 — Heading back
The return towards the coast, with the low sun behind you and the archipelago folding back like a fan, is the part of the day no itinerary includes and everyone talks about afterwards.
The park rules, in brief
Sailing here requires care, and it is worth knowing the rules even if someone else is at the helm.
- Mandatory authorisation for motorboats entering park waters, with a fee proportional to the length of the hull. Sailing boats benefit from a reduction; kayaks, SUPs and non-motorised craft are exempt.
- Fully protected zones where navigation, anchoring, swimming and fishing are entirely prohibited — the Pink Beach is the best known. In the general protection zones you can sail and anchor with restrictions.
- Absolute ban on anchoring on posidonia. Drop anchor only on a sandy bottom, recognisable by its pale colour, or use the authorised mooring fields — Porto Palma and Cala Portese on Caprera, and the buoys near Budelli.
- Speed limits: seven knots within five hundred metres of the coast, ten knots in the next band. Jet skis are banned throughout the park’s waters.
- Ban on collecting sand, shells, pebbles and any other material, throughout the archipelago. Checks extend to the airport.
Penalties for violations start at a few hundred euros and exceed a thousand. Regulations, fees and booking procedures are updated season by season: before setting off, it is always wise to have your skipper or agency check the rules in force for the current year.
Which boat to choose
The question always comes up, and the answer depends less on budget than you might think.
A large RIB with a skipper is the most agile option: it gets in everywhere, approaches the beaches and cuts transfer times. It is the right choice for those who want to see as many coves as possible in a day and don’t need permanent shade. It is also the least comfortable in choppy seas.
A gozzo or classic motorboat slows the pace and improves it: there is room to sit at a table, for a proper lunch, for an afternoon rest. You see three coves instead of six, and you remember all three.
A sailing boat is a different experience again, and not for everyone: transfers take longer and the programme depends even more on the wind, but sailing with the engine off in the channel between Spargi and La Maddalena is something you never forget. In the park, incidentally, sailing boats benefit from a reduced access fee.
Finally, a crewed yacht changes the nature of the day: a galley on board, a tender for going ashore, space for those who want shade and those who want sun. With a large group or small children it is often the only formula that brings different needs together without disappointing anyone.
With children on board
The archipelago is an excellent destination for families, as long as you scale down the itinerary. Two long stops instead of four short ones, an early start to make the most of the cool hours, back by mid-afternoon. The very shallow waters of Porto della Madonna and Cala Portese are ideal for little ones, with knee-deep water for dozens of metres.
Two practical tips are worth more than any general advice: life jackets in the right size, explicitly requested when booking rather than taken for granted, and a mask and snorkel for each child. The submerged granite of these islands, with its crevices and shoals of fish, keeps an eight-year-old busy far longer than any beach club.
The long version: the Lavezzi islands and Bonifacio
With a calm sea and a suitable boat, the day can be extended northwards: the Lavezzi islands, in French waters, have the same granite and an equally strict nature reserve, and beyond them lies Bonifacio, with its old town perched on white limestone cliffs.
It is a different, longer day that crosses a national border: everyone on board needs identity documents, the boat needs its papers in order, and you need a reliable weather window, because the Strait of Bonifacio does not forgive improvisation. Done in the right conditions, it is one of the most beautiful sailing routes in the Mediterranean.
What to bring, and what to leave ashore
Little, and the right things. A dry change of clothes, a light sweatshirt — on the way back, with the apparent wind, it feels cool even in August — sunglasses with a strap, a hat that can stand up to the mistral and high-protection sunscreen, ideally a reef-friendly formula. Water shoes if a landing is planned.
Leave ashore hard-shell luggage, which has no place on a boat, and rigid expectations, which is the most important thing to leave behind. The perfect day in the archipelago is not the one that follows the plan: it is the one where the skipper, at eight in the morning, looks at the sky and changes their mind.