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Lush green golf course surrounded by trees, featuring a serene pond at Cathkin Park, KZN, South Africa. photo: Pexels (stock photo, indicative only)

Destinations / Sardinia / West Sardinia: Is Arenas & Sinis

Golf, Wine & Spa in West Sardinia: 3-Day Itinerary

golf, Vernaccia and hot springs on the west coast

Three days on Sardinia's west coast, built around Is Arenas, ranked third in Italy by Leading Courses and threaded through maritime pine forest on the Narbolia coast, the Vernaccia di Oristano producers nearby, and two hot springs near Fordongianus. Alghero airport is about an hour away, Cagliari an hour and a half.

18 holes at Is Arenas, No. 3 in Italy
28 km to the Fordongianus hot spring
3rd climate score in Italy for October golf
22°C average high in May, the best month here
Fairway through pine forest at Golf Club Is Arenas
01

Pine forest golf

Morning: Golf Club Is Arenas, 18 holes carved through maritime pine forest on the Narbolia coast, ranked third in Italy by Leading Courses.

Afternoon: Azienda Vinicola Contini, 14 km away, about 20 minutes inland toward Oristano. The Contini name is the one most associated with Vernaccia di Oristano, a wine aged oxidatively under a veil of yeast, closer in style to sherry than to any other Italian white.

Recommended tasting

Azienda Vinicola Contini

A guided tasting of the Vernaccia di Oristano range. Advance booking required.

Hot spring pool near Fordongianus
02

Two hot springs

Terme Is Bangius and the Fordongianus hot spring, both about 28 km from the golf course and close enough together to treat as one stop. Fordongianus has drawn bathers since Roman times; ruins of the old baths still stand by the river.

No golf today. Combine the two pools with a slow lunch in Fordongianus itself.

Vineyard near Alghero
03

West to Alghero

For a longer stay, drive on toward Alghero, some 67 km up the coast, the same distance covered by flights into Alghero airport. Sella e Mosca, one of Sardinia's largest and oldest wine estates, sits just outside the town.

Prefer to stay close: a second round at Is Arenas and an early flight out are enough to close the trip.

The recommended route
FromToKmDrive
Day 1
Golf Club Is ArenasAzienda Vinicola Contini14 km~20 min
Day 2
Golf Club Is ArenasTerme Is Bangius28 km~35 min
Golf Club Is ArenasFordongianus hot spring28 km~35 min

Distances calculated from OpenStreetMap coordinates, August 2026. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Drive times are estimates on rural roads.

Getting there by car

AHO
From Alghero airport

About 67 km, around 1 hour.

CAG
From Cagliari airport

About 101 km, around 1 h 30 min.

OLB
From Olbia airport

About 128 km, around 2 hours, the length of the island.

Times are approximate, to Golf Club Is Arenas, outside peak summer traffic. A car is essential for this itinerary.

The weather

Bars: average rain days · Line: average daily max, °C
0102030°C13.714.415.918.721.827.1303026.823.218.315.3JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJFMAMJJASOND
01

May is the best-scoring month here: 22 degrees, 8.1 rain days, before the heat sets in.

02

July and August run warm here, 30 degrees, but score meaningfully better in our data than the same months in South Sardinia, where July in particular pushes past 31 degrees with barely a drop of rain to cool it down.

03

November brings the most rain of the year here, 125 mm against 74 mm in January.

When to go

Apr–JunOur pick

May is the best month in our data, 22 degrees and 8.1 rain days; April is close behind.

Jul–Aug

Warm at 30 degrees, a notch cooler than Sardinia's south in the same months: this itinerary takes summer better than its neighbour to the south.

Sep–Oct

October is the third-best climate score in the whole of Italy on this site: 23 degrees, 8 rain days, and the crowds gone.

Nov–Mar

The wettest stretch of the year, peaking in November at 12.4 rain days. Fairways stay green; just do not expect a dry week.

Computed from ERA5 reanalysis (Open-Meteo), daily data 2015–2024, Golf Club Is Arenas coordinates.

Lush green golf course surrounded by trees, featuring a serene pond at Cathkin Park, KZN, South Africa.

The territory

photo: Pexels

The land

Terroir

Vernaccia di Oristano is Sardinia's most singular white, fermented dry and then aged for years under a veil of flor yeast in old chestnut barrels, a method that owes more to Jerez than to the rest of Italian winemaking. Contini is the name most associated with keeping the style alive.

History

The Sinis peninsula held Tharros, a Phoenician and then Roman port whose ruins still sit above the sea, and gave up the Giants of Mont'e Prama, the Nuragic stone statues now the centrepiece of Cagliari's archaeological museum. Fordongianus, inland, kept its Roman baths running long after the empire that built them.

Climate

A drier stretch of coast for most of the year, with a genuinely wet late autumn and a summer that runs warm without the extremes of southern Sardinia. April through June and September through October are the two windows worth building a trip around; see the chart above.

Vineyard near Alghero

Golf courses

Wineries

Spas and thermal baths

Continue the trip
South Sardinia: Is Molas & Chia
South Sardinia: Is Molas & Chia
Sardinia · 123 km away

What to pack

Tuned to the climate above. Pack for the pine forest at the course and for wet stone at the springs.

A wide-brim hat or visor

Is Arenas plays through maritime pine forest with long stretches of full sun between the trees. A wide brim beats a cap alone over 18 holes.

Water shoes

The stone around Fordongianus and Is Bangius is uneven and often wet. A grippy pair lets you enjoy the pools instead of negotiating them.

Wine luggage protection

Vernaccia di Oristano is not sold everywhere outside Sardinia. A padded wine case turns the bottles you find here into safe checked luggage.

Travel cover for the clubs

Flying into Alghero or Cagliari with your own set: a padded travel cover is cheaper than replacing a bent driver at the carousel.

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Good to know

Do I need a car?

Yes. The two hot springs and the winery are all 14 to 28 km from the golf course, and there is no useful public transport between them.

Are the hot springs free to enter?

We do not have pricing data for either site in our records; treat both as a stop to confirm locally rather than assume.

Which airport is closest?

Alghero, about 67 km and an hour's drive. Cagliari works too, at 101 km and around 1 h 30.

Is Is Arenas open to visitors?

Yes, green-fee players are welcome. Expect to show a handicap certificate, standard practice at Italian federated clubs, and book ahead in high season.

Is October really this itinerary's best trade-off?

In our scoring, yes: West Sardinia has the third-highest climate score of any itinerary on this site for October, 23 degrees against 8 rain days.

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