Sardegna da Olbia

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Olbia, Basilica di San Simplicio (Gallura) / Orosei, Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore (Baronia)
• Length: 135.4 km
• Duration: 6 days
• Elevation: ↗ 1,817 m / ↘ 1,810 m
• Highest point: 707 m on the granite ridge behind Padru; lowest point 0 m on the beach
• Stages: 6 — the operator's official tappe, whose total equals our route length exactly
• Network: eastern branch of the Cammino di Santu Jacu — "Sardegna da Olbia" is our name; the operator says "da Olbia a Orosei" and counts the section as part of the Variante Nord
• Waymarking: yellow arrows with scallop shell, in the north-east additionally blue stickers with shell and arrow
• St James churches: San Giacomo Apostolo and the ruin of Santu Iacu 'Ezzu' near Siniscola, San Giacomo Maggiore in Orosei — town patron, feast on 25 July
• No hostel network: a single ostello (Siniscola), otherwise B&Bs, hotel, municipality; Credenziale and Testimonium
• Sardinian connections: Sardegna Nord (start in Olbia), Sardegna da Orosei (finish in Orosei), Sardegna Centrale (main axis)
• Best time: April to June plus September and October; high summer on the coast hot, expensive and crowded

Overview

You land in Olbia at midday and stand before the granite Basilica di San Simplicio in the afternoon — hardly any pilgrim route in Europe begins more conveniently. Then you leave the sea for three days. Via Azzani you climb into the hinterland of the Gallura: rounded granite domes, holm oaks and the rust-red trunks of stripped cork oaks, with springs in between that you do not plan on but take as a gift. In Padru, a village that came into being around 1700 and only became a municipality of its own in 1996, you sleep for the first time. The second day is the loneliest and the highest: up to the saddle at Pedra Bianca, where the road crosses the pass at 620 metres and the path climbs on further, up to 707 metres. From the top, in clear weather, you see the sea at Posada, the Maccheronis reservoir and the white limestone ridge of Monte Albo — the whole second half of your route at a glance.

Then the landscape tips over. You drop into the valley of the Rio Posada, through the Parco di Tepilora, since 2017 Sardinia's only UNESCO biosphere reserve, to Torpè, from whose edge you look back to the Gulf of Olbia and forward to the Gulf of Orosei at the same time. From Posada with its Bean Castle on the rock you are at the sea and stay there: La Caletta, the long dune beaches of Berchida and Capo Comino, Siniscola with its two St James churches, the five bays of the Oasi di Bidderosa, the plain of the Cedrino — and at the end Orosei, where the tile-roofed domes of San Giacomo Maggiore stand above the basalt hill and the apostle is not a marginal figure but the town patron.

Other Names

In Sardinian, James is Santu Jacu, and that is also the name of the network this section belongs to: the Cammino di Santu Jacu, in Italian also Cammino di Santiago in Sardegna. In its own stage guide the operating association lists the stretch simply as "da Olbia a Orosei" and counts it as part of the Variante Nord Porto Torres – Orosei – Olbia; a report from 2017 calls the same branch variante orientale. No source, however, calls it a "Variante costiera" — the term would be our invention, so we leave it aside.

"Sardegna da Olbia" is likewise our name. Camino Ninja breaks the roughly 1,600 kilometres and 60 stages of the Sardinian network down into four plannable routes — Sardegna Centrale, Sardegna Nord, Sardegna da Orosei and this one. The association does not know the four names. If you ask someone for the way, say "Cammino di Santu Jacu" — everyone in Padru, Torpè and Orosei understands that.

Who It's For – and Who It's Not

Ideal if you have a week and want a complete, self-contained route: six stages, an airport at the start, a bus line at the end that takes you back to the airport in two hours. If you want coast, but not only coast — three days of granite and cork oaks, three days of sand and dunes. If the Sardinia beyond the Costa Smeralda interests you: villages of 2,000 inhabitants, a castle with a bean legend, a biosphere reserve where in the morning you hear only the wind in the cork oaks. And if you want to walk in May or October, when the season is over on the mainland and here the temperature is just right.

To be honest, though, it is not for you if you expect a hostel network. On 135 kilometres there is exactly one classic pilgrim lodging, the Ostello Su Recreu in Siniscola; everything else is B&Bs, a hotel, occasionally the municipality or the sanctuary — and many of them close in winter. Gaps like these you plan away beforehand, not on the trail. Not for you either in July and August: the coast gets hot, crowded and expensive, a 40-euro room becomes a 120-euro room. And anyone who wants to meet other pilgrims every day is in the wrong place — the Santu Jacu is a young route with thin traffic; for days you will see nobody with the same plan as you.

Route & Landscape

The first half is upland. From Olbia the route climbs steadily via Sporula, Trudda and Azzani into the granite Gallura: rock domes, maquis, holm-oak forest and the cork oaks that still feed Padru today. Monte Nieddu towers over the village at just under 1,000 metres; you stay below it, but not far: on the second day you climb to the saddle at Pedra Bianca and beyond it to 707 metres, the highest point of the route, with a view over the Lago di Maccheronis to the sea. From here you drop via Concas into the valley of the Rio Posada and into the Baronia — and right through the Parco naturale regionale di Tepilora, whose forests su Lidone and Usinavà lie a third on the municipal territory of Torpè. Torpè itself has been attested since the 12th century, a granite village with a nuraghe and rock-cut tombs.

The second half is coast. From Posada, the historic capital of the Baronia beneath its 13th-century castle, you walk at sea level: San Giovanni di Posada, the harbour of La Caletta, then the kilometres-long beaches of Berchida and Capo Comino with dunes, juniper and pines, the limestone ridge of Monte Albo at your back. Siniscola lies a little inland. After that you follow the coast via Lupareddu, Cala Liberotto and Sos Alinos past the Oasi di Bidderosa — 860 hectares of protected land, five bays, a lagoon — until the land opens into the plain of the Cedrino and Orosei appears on its basalt hill. Surface: forest and gravel tracks, shepherds' paths, riverside paths, from Posada sand, dune paths, stretches of beach and pieces of coast road.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

The operator has published a stage guide of its own for this section, most recently in the 2021 edition, with six stages. Their total comes to exactly the 135.4 kilometres of our track data — a stroke of luck that is rare on long-distance routes; we did not have to adjust a single value. Only the stage to Siniscola is given by the association itself as "circa 19"; the other five are round figures. If six days seem too few, you can split the long opening stage at Azzani — there are six B&Bs there, and none at all in Sporula and Trudda.

1. Olbia – Sporula – Trudda – Azzani – Padru (29.4 km) — farewell to the sea, climb into cork-oak country; longest stage, can be split at Azzani.
2. Padru – Pedra Bianca (24.0 km) — the mountain day: saddle at 620 m, highest point 707 m, few villages, little water.
3. Pedra Bianca – Concas – Torpè (20.0 km) — descent into the valley of the Rio Posada, Tepilora biosphere reserve, Nuraghe San Pietro.
4. Torpè – Posada – San Giovanni – La Caletta – Siniscola (19.0 km) — Castello della Fava, first beach, St James church and St James ruin near Siniscola.
5. Siniscola – Lupareddu – Cala Liberotto / Sos Alinos (26.0 km) — Berchida, Capo Comino, dunes and pines; flat, but sand.
6. Cala Liberotto – Sos Alinos – Sas Linnas Siccas – Orosei (17.0 km) — Oasi di Bidderosa, Cedrino plain, domes of San Giacomo Maggiore.

Difficulty: moderate, with a clear split in two. Almost all 1,817 metres of ascent are in the first three days between Olbia and Torpè; from Posada you walk practically at sea level. Nothing is alpine; the mountain stages become strenuous through length, gradient and scarcity of water in the granite — stage 2 is the day you start early with full bottles. The coastal stages deceive in the elevation profile: 26 kilometres of soft sand on stage 5 take more out of you than 500 metres of ascent on gravel. The yellow arrows and blue stickers are there, but not at Spanish density; the association's GPS tracks are freely available on Wikiloc under the account amicisantujacu — download them before you start. There is hardly any shade on the coast, and ticks in the woods from May.

James Twice — Once as a Ruin

The route is named after James, but it holds the apostle back for a long time. In Olbia the saint is San Simplicio, in Padru Sant'Elia, in Torpè the Madonna degli Angeli, in Posada Sant'Antonio Abate — four days without a shell on a church door, and saying exactly that honestly is stronger than an invented chain. Only near Siniscola does he appear, and then twice: on a slate hill stands San Giacomo Apostolo, built in 1870, feast on 1 May, the day of James the Less. And deeper in the countryside, under dense scrub, lies Santu Iacu 'Ezzu', "old James" — the remains of a medieval church that was once the centre of a settlement of its own and was abandoned in the 19th century. The municipality lists both in its register of churches, one as a place of worship, the other as "rudere".

From the ruin to the finish it is another day and a half of coast, and there stands the elder brother: San Giacomo Maggiore in Orosei, attested since the 14th century, remodelled and extended from the 17th and completed in 1794 under Rector Ignazio Masala. It stands on a basalt hill, its Baroque façade oddly set to the side like a stage flat to the open staircase, above it a row of tile-roofed domes on which the Sardinian builders of the 18th century showed what they could do. Here James is not a side altar but patron of the municipality, celebrated on 25 July — on the day the Botafumeiro swings in Santiago, the whole town of Orosei stands on the church square.

That 40 kilometres of coast lie between a ruined and a living St James church is not something the association made up. There is even a second, local route between precisely these two churches, the Cammino di Santu Jacu in Baronia, around 40 kilometres via Irgoli and Onifai through the interior — a different route from yours, but the same idea. The cult was there before the arrows. The Cammino di Santu Jacu, conceived as an idea in 2009, founded as an association in December 2010 and officially presented in 2012, has only made visible again the trace that already lay between old James and young James.

Highlights Along the Way

• Basilica di San Simplicio, Olbia — Lombard Romanesque in local granite, grown in five building phases, the oldest before the 11th century; a cathedral until 1839, a basilica minor since 1993. Under the altar the wooden bust of the town patron, whose relics, found in 1614, returned in 2001.
• Cork-oak forests around Padru — stripped, rust-red trunks between granite and springs; plus the Roman site of Santu Miali with villa remains and a necropolis.
• Sa Pedra Bianca — pass at 620 m, granite domes, views to the sea, to the Maccheronis reservoir and to Monte Albo; the route climbs beyond it to 707 m.
• Parco di Tepilora — since June 2017 a UNESCO biosphere reserve as "Tepilora, Rio Posada e Montalbo", the only one in Sardinia: 17 municipalities, around 50,000 people, endemic amphibians and reptiles. In the same region lives the Canto a Tenore, the polyphonic shepherds' song, also UNESCO-listed.
• Nuraghe San Pietro near Torpè — main tower with surrounding towers; nearby the rock-cut tombs of Predas Ruias.
• Castello della Fava, Posada — castle of the judges of Gallura from the 13th century, border fortress facing Arborea, Aragonese around 1380, granted in 1431 by Alfonso V to Nicolò Carroz. Twenty minutes' climb, a view over the whole valley you came down the day before — and the legend of the pigeon that, fattened with the besieged people's last beans, ended a siege.
• Berchida and Capo Comino — the long dune beaches of Siniscola, deserted in spring and autumn.
• Santu Iacu 'Ezzu' and San Giacomo Apostolo, Siniscola — the overgrown ruin of the medieval St James church and its successor of 1870 on the slate hill.
• Oasi di Bidderosa — 860 hectares, five bays of a kilometre each, pines and cork oaks, the lagoon of Curcurica. Cars need a quota ticket from May to October; walkers may enter freely all year.
• Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore, Orosei — town patron, attested since the 14th century, completed in 1794, side-set Baroque façade, row of domes above the basalt hill; feast on 25 July. Plus the old town of Palathos Betzos and the prison tower Sa Prejone Etzza.

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

Most come from the air or the water: Olbia has an airport and a ferry port, and the route begins in the town at the Basilica di San Simplicio. From exactly this point the second Sardinian northern route also starts — Sardegna Nord leads from the same basilica west through the Gallura to Porto Torres, this route south to the coast. Whoever lands in Olbia decides on the first morning between granite and sea.

Anyone already walking on the island usually arrives at the other end: pilgrims who have walked Sardegna da Orosei from Porto Torres via Ozieri, Nuoro and Dorgali find themselves in Orosei — and add this section in the opposite direction to finish at the airport in Olbia. The association describes its northern variant in exactly this way: as a loop Porto Torres – Orosei – Olbia, walkable in both directions. And whoever comes up the main axis Sardegna Centrale from Cagliari changes at Chilivani or Ploaghe onto the eastern route and reaches Orosei that way too.

Continuing On?

Yes, and without a break: in Orosei this section ends exactly where Sardegna da Orosei begins — 270.7 kilometres via Dorgali, Oliena, Nuoro, Ozieri and Ploaghe to Porto Torres on the north coast. Whoever walks both in succession has a good 400 kilometres right across the island, coast, Barbagia, Logudoro, and ends at the harbour of Roman Turris Libisonis. From Ploaghe all the Sardinian strands share the finale anyway: there the eastern route meets Sardegna Nord, at Chilivani Sardegna Centrale joins, the 448.6-kilometre main axis up from Cagliari. From the four sections you build your own Sardinian round — the Santu Jacu is a network, not a line.

And after that? Porto Torres is a ferry port, and from there Sardinia's only direct ferry sails to Barcelona. There the Camino Catalán awaits, via Montserrat and Lleida to the Ebro and on westwards. The association intended the connection this way from the start: Sardinia was under Catalan-Aragonese rule for four centuries; the way back to Spain has history behind it.

Preparation & Practicalities

The season runs from April to June and from September to October. Sardinia can be walked all year and is mild on the coast even in winter — but the two mountain stages do not want a July afternoon, and in high summer the coastal lodgings are full and twice the price. There is no hostel network. For the six stages the association's stage guide lists: the B&B Porto Romano in Olbia, which also issues Credenziali, six B&Bs in Azzani, three in Padru plus the municipality, the B&B I Mari in Torpè with a shuttle service, the Ostello Su Recreu with 40 beds and a hotel in Siniscola, and in Orosei B&Bs, a hotel and lodging at the sanctuary. Many B&Bs close in winter — call the day before; gaps like these you plan away beforehand, not on the trail. The easiest way to plan stages and lodgings is directly in the Camino Ninja app.

The Credenziale is issued by the Associazione Amici del Cammino di Santu Jacu — order it before departure or pick it up at the B&B Porto Romano; at the end you get the Testimonium of the Sardinian way, not the Compostela. The waymarking is yellow arrows with a shell and, in the north-east, blue stickers — present, but not gapless; the association's GPS tracks are on Wikiloc under amicisantujacu, and you do not set off without an offline map. Water is the most important practical issue: between Padru and Torpè you are two days in sparsely populated granite country — two to three litres from the start, springs as a bonus, not a plan. Language: Italian; English in Olbia, on the coast and in the B&Bs, less so in Padru and Torpè — and if someone tells you that you are on your way to Santu Jacu, they mean exactly what you have in mind. Gear: sun protection and a hat for the shadeless coast, shoes that tolerate sand, tick protection for the woods, cash for the small villages.

What the Route Costs

To be honest, almost everything here depends on the calendar — the association publishes no price lists, all amounts are guide values (as of September 2026). A bed in the Ostello Su Recreu is around €20–30, a B&B for one person in a double room €30–50, a double room in a B&B or hotel in the low season €60–90 — and the same room on the coast in July and August €110–180. A menu in a trattoria costs €22–35, a pizza or simple dinner €10–18, breakfast at a bar €3–4, self-catering from the supermarket €10–15 a day.

A realistic daily budget: frugal with an ostello or cheap B&B and self-catering €45–65, mid-range with a B&B and one hot meal €70–100. For six stages that comes to roughly €270–390 frugal and €420–600 mid-range, excluding travel and gear. The Credenziale costs a few euros as a donation to the association. The biggest single lever is the time of travel: walking in May instead of August halves the accommodation costs on the coast. Churches, beaches and the ruin near Siniscola cost nothing; the climb to the Castello della Fava a few euros.

Getting There

To the start (Olbia): Olbia Costa Smeralda airport lies around 4 kilometres from the centre and has direct flights from numerous European airports; a city bus takes you in a few minutes to the Basilica di San Simplicio. Under the name Olbia Airlink, Trenitalia sells train and bus from all over Sardinia to the airport on one ticket. From the ferry port Isola Bianca there are connections to Civitavecchia (daily all year, 5:30 h by day), Livorno (6–7 h by day) and seasonally Genoa (around 10 h); basic fares without cabin from about €22–45 (as of September 2026). Rail: Olbia lies on the Golfo Aranci – Chilivani line with connections to Sassari and Cagliari.

En route: The ARST line 514 Olbia – San Teodoro – Siniscola – Orosei – Nuoro is the coastal axis and serves almost all the stage towns — Posada, La Caletta, Siniscola, Cala Liberotto. If a blister or the weather stops you, you can get away from anywhere. Padru and Torpè have ARST connections of their own, but timetable-dependent; tickets at bars and tabaccherie. From the finish (Orosei): Orosei has no railway station. The same line 514 takes you back to Olbia airport in a good two hours or to Nuoro in around an hour, from where buses leave for Cagliari and Sassari. If you are walking on, you need nothing at all: Sardegna da Orosei begins at the church door.

• Rail Sardinia: trenitalia.com — Olbia, Olbia Airlink, Chilivani, Sassari
• Bus: arst.sardegna.it — line 514 Olbia – Siniscola – Orosei – Nuoro, Padru, Torpè
• Credenziale, GPX, stage guide: camminosantujacu.it — Associazione Amici del Cammino di Santu Jacu
• Ferry: grimaldi-lines.com — Livorno – Olbia, Porto Torres – Barcelona