Costa Smeralda

Created on Sardinia's northeastern coast as an ambitious vision of refined seaside living, Costa Smeralda has become the Mediterranean's definitive yachting destination. Emerald bays, sculpted granite coves and Porto Cervo's celebrated marina have created a coastal landscape where architecture, nature and maritime culture exist in rare harmony.

The Costa Smeralda lies in Gallura, within the municipality of Arzachena, a short drive north of Olbia airport. Until the early 1960s it was grazing land with almost no road. A consortium led by Prince Karim Aga Khan bought the coast and engaged architects such as Jacques Couëlle, Luigi Vietti and Michele Busiri Vici, who set strict rules: low buildings, local stone, rounded plaster walls, roofs of terracotta and juniper.

The result is a coast of separate bays rather than a single town. Porto Cervo holds the marina, the piazzetta and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda; Cala di Volpe, Romazzino, Pitrizza and Liscia di Vacca each have their own cove. Offshore, the Maddalena archipelago, a national park of pink granite and clear shallows, is the natural day out by boat.

The coast runs on a defined season. Most hotels open in May and close in October, and the sea is warm enough for swimming from June to late September. July and August are the busiest months, when Porto Cervo’s harbour is at its fullest and restaurant tables need to be booked well ahead.

June and September are the connoisseur’s choice: long, settled days, quieter beaches and the sailing calendar. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda hosts the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta in early summer and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in September, when the largest racing yachts in the Mediterranean gather off Porto Cervo.

The founding hotels of the Costa Smeralda remain its defining addresses: Hotel Cala di Volpe, a Luxury Collection Hotel, built by Couëlle as a fishing village on its own lagoon; Hotel Pitrizza, a Luxury Collection Hotel, a discreet cluster of stone villas above a private cove; and Romazzino, A Belmond Hotel, white and whitewashed on the beach of the same name.

LVXVRY books Cala di Volpe and Pitrizza through Marriott STARS & Luminous — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. For Romazzino, LVXVRY advises on the choice of room and arranges the stay directly with the hotel. Rooms for July and August, and for the September regatta week, are best reserved early in the year.