AlgheroOn the water · A l'aigua
A l'aigua · 40.56° N 8.32° E
The sea west of town is deep, clear and mostly protected: a marine reserve covers 2,631 hectares and about 36 km of coast. That one fact shapes the rest of this page — where you can dive, where you can anchor, and who needs a permit first.
Photo Holger Uwe Schmitt / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The coral is deeper than anyone goes
Four measured depths. Three of them are reachable with training. The last one is why this town has a coral museum and not a coral beach.
Below the surface
Everything down here happens inside the same limestone. The cliffs of Capo Caccia carry on below the waterline as walls, arches and caves, and the protected area that covers them begins at the shore.
Snorkeling
Marine reserve
The shallow edge of the reserve is the easy part of it. A mask is enough to see Posidonia meadows, the odd octopus and the rock the whole coast is built from, carrying on underwater exactly as it does above. Seawatching is one of the categories the park licenses, so a guided route is one the wardens have signed off.
Immersioni
Marine reserve
Alghero dives on walls, on open seabed and inside caves, and the caves are why people come. Yellow cup coral covers the ceilings and red coral grows in the darker sections — you may look at it and nothing more. Centres working inside zones B and C have to be on the park's list, which is published and worth reading before you book.
Marine reserve
The largest submerged sea cave in the Mediterranean is here: a main gallery of 300 m which, with its side tunnels and chambers, comes to about half a kilometre in all, between 15 and 30 m down. The regional tourist board describes the front chamber as reachable by divers who are not cave specialists. The rest is not, and cave dives inside the reserve need their own authorisation.
LinksSardegnaTurismo
Corall vermell
Alghero is called the Coral Riviera and you will never watch the harvest. Sardinian rules allow coral to be taken only below 80 m, between 15 May and 15 October, by hand with a pick, under twelve authorisations island-wide; remotely operated vehicles are banned outright. Alghero is one of nine ports the licensed boats may work from, which is why the workshops in the old town are here at all.
Your own arms
Two bays do the work. Porto Conte is almost closed and usually flat; the town shore runs north from the port in one long strip of sand. Neither needs an engine.
Kayak da mare
Marine reserve
Porto Conte is a bay with a narrow mouth, so it stays flat when the coast outside does not. From the water you reach the foot of Punta Giglio and the small landings under the cliffs, which no road goes near. Rowing and sailing are allowed in zones B and C of the reserve and motorboats are speed-limited there, so a paddle is the quiet way through it.
LinksMapAlghero Parks
SUP
Marine reserve
The same bay works for a board, with one condition: go early. The north-westerly here is thermal in summer, so mornings are glassy and afternoons are not. The wind that makes Mugoni a windsurfing beach after lunch makes it a poor paddling one.
Bagno
The sea passes 20 °C in June and holds above it to the end of October, peaking near 25 °C in August. September is the part most calendars get wrong: the water is barely below its August figure while the air has already dropped a few degrees. Nine beaches, from the town sand to La Pelosa, have their own page.
LinksMap
Wind and swell
The wind here has a name and a timetable. The maestrale builds through summer afternoons and the western shore takes the swell, which splits this coast neatly: flat water inside the bay, waves outside it.
Wind and waves, month by month
Vela
The marina sits under the sea walls, which puts the start of a day's sailing in the middle of the old town. Two clubs teach here: Yacht Club Alghero and the Alghero section of the Lega Navale. If you would rather take a boat out yourself, Italian rules let you do it without a licence up to 40.8 hp and within six nautical miles of the coast.
Vela latina
The lateen is the rig this coast worked under before engines: one spar, one triangular sail, and boats built locally to carry it. The Lega Navale runs courses on it, beginners included, using Annina — a boat from 1920 kept for exactly that. The big gathering is not here but at Stintino, where the lateen regatta has run since 1983.
LinksCorsi di vela latina
Marine reserve
Boards go to Mugoni and neighbouring La Stalla because the summer north-westerly arrives as a thermal and strengthens through the afternoon. Our own thirty-year series puts the maestrale on top on 28% of days from June to August, ahead of the tramontana and the ponente. Wind-driven boards use the bay; powered watercraft do not, because jet skis are banned across the whole reserve.
LinksMap
Surf
Porto Ferro faces west into open sea and takes swell from the south-west round to the north, which is why it has a surfing reputation and the sheltered beaches do not. The season is the opposite of the tourist one: from November to March the daily maximum wave height along this coast roughly doubles against summer. The exposure that builds the wave builds the current with it.
LinksMap
Someone else at the helm
Parts of this coast have no road. The cliffs between Capo Galera and Capo Caccia, and the cave at the foot of them, are reached from the water or not at all.
Linea Grotte
Marine reserve
From April to September boats run to the Grotte di Nettuno from Alghero's tourist port and from the jetty at Cala Dragunara, and the crossing along the cliffs takes about forty minutes. It sails only when the sea allows and the cave itself closes in heavy swell, so check before you set out. The alternative from land is the Escala del Cabirol and its 654 steps.
Marine reserve
The other use of the same boats is a whole day: west out of the port, along the cliffs of the Coral Riviera, with swimming stops and a call at Cala Dragunara. For most people it is the only way to see the coastline between Capo Galera and Capo Caccia, because no road runs along it.
LinksMapAlghero Parks
Pescaturismo
Marine reserve
Pescaturismo is a licensed activity, not a figure of speech: you go out on a working fishing boat, watch the gear come up and eat what it brings. Two operators hold the authorisation for it inside the marine reserve, and the park publishes the list alongside the rest.
Photos Marco Busdraghi, Gianni Careddu, Holger Uwe Schmitt, Ivan84jim, jimmyroq, Wusel007, Waielbi, Jean-Pierre Bazard, Hassocks5489, Dorieo, Alessandro Addis, Austin Neill, Luigi936 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 / public domain
The rules
Most of the coast west of Alghero sits inside the Capo Caccia – Isola Piana marine protected area, managed by the Parco di Porto Conte. It is not a formality: it decides where you may anchor, who may take you diving, and what you may bring back.
Not allowed
Two small stretches are integral reserve: the water off the west side of Isola Piana, and the area by Punta Sant'Antonio at Porto Agra. No swimming, no diving, no boats — research and surveillance only.
Not allowed
Banned across the whole reserve, in every zone, all year. This is the rule visitors get wrong most often, because a few hundred metres outside the boundary the same activity is legal with a licence.
Not allowed
Personal watercraft are banned throughout, along with discharging waste and sounding horns for no reason. Boards driven by wind or by waves are a different matter.
With permission
Posidonia is a priority habitat under the EU Habitats Directive and its meadows here run from the shallows down to about 45 m. Anchoring on them is prohibited. The park keeps mooring buoys in Porto Conte bay and off the south side of Punta del Dentul, and you book a place before you arrive.
With permission
Diving, guided visits, seawatching, boat hire and pescaturismo inside zones B and C are run by operators the park authorises each year, and the current list is published. Cave dives need a separate authorisation, and some caves a cave-diver certificate on top of it.
Not allowed
Red coral may only be taken by licensed professionals, below 80 m, between 15 May and 15 October, by hand. Picking up a souvenir is not a small offence here — preventing it is the reason the whole permit system exists.
SourcesAlghero ParksElenco operatori autorizzati
Checked with the managing body on 2 September 2026. Zones, authorisations and the operator list are re-issued every year, so the park's own site is the version that counts.
Questions
It passes 20 °C in June and stays above it until the end of October, peaking near 25 °C in August. September is the quiet answer: the water is barely below its August figure while the air has already dropped a few degrees.
Not under Italian rules if the engine is 40.8 hp or less and you stay within six nautical miles of the coast. Above either limit you need a patente nautica. Inside the marine reserve there are further conditions on where you may go and where you may moor.
Yes, through a centre — introductory dives are shallow and supervised. What you cannot do without qualifications is the caves: those need real experience, an authorisation from the park, and for some of them a cave-diver certificate.
Often enough to plan around. It runs from April to September and only when the sea allows, and the cave closes in heavy swell as well. From November to March the daily maximum wave height along this coast roughly doubles against summer.
Not out of the water. Harvesting in Sardinian waters is a licensed profession with twelve authorisations for the whole island, a fixed season and a minimum depth of 80 m. Buy it from a workshop in the old town instead — that is where the licensed catch ends up.
From the north-west, for most of the summer. Our thirty-year series puts the maestrale on top on 28% of days from June to August, with the ponente and the tramontana close behind. It is why the exposed western beaches get the waves while Porto Conte stays flat.