Customer Reviews
Great help on a foreign isle - By: ricenpeas, 09 Jul 2009 
the worst thing about Sardinia when we were there was the hotel. which is pretty much the only thing we didn't findin the rough guide. with the guide as our, er, guide, all things discovered were wonderful.
i tend to use time out guides for cities & rough guides for countries & islands. the RG to Sardinia was great for finding those beautiful undiscovered beaches & excellent restaurants full of locals.
Well worth packing - By: Berkshire Bookworm, 18 Sep 2006 We found this guide very useful for our visit to southern Sardinia. As ever, with Rough Guides, there was a good variety of material - covering the obscure as well as better-known sites. Only quibble was that quite a few opening times seemed to be incorrect - we also had the DK Eyewitness Guide with us, & on balance we found their opening times more accurate, although we found the Rough Guide text more informative with (slightly) better maps. Having both books covered all angles.
genius - a true masterpiece - By: Sam Aldous, 09 Jan 2006 
Having read previous customer reviews, I was horrified at the lack of understanding of this beautiful work of art. Robert Andrews has captured the essence of sardinia & has combined his wonderful literary talent with an immense knowledge of the island to produce one of the greatest rough guides ever written. On travelling to Sardinia I found the guide extremely helpful & was delighted to discover that every piece of information contained within was 100% correct. Great work Rob!
helpful, interesting and easy to use - By: S Rae, 11 Aug 2005 Contrary to some other reviewers I found this guide extremely helpful & easy to use when travelling through North West Sardinia for 10 days. It gives a general overview of the landscape & feel of locations, with more detail of towns, activities & places of specific interest. We took it with us most places, found it pretty much an accurate & interesting guide for our holiday & would've been lost without it!
It is not the most exciting book to read but I found it an excellent 'handbook' to Sardinia & its town centre maps an essential accompaniment to the more local not-so-helpful general tourist information. I felt it gave a varied & honest review of the different aspects to the country, its landscape, culture, food, facilities & people. Without being boring, it covers the practicalities & necessities of travelling, emphasising what is particularly relevant for Sardinia. There is also a handy language section at the back with some basic phrases, signs & lists of food for those who don't speak a word of Italian!
Some of the information about restaurants, camping facilities, tourist centre opening times & prices were slightly out of date or inaccurate but this is to be expected & was nothing to cause great distress or ruin its usefulness.
I would certainly suggest reading the introduction to & basics about Sardinia before going & then using the 'area guides' whilst out there. I recommend taking a detailed & comprehensive Map of Sardinia to accompany the guide book & a phrase book/dictionary if you want to make a proper go at communicating (my main mistake this time).
My only real criticism of the book is it suggests that goingin August is a big no-no due to prices, temperature & extreme crowds. However, we went during the beginning of August, & although accommodation was more expensive, we found it is easy to avoid the crawling busy beaches by making a bit of effort, often were the only people at a tourist location & generally felt much less crowded & the temperature much more wonderful than we ever wouldin Manchester!
.....On another note, nothing will prepare you for the bad bus information & service, but the prices are cheap & its great fun to hire a moped or car if you really want to get around away from the overly touristy areas.
Stop! Buy the Cadogan guide instead! - By: , 26 Apr 2004 
Having The Rough Guide to Sardinia is better than having no guide at all;it's functional & it will probably suit travellers on a minuscule budgetgrimly trying to get around this tremendous place on infrequent publictransport & stayingin campsites (the original 'rough guide' scenario).But really, it is a joyless read. The author, Robert Andrews, has managedto reduce a fascinating place to a series of sighs & grumbles. "Not muchto see here," he sniffs, when confronted with a small townsin theinterior, minor nuraghe (the amazing stone age buildings that dot theSardinian landscape), great stretches of coastline.
The RG makesSardinia sound like a drab, dispiriting place. We were therein mid-April2004 during unseasonably bad weather, & even the most Godforsaken townsin the interiorin rainstorms were not as bleak as the RG makes Sardiniasound.
That said, the RG's basic information is sound, even if the pricesin lireare very outdated. The cultural contexts are as valuable as you'd expectfrom the RG series (which I've been a devotee of for a decade) & it'sobviously well-researched. So it's not totally dreadful - just notanywhere near as good as the Cadogan guide. The Cadogan's writers are somuch more enthusiastic - notin a cheesy, 'everything is wonderful' way,but they are a breath of fresh air compared to the RG, their style islighter, their excitement at the mysteries & wonders of Sardiniapalpable.
Buy the RG as a second guide, an extra voice, & it's fine.But if you only buy one guide to Sardinia, we found the Cadogan so muchmore rewarding, even for travellers on a budget (we rented a cheap car andstayedin agriturismi & small hotels, so it's not like we're luxurytravellers turning our noses up at the Rough Guide).
