Hotel Vecchia Marina, Arbatax; Arbatax hotels

Hotel Vecchia Marina, Arbatax

The Hotel Vecchia Marina in Arbatax - a recently opened Sardinian hotel, just 300 metres from the superb Porto Frailis Beach and with a host of sporting and leisure facilities. Nearby are two tennis courts, a fitness centre and seven-a-side football pitch. The hotel will organise diving (this is a fantastic stretch of Sardinian coastline), horse riding trips, or lunches or dinners up in the mountains that back up from the coast.

There are 21 rooms here, all furnished in the typical style of Sardinia, with handmade wooden furniture (a local carpenter) and cotto floors. Rooms are doubles, triples or quadruples, all with minibar, bathroom, safe, air conditioning, work desk, TV and phone. This family run Arbatax hotel has four restaurants very nearby, two more on the beach.

Arbatax lies on the eastern coast of Sardinia, close to the towns of Tortoli and Bari Sardo and nearby the huge expanse of national park that is the Parco Nazionale del Golfo di Orosei e dei Gennargentu. A mouthful of a name, but this is the heart of traditional Sardinia, a wild and wooded hinterland where the Sards retreated over the centuries to hide from the constant raids on the coast. Bandit Country not so long ago, this is now a beautiful spot to visit. Arbatax itself is on the Tyrrhenian Sea, some 5km west of Tortoli, its name derived from the Arabic for '14th tower', the nearby Saracen tower and its name being evidence of the polyglot nature of this much invaded island.

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Double room from €45