Sardinia · Nightlife

An open-air club on the rocks at Localita Forte Cappellini in Arzachena, on the Costa Smeralda, where sunset DJ sets run into a full club night and there are restaurants on site. Summer season only, and it works on tables and bookings rather than a queue at the door.

The big summer club on the north-east coast, running roughly midnight to 6am with international DJ bookings through the season. San Teodoro itself is a low-key resort town, so the club is the reason people drive over.

The Costa Smeralda marina, and the most expensive night on the island: dress codes, table minimums and bottle prices to match. It is effectively a two-month town, busy in late July and August and largely shuttered either side.

The lanes behind Via Roma, between the port and the Castello walls, hold Cagliari's year-round wine bars and small places, with Via Sardegna as the spine. Prices are ordinary Italian city prices rather than Costa Smeralda ones, and it works on a Tuesday in February.

Outside roughly mid-June to mid-September most of the coastal clubs, beach bars and resort towns are closed, and several are boarded up entirely. If you are here in spring or autumn, nightlife means Cagliari, Sassari or Olbia, not the coast.