Olbia

Introduction

Olbia, Sardinia

© amanecer

Olbia is a port city in the northeast of Sardinia with around 55,000 inhabitants.

Weather

Olbia has a typical Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry and sunny summers but mild and wetter winters, though during recent years drought has become a bigger problem. Temperatures in summer (June - September) are generally around 30 °C to 32 °C degrees Celsius during the day and still warm at night, with 20 °C on average but sometimes hardly dropping below 25 °C. During heat waves, temperatures here can rise to 40 °C or even a bit more. Winters from December to February are mild with daytime temperatures of around 14 °C to 16 °C and nights still well above 5 °C on average. This is also the time when most of the rain falls though occasionally summers can have a few rainshowers as well.

Getting There

By Plane

Olbia-Costa Smeralda Airport in Olbia serves a large number of international and national destinations and is the second largest on the island, after Cagliari-Elmas Airport.

By Train

Trains go to Porto Torres, Golfo Aranci and Cagliari.

By Car

There are roads to Nuoro and Cagliari (SS131) and national roads to Sassari (SS199-E840), Tempio Pausania (SS127), and Palau (SS125).

By Boat

Mainland Italy:

• Grandi Navi Veloci seasonal between Genoa and Olbia.
• Snav between Civitavecchia (port of Rome) and Olbia.
• DiMaio Lines between Napels and Olbia.
• Moby Lines between Leghorn and Olbia and seasonal between Genoa and Olbia and Civitavecchia and Olbia.
• Tirrenia Ferries between Genoa and Olbia.
• Tirrenia Ferries between Civitavecchia and Olbia.

Sleep

Upscale

You can use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)

Keep Connected

Internet

Almost all towns and cities in Italy have internet cafes. A growing number of budget hostels and nicer hotels have free Wifi. By law all public-access internet points must keep records of web sites viewed by customers, and even the customer's ID: expect to be refused access if you don't provide identification. Hotels providing Internet access are not required to record IDs if the connection is provided in the guest's room, although if the connection is offered in the main public hall then IDs are required. Publicly available wireless access without user identification is illegal, so open Wi-Fi hotspots (like the ones you might expect to find in a mall or cafée) all have some form of (generally one-time) registration.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The main networks are TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile, part of Telecom Italia, formerly state controlled), Vodafone, Wind, and 3 (only UMTS cellphones). Best advice is to buy a prepaid SIM card (from € 10 upwards) and a cheap mobile phone (€ 19 upwards) to put it in (if you don't have a cellphone already that you can use). It will be much more practical. All land line numbers start with 0. Mobile numbers start with 3. Numbers starting with 89 are high-fee services. In case of emergency call the appropriate number from the list below. Such calls are usually free and calls to 112, 113 (police), 115 (fire), 118 (health) can be made from payphones for free without the need of inserting coins. 112 (standard emergency number in GSM specification) can be dialed in any case for free from any mobile phone.

Post

Post Italiane is the national postal services of Italy and has quite an efficient network of postal offices and reliable postal services. Standard letters and postcards (up to 20 grams) cost €0.39 to send within Europe and the Mediterranean countries outside Europe and €0.41 to all other destinations throughout the country. Up to 50 grams, prices start at €0.52 for Europe, €0.62 for other areas. Packages start at €1.55 within Europe, and around €2.50 for other countries. Post office business hours in Italy are from 8:30am to 2:00pm from Monday to Friday, with closing times at Saturday and the last day of the month at 12 noon. In general, larger post offices in bigger cities and in tourist areas keep longer hours than those in local towns. Also note that business hours in the south might be different than the north, with longer hours at night, especially in summer! If you want to send packages you might try faster and more reliable/efficient private courier companies like TNT, UPS or DHL.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website