Sardinia, Italy

Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat

Price per night from$212.44

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR196.36), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Ancient equine digs

Setting

Laid-back Luogosanto

Metaphorical miles from the flashy Costa Smeralda in north-eastern Sardinia, Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat is the passion project of a professional golfer turned rustic-retreat-running over-achiever. These days, he’s still partial to teeing off and gladly helps guests improve their swing in the woods (not as risqué as it sounds). He’s also busy making mirto (blueberry liqueur), arranging barbecues and live jazz nights, and ensuring yacht-free Elysium ensues. If that doesn’t sound like enough of a pastoral idyll for you, instead of televisions, guests are encouraged to watch the millennia-old olive tree at the heart of the retreat.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of house-made mirto (a blueberry liqueur)

Facilities

Photos Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Seven, including two suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £185.08 (€216), including tax at 10 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

The terrain of the retreat is unfortunately not easily accessible for wheelchair users.

Hotel closed

The retreat opens annually from April to November.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, cellar, pool house, small boutique selling local wares. In rooms: TV, free bottled water, minibar, air-conditioning and locally made Erbe di Sardegna bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The stable buildings are spread across the landscape of kitchen gardens, holly and oak trees, and sparkly sea in the distance – we were head over hooves for Corsica, which has a picture window framing the Gallura countryside and mountains of Napoleon’s birthplace on clear days.

Poolside

The pool in the grounds is open from 8am until 8pm, with a pool house dispensing towels and free cold drinks.

Spa

The petite wellness area has a relaxation lounge with a tea corner to ensure peak unwinding, along with a sauna, sensory shower and Turkish bath. Massages can be booked with a little notice.

Packing tips

Rural Gallura is close in distance but far in mindset from the glitzy shores of the Costa Smeralda, and you can pack accordingly.

Also

The cellar may have been inhabited five millennia ago, but these days it has wine, cheese, charcuterie and WiFi.

Children

Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat is for full-size Smiths only.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel recycles and composts much of its waste, uses LED bulbs with sensors and timers, and has installed water-saving devices on all of its taps and showers.

Food and Drink

Photos Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat food and drink

Top Table

Peek the peaks of Corsica out on the terrace.

Dress Code

Dark horse.

Hotel restaurant

There’s no formal restaurant at the retreat, but the cook kindly creates a traditional Sardinian tasting menu for guests every night. They also get busy baking every morning, whipping up biscuits, cakes and breads to accompany the charcuterie, cheeses and honey from the estate’s hive for breakfasts.

Hotel bar

The estate has a cellar for wine tastings, plus a pool house where you can help yourself to free refreshments. 

Last orders

The nightly dinners usually run from 7.30pm until 10pm.

Location

Photos Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat location
Address
Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat
SP 14 Località Corrimozzu
Luogosanto
07020
Italy

Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat is inland in north-eastern Sardinia’s Gallura region, close to Costa Smeralda but much more down to earth.

Planes

The nearest airport is Olbia-Costa Smeralda, a 40-minute drive away from the estate. A hotel-arranged transfer costs around €90 for two people.

Trains

Olbia has a train station if you’re coming from another part of the island by rail – transfers start from €100 one-way.

Automobiles

A car will be useful for exploring the starry shoreline of the Costa Smeralda – there’s a free car park at the hotel.

Other

Ferries depart the port in Santa Teresa di Gallura bound for Corsica, with the fastest crossing time being under an hour.

Worth getting out of bed for

It’s unlikely but if the Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat good life tires, head to the bright lights of Porto Cervo, which was purpose-built as a billionaires’ playground 60 years ago with the requisite super-yachts dropping anchor every summer. The estate’s owner Marco, a PGA professional, can impart some of his golfing wisdom in his practice area in the woods. A yoga teacher can also be summoned for sun-salutation improvement. The team can arrange wine (and local cheese and charcuterie) tastings in the ancient cellar, painting and cookery lessons, e-bicycle tours of Gallura and horse-riding with a local guide, along with sailing trips to La Maddalena islands.

Local restaurants

A 25-minute drive away in San Pantaleo, things get religious (or at least Michelin-starred) over the embers of Il Fuoco Sacro (the Sacred Fire) at Smith stablemate Petra Segreta. Simple, unpretentious Italian food can be eaten at Trattoria Il Mosto in Aggius and Ristorante Pizzeria da Tommy in Luogosanto. In Porto Cervo, you’ll find international big-hitters such as Zuma (naturally), which popped up last summer and is back by popular demand. For the elaborate pizzas with so much more than just mozzarella as toppings, try Myrto, within the terracotta complex of Porto Cervo’s shopping precinct.

Local bars

Caffè Nina in the village of San Pantaleo is the perfect pitstop for an espresso or Aperol out on the terrace.

Reviews

Photos Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this rural hotel in Italy and unpacked their jodhpurs and riding crops, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat in Sardinia…

Every summer, Sardinia’s starry north-eastern shores host super-yachts, celebrities and sunseekers, ever since the Aga Khan decided this corner of Italy was to be his next holiday playground 60 years ago. For something a little more discreet, stick inland, specifically to Northern Gallura, which is where you’ll find Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat. The agriturismo is the labour of love of a former pro golfer, now well versed in the art of mirto-making, barbecuing and general hospitality (especially if you like a jazz soundtrack to your holiday, since he kindly organises live sessions in the summer). The stazzo (or stables) were abandoned for half a century and it took the owner two years just to clean them. Now, the standalone suites have been fully restored and stylishly adorned. A cook whips up dinners of unpretentious Sardinian dishes for guests each night and bakes breakfast goods every morning. 

If you can bear to leave your sylvan setting, the Costa Smeralda is less than half an hour away and also within reach are the islands of La Maddalena and Corsica, plus Northern Gallura’s rural towns and coastal villages. Who needs a super-yacht anyway?

Book now

Price per night from $212.44