7 Tourist Scams in Sardinia

Rental-car return scam at Olbia, Cagliari Elmas, and Alghero Fertilia airports: the attendant walks straight to a pre-existing scratch under the bumper, on an alloy rim, or on the roof — and charges €300–€1,000 to the deposit.

Firsthand traveler posts and ConsumatoreInformato threads repeatedly document this pattern; the Italian consumer body Cittadinanzattiva has published warnings about low-cost rental scams at Sardinian airports.

The Agenzia delle Dogane and Guardia di Finanza routinely x-ray outbound luggage at Olbia, Cagliari-Elmas, and Alghero airports, at ferry ports, and issue €500–€3,000 fines for sand, pebbles, shells, or rocks taken from Sardinian beaches — a real Law n.

16/2017 offense, not a folk scam. L'Unione Sarda reports 900+ kg of sand, shells, and pebbles seized in Olbia alone between 2020 and 2025; 11 tourists were fined €3,000 each at Cagliari airport (headed to Rome, Bari, Milan). An Unione Sarda story documents a French tourist stopped at Elmas with detached stalagmites from the protected Su Mannau cave; another; official/local reports document 20 pebbles from Pula beaches triggering a maxi-multa. Tourists who buy a sand-filled 'souvenir' bottle from a Costa Smeralda gift shop are still liable.

An August 2024 La Nuova Sardegna story — 'Estate, in Gallura boom di tassisti fantasma e conducenti NCC abusivi' — documents an explosion in unlicensed drivers around Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport and the Costa Smeralda coastal road quoting flat fares of €80–€150 for a 35-km run to Porto Cervo that should cost closer to €50 by meter.

One traveler described the Olbia airport meter 'going up as quickly as the one from Olbia airport did.' The ghost NCC variant: a driver in plain clothes with a private car meets you at arrivals holding a 'generic' name card, takes payment in cash off-meter, and is untraceable if anything goes wrong. A cash-switch variant is documented in traveler reports: 'the taxi driver receives €50 and exchanges it for a €10 one.'

Fraudulent hosts advertise beachfront apartments on Facebook Marketplace, Subito.it, and off-platform Airbnb email threads, demand a caparra (deposit) by bank wire, and disappear.

Sardegna Live reports an Alghero case — 'Casa vacanze ad Alghero con truffa' — in which a Roman tourist paid a €500 deposit for an apartment he never saw; the carabinieri opened an investigation. A separate La Nuova Sardegna story documents an Ittiri (Sassari province) fake travel agency — 'Truffa via Facebook, una pagina fake si spaccia per l'agenzia viaggi di Ittiri' — where a Tuscan tourist lost €2,700 on a Sardinian holiday package. In Cardedu (Ogliastra), a guest prenotated nine thousand euros of rooms under false generalities and left without paying. Italian consumer bodies estimate €560 million in annual summer rental fraud across Italy.

Porto Cervo, Porto Rotondo, and Porto Istana venues advertise 'minimum spend dinner' without disclosing the figure upfront, then bill fish and local specialties 'al etto' (per 100g) at 400–600g portions.

A July 2023 La Nuova Sardegna story — 'Formaggio e salsiccia a peso d'oro, i commercianti di Buddusò' — documents a Milanese tourist billed €1,155 at a Porto Istana shop for cheese and sausage sold al etto; the merchants later refunded after public outrage. Traveler reports about Porto Cervo's Le Terrazze Ritual describe its undisclosed 'minimum spending dinner' and flatly advise: 'Crappy food at stupid prices, do yourself a favor and skip' and 'I completely agree. SKIP. I have never seen such ridiculous, laughable, pathetic pricing.' The Alghero waterfront runs the same play on fish al etto — one traveler notes €51 for two at the port on a pasta-and-wine dinner, showing legitimate local pricing is roughly a quarter of the Costa Smeralda asking price.

Spiaggia La Pelosa in Stintino is one of only three Sardinian beaches on a daily 1,500-visitor cap; the real access ticket is €3.50 per adult, sold exclusively through the Comune di Stintino's official portal (apl.stintinospiagge.it), with 700 slots released long-ahead and 700 more in a 48-hour rolling window.

Third-party resellers and Facebook 'concierge' pages sell the same single-day slot for €15–€25, or simply pocket the fee without issuing a real reservation. Multiple traveler threads confirm users struggling to book direct and being offered aftermarket slots. One traveler explicitly asks: 'The official site only allows from 48 hours. Is there another way to book?' — the 'other way' is where the scam lives. Wristbands are checked at the dune entrance.

Cagliari's beach and old-town districts see periodic theft waves concentrated on unattended valuables.

A CagliariToday story — 'Furti in spiaggia al Poetto e a Calamosca: arresti' — documents carabinieri arrests of three youths after an afternoon theft spree on Poetto beach with recovered valuables. A Sartiglia (Oristano carnival) report — 'Sartiglia, turista denuncia: un addetto alla sicurezza mi ha …' — surfaces a security-staff-involved attempted scam at vico Episcopio. In Cagliari's Castello and Marina districts (narrow alleys from Bastione San Remy to Via Roma), the classic Italian distraction patterns — map-unfolding, 'do you speak English?', fake petition — operate on the cruise-ship day-trip crowd. Community safety threads stress pickpocketing as the only real risk on an otherwise 'VERY safe' island.