Gulf of Orosei Hikes: Walking to Cala Goloritzè, Cala Luna and the Coves

Six coves, six different levels of commitment. This table is the fast way to see which one matches the walk you actually want to do.

Cala Goloritzè is the cove most people mean when they picture the Gulf of Orosei from a postcard, the Aguglia pinnacle rising over a pale beach. Access runs through the Heart of Sardinia platform, the official booking system for the Comune di Baunei. The ticket is €7 per person, free for children up to and including five years old and for residents of Baunei.

Booking opens three days before the date you want, at midnight, and tickets are non-refundable once bought.

The trail itself is about 3.6 km each way with roughly 500 m of descent, worked out to about 1.5 hours going down and around two hours coming back up, since the return is entirely uphill. Closed shoes with real grip are required and trekking shoes are recommended over trail runners, especially on the loose sections near the bottom. A QR code is checked at the Su Porteddu checkpoint, which opens from 07:30; the afternoon closing time changes through the season, so check the exact hour when you book rather than assuming a fixed one.

Parking at Su Porteddu is a separate, paid gated area, around €5 for the day, with overnight camper stays charged per person on top. That parking fee is distinct from the trail ticket itself, and it catches people who assume one payment covers both.

The classic walk-in route to Cala Luna runs from Cala Gonone via Cala Fuili on trail B162, about 5.5 km each way and around two hours in each direction, with roughly 500 m of cumulative climb along the way. It is a longer trail than Goloritzè's but a gentler one, without the same single steep descent-and-climb structure.

A landslide has closed the SP26 road that leads to the Cala Fuili trailhead in the past, and the current status could not be independently confirmed for this guide. Check the Comune di Dorgali's notices before you drive out there, since the trailhead access, not the trail itself, is the part most likely to change without warning. Most visitors return from Cala Luna by taxi boat to Cala Gonone, a ride of roughly 20 to 30 minutes in season, which turns the day into a one-way hike rather than a there-and-back.

Cala Sisine is the straightforward option of the three. Reached from the Campos Barges track off the SS125, it is graded E for hikers with no rope work and, unlike Goloritzè, has no booked ticket for walkers at the time of writing. It is the cove to pick if the technical grading of Biriola or the booking system around Goloritzè is more than you want to deal with.

Cala Biriola is graded EE, with short rock steps on the roughly 3 km approach from Ololbitzi, and is best attempted by experienced walkers or with a guide rather than as a first Supramonte coastal hike. Cala Mariolu sits differently again: it is reached mainly by sea, with limited walking access, and is reported with a daily cap of around 700 people counting both boat arrivals and walkers on foot, along with a small environmental fee of a couple of euro. Treat that cap and fee as reported rather than official, and confirm the current terms on the Comune di Baunei's own booking platform before you go.

Readers weighing a technical multi-day option instead of a single cove should read what the Selvaggio Blu actually demands before committing to it.

From 20 May 2026, the Comune di Baunei runs a single QR-code booking system covering Cala Goloritzè, Cala Luna, Cala Mariolu, Cala Biriola, Cala dei Gabbiani and Su Sirboni, coordinating the licensed boat operators sailing out of Santa Maria Navarrese, Arbatax, Cala Gonone, Orosei and La Caletta. Before this, Goloritzè had its own well-established booking platform while several of the other coves ran on a looser, sometimes unregulated basis.

The practical effect for walkers: a cove that used to be a same-day, show-up-and-hike decision may now require a booking checked at a control point, even on trails that have no separate hiking fee of their own. Per-cove land-access fees for walkers beyond Goloritzè are not consistently published at the time of writing, so the honest advice is to check the Comune di Baunei's booking platform for the specific cove and date before you plan the day, rather than assuming last year's rules still apply. If a coastal booking window doesn't line up with your dates, the island's full lineup of guided hikes covers plenty of ground that needs no online reservation at all.

The takeaway from that table is simple even where the fee figures are not: Goloritzè is the one cove with a fully confirmed, published process, and every other cove in the new system should be re-checked on the Comune di Baunei's platform close to your travel date rather than assumed from last season's routine or a forum post written before May 2026.

Arriving on foot and arriving by boat are two different holidays, and the cost gap is smaller than people expect once the tickets and the parking are counted. Last verified: August 2026.

Boats cannot land passengers on the Goloritzè beach. They view the cove and the Aguglia pinnacle from the water, which surprises visitors who assumed a boat ticket meant setting foot on the sand. Dogs may use the trail down to Goloritzè but not the beach itself once you arrive.

• Closed shoes with grip are required on the Goloritzè trail; sandals are a genuine hazard on the loose lower section
• Goloritzè tickets are non-refundable once booked, so check the weather before you commit to a date
• Booking opens exactly three days ahead at midnight, not sooner, so plan around that window rather than trying to book further out
• Su Porteddu parking is a separate paid fee from the trail ticket
• The SP26 road to the Cala Fuili trailhead has a history of closures, so verify current access before driving out for Cala Luna