★ Costa Smeralda

01When Costa Smeralda matters

Twelve months of activity computed from the events on this destination’s calendar — each event’s importance spread over the days it occupies. The events responsible for each month are listed beside the bar.

02The calendar here

Coming up

• 25 May → May 29, 2027
  
  Porto Cervo · Italy · Yachting ★ Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta May 25–29, 2027 Expected
  Notable
• 5 Sep → Sep 11, 2027
  
  Porto Cervo · Italy · Yachting ★ Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup September 5–11, 2027 Expected
  Significant

Every event on the calendar

M Yachting Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup Sep 5–11, 2027 Yachting Rolex Swan Cup Sep 13–19 Yachting Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta May 25–29, 2027

Subscribe to this destination’s calendar (ICS) · Open in the calendar

03Why it matters

Costa Smeralda's place on the yachting calendar rests on the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, whose September regattas, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and, in even-numbered years, the Rolex Swan Cup, gather one of the largest concentrations of racing superyachts in the Mediterranean. In our reading, what sets it apart from resorts of similar vintage elsewhere in Italy is that it was designed from the start as a single real-estate project rather than a fishing village that later attracted visitors. For a visitor without a boat, the public beaches at Grande Pevero and Capriccioli, and the Piazzetta of Porto Cervo, cost nothing to see.

04The year, month by month

05Weather by month

06Getting there and around

07Where things are

Neighborhoods

Hotel areas

The hotels the consortium built through the 1960s, among them Cala di Volpe, Pitrizza and Romazzino, still anchor the coast's geography, their low, rounded architecture setting the visual language every later building has followed. Porto Cervo itself holds a denser cluster near the marina and the Piazzetta.

Dining districts

Porto Cervo's Piazzetta and marina quay carry the coast's most visible restaurants, busiest through summer and especially during the September regattas. The outlying bays each keep a smaller, hotel-anchored dining scene that closes with the season.

Cultural institutions

Shopping

The Piazzetta of Porto Cervo, a stepped square above the marina, holds the coast's concentration of boutiques, and thins out once the September regattas end.

08How the place changes

The Costa Smeralda runs one of the shortest seasons in this guide: closed from November to April, it builds through May and June, peaks in July and August, and closes out with the Yacht Club's September regattas before shutting down again within weeks.

09History

Before the consortium, this coast held only scattered Nuragic-era remains near Arzachena and a handful of fishing families. That changed on 14 March 1962, when 1,800 hectares passed to a consortium led by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV and partners including Patrick Guinness and John Duncan Miller, formed to develop a coast for a clientele who had previously wintered on the Cote d'Azur. The consortium's architects fixed a single visual language before a single hotel opened, and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, founded on 12 May 1967, gave the development its sporting anchor.