How much does it cost to land on the Baunei coast by boat?

In the 2026 season, landing by sea on the Baunei coast cost €2 per person for one cove or €3 for two or more, paid through the Costa di Baunei via mare platform. It covered Cala Mariolu, Cala dei Gabbiani, Cala Biriola and Cala Sisine. Baunei residents paid nothing, and on organised boat trips the fee is often included.

Can boats land at Cala Goloritzé?

No. Boats cannot land at Cala Goloritzé, and mooring is banned within 300 metres of the shore, behind a line of buoys. The only legal way onto the beach is the 3.6 km trail from the Golgo plateau, with a €7 ticket and a cap of 250 people at a time in 2026.

Which port is best for a Baunei coast boat trip?

For the southern Baunei coast, Santa Maria Navarrese is the closest port: Cala Goloritzé is about 7 nautical miles away in a straight line. Cala Gonone, in Dorgali, is closer to Cala Luna and Cala Sisine. Arbatax has a marina of about 650 berths but is about 3 nautical miles further than Santa Maria Navarrese from each Baunei cove.

Do you need a licence to rent a boat on the Baunei coast?

Not for small rental boats. Italian law (D.Lgs. 171/2005, article 39) lets you drive without a licence within six miles of the coast if the engine is no more than 30 kW, or 40.8 hp. You must be 18 for an imbarcazione or 16 for a natante. On the Baunei coast you still book the sea landing.

Are the Baunei coast rules the same in 2027?

Nobody knows yet. The 2026 paid season for the Baunei coves ran from 1 May to 20 October, and booking stopped being required from 12 October. On 31 October 2026 neither the booking platform nor the comune had published dates, caps or prices for 2027, so check again in spring.

Baunei coast by boat: coves, ports, fees and caps in 2026

The Baunei coast is the 40 km of cliffs along the southern Gulf of Orosei, in Ogliastra, and most of its coves have no road, so the boat is how nearly everyone arrives. In 2026, landing at four of them cost €2 per person for one cove or €3 for two or more, with caps from 300 to 1,800 sea places, while Cala Goloritzé was closed to boats altogether. The paid season ended on 20 October 2026, and the 2027 rules have not been published yet.

Baunei coast by boat: quick facts

Ports: Santa Maria Navarrese and Arbatax to the south, Cala Gonone (Dorgali) to the north.
Sea landing fee 2026: €2 one cove, €3 two or more, free for Baunei residents.
Coves on the fee platform: Cala dei Gabbiani, Cala Mariolu, Cala Biriola and Cala Sisine.
2026 caps by sea: Gabbiani 300, Biriola 300, Mariolu 700, Sisine 1,800.
Cala Goloritzé: no boat landings; on foot only, €7, 250 people at a time.
Cala Luna: run by Dorgali, not Baunei; 900 people at a time in 2026, according to the press.
2026 season: 1 May to 20 October; landings no longer needed booking from 12 October.
Licence-free boats: within six miles of the coast, engine up to 30 kW (40.8 hp).

Which port: Santa Maria Navarrese, Arbatax or Cala Gonone

Sardegna Turismo, the regional tourism board, lists three harbours for Cala dei Gabbiani and the other Baunei coves. The best one depends on which coves you want.

Santa Maria Navarrese is the coastal frazione of Baunei and the coast's own harbour. The marina company that collects the landing fee, Marina di Baunei S. Maria Navarrese Srl, is based on its seafront. It is the closest port to Pedra Longa, Cala Goloritzé and Cala Mariolu.
Arbatax, in the comune of Tortolì, has a marina of about 650 berths, with RIB hire and charters, according to Sardegna Turismo. It sits further south, so every Baunei cove is about 3 nautical miles further than from Santa Maria Navarrese.
Cala Gonone, in Dorgali, is the northern option. It is closest to Cala Luna and Cala Sisine, and the Bue Marino sea cave is on the way.

To compare, we measured straight-line distances from each marina to each cove, using OpenStreetMap coordinates. Real boat routes follow the coast and are a little longer.

From Santa Maria Navarrese: Pedra Longa 2.2 nautical miles, Goloritzé 7.0, Mariolu 7.9, Biriola 9.6, Sisine 11.6, Cala Luna 14.4.
From Arbatax: Goloritzé 10.3, Mariolu 11.2, Sisine 14.9, Cala Luna 17.7.
From Cala Gonone: Cala Luna 3.5, Sisine 6.2, Biriola 8.2, Mariolu 9.8, Goloritzé 10.8.

2026 rules for landing by sea

Sea landings on the Baunei coves are booked on the Costa di Baunei via mare platform, run on the Heart of Sardinia booking site. In 2026:

Price: €2.00 per person for one cove, €3.00 per person for two or more on the same trip. Baunei residents paid €0.
Sea only: the fee applies to arrivals by sea. Walking in, where a trail exists, is not charged.
Who books: on a passenger boat or a skippered RIB, ask the operator, because the fee is often included. With a self-drive rental or a private boat, you book yourself and enter any operator code the rental firm gives you.
When: places for rental and private boats were bookable for the same day only, from 07:00. If a cove showed full, the Cala Mariolu page advised checking again later in the morning, as unused operator quotas could be released.

The platform now shows an end-of-season notice: from 12 October 2026 landings at Mariolu, Gabbiani, Biriola and Sisine no longer needed booking, and the service is suspended. When we checked on 31 October 2026, no dates, caps or prices for 2027 had been published.

The coves one by one, south to north

The caps below are the 2026 figures from each cove's booking page, except Cala Luna. The Baunei figures are places for sea arrivals; Goloritzé and Cala Luna count people on the beach at once.

Pedra Longa

What it is: a 128 m limestone spire rising from the sea, a natural monument since 1993, and the start of the Selvaggio Blu trek.
By boat: about 2 nautical miles north of Santa Maria Navarrese. A landmark, not a beach.

Cala Goloritzé

Boat landing: not allowed. Sardegna Turismo says mooring is banned within 300 metres of the shore, behind marker buoys; past them you can only swim or row.
On foot: from the Su Porteddu car park on the Golgo plateau, about 3.6 km and 500 m of descent. The booking page allows about 1 hour 30 minutes down and 2 hours back up.
Cap and fee 2026: 250 people at a time, €7, free for children up to 5 and Baunei residents. Booking opens three days ahead at midnight, for one slot from 07:30 to 16:00.
More: our Cala Goloritzé booking and trail guide.

Cala dei Gabbiani

Boat landing: yes, booked on the platform.
Cap 2026: 300 sea places.
On foot: a hard trail from the Golgo plateau, for experienced hikers, usually with a guide. The beach is about 250 m long.

Cala Mariolu

Boat landing: yes, booked on the platform.
Cap 2026: 700 sea places.
On foot: Sardegna Turismo calls the land route a demanding trek for experts.
More: our guide to reaching Cala Mariolu by boat.

Piscine di Venere

What it is: a 50 m cove of sand and small pebbles a short way from Cala Biriola, known for its pool-like water.
By boat: Sardegna Turismo puts it about half an hour by RIB from Santa Maria Navarrese or Cala Gonone. It is not one of the four coves on the 2026 fee platform, so ask your skipper whether a landing or only a swim stop is planned.

Cala Biriola

Boat landing: yes, booked on the platform (spelled Biriala there).
Cap 2026: 300 sea places.
On foot: experts only, from the Golgo plateau with local guides, with some climbing sections.

Cala Sisine

Boat landing: yes, booked on the platform.
Cap 2026: 1,800 sea places, the largest on the Baunei coast.
On foot: possible on signposted trails, with more effort. Sardegna Turismo lists a bar and refreshment point.

Cala Luna

Who runs it: the comune of Dorgali, so the Baunei fee platform does not apply.
Cap 2026: 900 people at a time, checked with one QR code per boat, according to La Nuova Sardegna quoting the mayor. Private RIBs and walkers were outside the count.
Ports: boats come mainly from Cala Gonone, and also from Arbatax, Santa Maria Navarrese, La Caletta and Orosei.
More: our Cala Luna guide to caves, hiking and boat access.

Renting a boat without a licence

Under article 39 of Italy's pleasure-boating code (D.Lgs. 171/2005), you need a licence to go more than six miles from the coast, to ride a jet ski, or to use an engine of more than 30 kW (40.8 hp). Within those limits, and for boats up to 24 m long, no licence is needed. The minimum age is 18 for an imbarcazione and 16 for a natante, the smaller class.

A protected coast with a park on paper

A national park for the Gulf of Orosei and Gennargentu was created in 1998, but the environment ministry's list of national parks marks it "non attivo, organi non costituiti": not active, with no governing bodies. The rules you meet on the water, from the landing fee to the Goloritzé buoys, are set by the comuni of Baunei and Dorgali.

Local tips: what most guides get wrong

"Boat tours stop at Goloritzé." They stop at the buoys, at least 300 m out. Only walkers with a ticket reach the beach.
"Goloritzé takes 250 a day." The cap is 250 people at the same time, not per day.
"Cala Luna is a Baunei beach." Its cap and QR system belong to Dorgali.
"Arbatax is the gateway." It has a big marina, but Santa Maria Navarrese is about 3 nautical miles closer to Goloritzé and Mariolu.
"Booking is always required." In 2026 it stopped from 12 October for the four platform coves. Goloritzé kept its booking.
"40 hp, no licence." The legal limit is 30 kW, which is 40.8 hp, and only within six miles of the coast.

When to go

The capped, paid season ran from 1 May to 20 October 2026. In high summer places could sell out, so book at 07:00 or travel with an operator that holds a quota. The coast faces east and every trip depends on the sea, so keep a spare day; our guide to Sardinia's winds explains which winds bring rough water to which coast.

After October, boat departures depend on demand and weather, so ask at the harbour. On 31 October 2026 the Goloritzé booking page was still selling tickets for early November dates. The trail starts on the Golgo plateau: see our guide to the Golgo plateau, As Piscinas and Su Sterru.

Sources: Heart of Sardinia, Costa di Baunei via mare · Heart of Sardinia, Cala Mariolu 2026 · Heart of Sardinia, Cala dei Gabbiani 2026 · Heart of Sardinia, Cala Sisine 2026 · Heart of Sardinia, Cala Goloritzé · Sardegna Turismo, Cala Goloritzé · Sardegna Turismo, Cala dei Gabbiani · Normattiva, D.Lgs. 171/2005 art. 39 · La Nuova Sardegna, Cala Luna, 8 Aug 2026 · Ministero dell'Ambiente, list of national parks · Distances: OpenStreetMap coordinates, straight-line calculation

Photo credits: The limestone spire above Cala Goloritzé seen from the walking trail, the only legal way onto the beach since boats must stay beyond the buoys (Unukorno, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); RIBs arriving at Cala Sisine, the Baunei cove with the largest 2026 sea cap, 1,800 places (Carlo Pelagalli, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons); The marina at Santa Maria Navarrese, Baunei's own harbour and the closest port to Cala Goloritzé and Cala Mariolu (photo from 2004) (Mauro Mereu, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons); Pedra Longa, the 128 m limestone spire about 2 nautical miles north of Santa Maria Navarrese (Gianni Careddu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Sailing boats anchored off Cala Goloritzé in August 2017. Boats may not land and must stay at least 300 m from the shore (Opi2908, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons). Fact sheet and chart: Sardinia Blog, from the sources listed above.

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