How to Get to Olbia: By Plane, Ferry or Train

There are two practical ways to reach Olbia from mainland Italy: by air, flying into Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport, or by sea, arriving at the port of Olbia. Crossings run from Genoa, Livorno and Civitavecchia. There is no direct road or rail connection between mainland Italy and Sardinia, so the train only becomes useful once you are on the island. If you need your own car, the ferry is the only way to bring it; if you would rather be here in a couple of hours and hire one on arrival, fly.

Which suits you comes down to three things: whether you need your own car, how much of the holiday you are willing to spend getting here, and what time of day you want to arrive.

Getting to Olbia by plane

Olbia Costa Smeralda is the main airport for the whole north-east of the island, and it sits on the edge of the city rather than out in the countryside. Geasar, the airport operator, describes it as not far from the centre and links it to the ordinary urban bus network — which tells you more than a figure in kilometres would.

From Olbia Airport to the city centre

Three options, all of them from the same spot just outside the terminal.

• Urban bus. Lines 2 and 10 serve the airport. According to the Port Authority’s own transport information, updated in September 2026, they run roughly every 20 minutes until 20:00 and every 40 minutes after that. The stop is outside the terminal, 50 metres from the arrivals hall.
• Taxi. The rank is directly in front of arrivals.
• Hire car. The desks are in the terminal, which makes sense if you are heading straight out to the coast rather than into town.

Bus tickets come from the self-service machine in the arrivals area, the MooneyGo app or by SMS — worth knowing before you join the wrong queue. The network is run by ASPO, and it is their current timetable you want rather than a frequency quoted on a blog, because it shifts with the season.

From Olbia Airport to the Costa Smeralda

If the Costa Smeralda is your destination rather than Olbia, the airport is genuinely convenient. Geasar publishes these road distances from the terminal:

Destination	Distance from Olbia airport
Porto Rotondo	20 km
Arzachena	30 km
Costa Smeralda	34 km

Short distances, but no urban bus covers them: for the coast it is a hire car, a taxi or a transfer. If you are flying into Alghero instead, the Port Authority puts Alghero-Fertilia at 130 km from Olbia, roughly an hour and a half by road.

Getting to Olbia by ferry

The ferry is the only way to bring your own car to Sardinia, which is why so many people choose it. Olbia’s is one of the busiest passenger ports in the Mediterranean: the Port Authority records over three million passenger movements a year, alongside almost six million tonnes of freight on wheels.

Which mainland ports connect with Olbia?

The port’s own departures board shows crossings between Olbia and Genoa, Livorno and Civitavecchia. Several operators run them, and both the routes and the sailing times shift through the year.

The port makes this point itself, and it is worth repeating: the schedules it publishes are the ones its information office happens to hold, and passengers should always check routes and times with the operator. We do not reproduce timetables here for the same reason.

Choosing a departure port is really a decision about the drive to it. Civitavecchia suits anyone coming from Rome and central Italy, Livorno from Tuscany, Genoa from the north and from over the Alps.

What you will find when you dock

Olbia’s port is three separate areas, which is worth knowing before you follow a sign:

• Isola Bianca — where you arrive. It has 10 berths for ro-ro passenger ships carrying cars, for commercial vehicles and for cruise ships.
• Porto interno — the inner harbour, on the site of the Roman port, now given over to leisure boating.
• Cocciani — the industrial port, for freight. Not a passenger area.

The Stazione Marittima sits next to the civic port and has ticket offices, a bar and a tobacconist. A free shuttle bus, reserved for passengers embarking and disembarking, runs between the maritime station and the berths almost continuously while ships are arriving and leaving, so you are not left walking the quays with your bags.

From the forecourt of the maritime station you will find ASPO urban buses and ARST regional coaches. ASPO’s line 09 connects the port with the centre and the railway station. ARST also runs directly from Isola Bianca to a number of Sardinian towns; its main stop is in via Vittorio Veneto, which the Port Authority puts at 2.7 km from the port, about half an hour on foot.

Can you reach Olbia by train?

Not from the mainland. Sardinia has no rail link to the rest of Italy, so no train will bring you to the island. Once you are here, though, the railway earns its place.

Olbia’s station is in Corso Umberto I, in the centre, and the Port Authority notes that ASPO’s bus 09 links it to the maritime station forecourt. As of September 2026 it lists roughly eight trains a day to Sassari and six to Oristano and Cagliari. Check the operator’s timetable before you build a day around a train.

Plane or ferry: which should you choose?

Situation	Best option	Why
You want your own car on the island	Ferry	It is the only way to bring it
Short trip, three or four days	Plane	The crossing would eat a meaningful share of the holiday
Travelling with a lot of luggage, or with a pet	Ferry	No baggage allowance, and far fewer restrictions
Heading straight for the Costa Smeralda	Plane	The airport is 20–34 km from the coastal resorts
Travelling as a family and watching the budget	Depends	Compare the full cost: for four people with a car, the ferry often competes; alone, rarely
You dislike early starts and late finishes	Plane	Crossings are frequently overnight or very early

One thing catches people out either way: the time you arrive matters more than how you travelled. A ship that docks near midnight and a late flight both leave you looking for a check-in that is still awake.

What to do once you arrive

Three practical things, in the order they tend to matter.

Settle the car question before you arrive, not after. Staying in the centre or near the port, you can manage without one. Staying along the coast, you cannot. Which makes it really a decision about where you sleep, and that is the subject of a separate guide: where to stay in Olbia.

Give your host your arrival time, with the flight or the sailing. Late arrivals are completely normal here, given the timetables — they simply need to be known in advance rather than announced on the doorstep.

Buy your bus ticket before you need it. At the airport there is a machine in arrivals and an app; at the port there is a ticket machine in the maritime station. Neither is a good place to be improvising with bags in hand.

Once you are here, the bus network, the parking zones and the taxi ranks are a separate subject, and we cover them in getting around Olbia.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get to Olbia?
By plane, into Olbia Costa Smeralda airport on the edge of the city, or by ferry, into the port in the city itself, with crossings from Genoa, Livorno and Civitavecchia. There is no rail or road link from the mainland.

How do you get from Olbia airport to the city centre?
By urban bus on lines 2 or 10, from a stop 50 metres from arrivals; by taxi, from the rank in front of arrivals; or by hire car from the desks in the terminal. Bus tickets come from the machine in arrivals, the MooneyGo app or by SMS.

Which ports have ferries to Olbia?
Genoa, Livorno and Civitavecchia, according to the port’s own departures information. Several operators run the crossings and the routes change through the year, so check with the operator.

Can you get to Olbia by train?
Not from the mainland: there is no rail link to Sardinia. Olbia does have a station, in Corso Umberto I, which the Port Authority connects to the port by ASPO bus 09, and which serves Sassari, Oristano and Cagliari.

Is it better to fly or take the ferry to Olbia?
Fly for a short trip or if you are heading straight to the Costa Smeralda. Take the ferry if you want your own car on the island, are travelling with a lot of luggage or with a pet, or are a family of four for whom the full cost compares well.

How far is Olbia airport from the Costa Smeralda?
Geasar, the airport operator, publishes 34 km to the Costa Smeralda, 30 km to Arzachena and 20 km to Porto Rotondo. There is no urban bus on those routes, so you will need a car, a taxi or a transfer.

Read also

• Where to stay in Olbia: the areas, and who each one suits
• The best beaches near Olbia, and how to reach them
• All our English guides to Olbia and north-east Sardinia

Next: decide where you are sleeping

How you arrive and where you stay are the same decision seen from two sides. Landing at the airport with a hire car points one way; docking at midnight without one points another. Our guide to where to stay in Olbia works through it area by area.

If you already know, you can see what we have available between Olbia and Porto Rotondo.

AirAffitti editorial team