Li Finistreddi Exclusive Country Retreat — Hotel in Alzachèna/Arzachena

Disclaimer - we ended up here because 7 Pines canceled our vacation 36 hours before arrival.

Location: IF you want to be close to the action - horrible. Resort is not close to anything. You are well up the winding roads / hill and at least a 10-15 min drive / 45-60 min walk from the water. A 12 min taxi to the nearest town (Cannigione) which is 2.6 KM away - costs €80 each way. Feel like dinner and grabbing a burger - pizza - etc… plan on €160 to leave the property. IF you can even get a taxi to come up the hill. Feel like going to Porto Cervo - €100 + each way and a 40 min drive. Same with airport… €120-140 each way. IF he had initially rented a car - it may have completely changed our trip.

IF you want peace, quiet, isolation and seclusion - then this could be your spot. The views, grounds, pool, etc.. are awesome. Super manicured and breathtaking.

We did go the local Pizzeria and Burgeria in Cannigione and it was fantastic. €12 for a fantastic burger. €8-10 for a pizza. Perfect!

We also ate at Matsuhisa. Rip off. €25 for miso soup? €80 for black cod? Same meal at Morimoto, Nobu, or any other Matsuhisa location is 1/3 or the price.

Room: We stayed in Villa Ferula. Super nice. Great pool. Nice bathrooms. Well appointed. 5 star.

Food / Restaurant: Excellent. High quality. Over the top service. Super attentive. They will really go above and beyond. Breakfast and dinner are fantastic! Loved everyone at the restaurant. They really made us feel special! Especially my 6 year old daughter. Pizza - best keep secret on the island. Awesome!!

Spa: Facility / treatment rooms / massage tables are not 5 star but the service is. 7,500 nights in hotels across 92 countries - this is a Top 5 massage experience. Therapist was incredible. Amazing energy. They also even went above and beyond to do a kids treatment for my 6 year old daughter.

Beach Club: ehhh. Doesn’t really sync with a 5 star property. Beach club is 3 stars. Beach club location - decent. Water clarity is just OK. Sand has a bunch of thorns / wood. Beach is kind of sharp shells / rock - not sand. Food / Drinks are OK - not great. Pretty basic. We ended up going to White Beach Club Liscia Ruja and had an amazing experience . Great beach. Amazing food and drinks. €60 euro per person for a sunbed - but well worth it.

Service: hit and miss. Restaurant and Spa. Awesome. Perfect. Housekeeping - superb. Front Desk… needs some work. There are some really frustrating things that should not happen at a 5 star property. For example - One day I had a massage. I wanted to go to beach club at 12 noon. The driver was there at the resort. There was no takers for the 11:30 shuttle. BUT - the front desk told me NO. I have to wait until 3. When I pushed back they told me - well - then you should go to the airport and rent a car. When I said that response is not very 5 star… the shuttle magically appeared 3 minutes later and they ultimately took me to the beach club. IF you want to leave the property for the beach club or Cannigione there are only 4 shuttles a day. 10:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 3:00 PM, or 6:00 PM. But the resort has their own van / driver. Sooo… why not just take/ pick up a guest when you want / need to go? The resort has like 20 rooms. Not that tough to manage. You could take a shuttle to Cannigione at 6:00 PM - but most restaurants don’t open until 8 PM.. and then you have no way to get home. Taxi’s do not want to go up the hill to Li Finestreddi. So then you end up bribing a taxi and paying €100-120 euro for a 1 way trip at 10-11 PM.

We did end up renting a car. But when I went to front desk to get s taxi to the airport - the first 2 taxi companies said no. So - we were again stranded. Instead of the hotel telling us we could rent a car in Cannigione (Avis) - we were left to discover this on our own and by speaking with another guest. I felt like they wanted to trap me at the resort. Withholding information from a guest is...

We went to Sardegna for a scuba diving trip, and my daughter and I got PADI certified. We went in July which is high season in Sardegna and stayed for the whole week. We rented a car to easily travel to Palau where the course was taking place, and it would not require us to stay at a hotel that was at walking distance. While the beaches of the region are world famous, we felt we didn't need to stay at a hotel that was at the beach and would happily trade that for a country retreat upscale experience. ||With those constraints in mind, we found Li Finistreddi. What a gem of a place. They have a series of suites which are like cabins, each with its own small pool/jacuzzi, surrounded by shrubs for privacy and overlooking the ocean at a distance. They name them too; we stayed at "Mirto". Each named suite also has conveniently close reserved parking. To get to the parking, you enter the hotel driveway from the street, beautifully surrounded by flowers, and as you go up the hill you'll find a covered parking area and two spots labeled by the name of your suite. After parking, it is a short and level walk to the suite area.||The breakfast, and actually all the food we had in Sardegna, was excellent. It is not a buffet per-se; you walk into the building and back out into the main pool area where there are tables shaded by a circular structure and a tree that is right in the middle, and you order what you'd like for breakfast from a menu. The service is fast and friendly, and it's augmented by the view of the mountains and the ocean over the borderless edge of the main swimming pool.||No less beautiful were the afternoons. One day we sat in one of the pool side couches and listened to live mellow music from a singer that was on site that day. ||They also have a well maintained and easy to walk ecological path, with stations where you can stop and perform an activity. There is a playground for kids, a small gym surrounded 360 degrees by glass windows (it tends to get a little hot inside though in July), and a tennis court in excellent shape. There is also a spa but unfortunately we didn't get a chance to try it.||One important aspect of any stay is how the hotel handles unexpected events, which tend to happen once in a while. In this case, we had left my daughter's favorite plushy on the bed under the sheets, and it was accidentally taken when they changed them out. When we came back and didn't find it and figured what might have happened, we notified the hotel. The hotel let us know that the cleaning company takes all the sheets to an offsite location for cleaning, and that they had notified them of this and that they would look for it. The next day the plushy was handed to us at our suite, safe and sound and in perfect condition. ||Our stay was quite magical, and the experience of driving down to the ocean to scuba dive, eating in Sardegna, and coming back to the hotel through the flowered path where we could park and walk to our suite in privacy, have a bath in the private jacuzzi and then a hot shower (the showers are also wonderful and have one of those extra wide and flat shower heads), was unforgettable.||With the expert handling of the unexpected event in combination with all the other amazing features, and its calm and relaxing atmosphere, I can recommend this hotel without reservation....

We stayed here for two nights, two rooms, a family of four. This is a beautiful modern hotel, up in the hills, above the sea and the Maddalena Islands. It is about a ten minute drive to the nearest beach, but the hotel makes up for this with its beauty, its friendly staff, and its amazing rooms. There are only 20 or so rooms and suites, so the place is always fairly quiet. |Our check-in was amazing. Paula was so friendly, and she filled us in on everything, including the hotel and things to do around the hotel. |The rooms were amazing, super modern and clean, with a flair of Italian. We loved the bathroom, contrasted with the modern room with the beautiful roof and Italian tile work. The shower was a bit small, but it had amazing water flow. Guerlain products were awesome. The bedroom and view were comfortable and spacious, and the bed was perfect. Turn-down service and daily cleaning couldn’t be better. |The salt water swimming pools were great after a long day at the beach. And the views of the countryside and sea below were amazing. Some of the swimming pools have jets, an added bonus. The gym was great, with a selection of weights, kettle balls, and machines. And there is a fully-glassed area for treadmills and cycles, with a beautiful view of the sea while you are running or cycling. The outdoor walking/running circuit is very nice, I used it both mornings. We used the spa with its Turkish bath, steam room, and sauna. Small but definitely nice. |The included breakfast was great. It’s not a buffet, but this is not a buffet kind of hotel. The food selection was amazing, basically anything you wanted, was up for order. Fresh juices, coffee,fresh fruits, amazing baked goods, omelettes, meats, yoghurt, cereal, basically anything you wanted, was available. And the servers were so friendly and efficient. Thank you to Elizabeth who served us at breakfast and at dinner. People who write reviews about wanting to have a buffet clearly don’t know the meaning of what a Five-Star hotel is all about. |And the dinner and bar!!! Wow. We had drinks out on the patio at sunset. The drinks were amazing. Thank you to Simon and Giovanni, who went out of their way to make our aperitifs super special. The olives, nuts, and baked goods made it even better. The dinner was so nice. And the food couldn’t have been better. I had the sea bass, and my family had the scallops and pastas. All were so good. The complimentary cookies and candies at the end of the meal were so delicious. |There is a complimentary shuttle to the beach. It was a little pricey to use their beach club, but the beach was beautiful and our views were great. And the staff down there were all very friendly and helpful. |Overall, this is a true five-star hotel. Would come back here in a heartbeat. Thank you to everyone who made our two-night stay extra special. We will...