The Costa Smeralda was designed in 1962 as a private club on a 55-kilometre stretch of north-eastern Sardinia. Karim Aga Khan IV assembled 3,000 hectares of maquis scrubland, commissioned Jacques Couëlle and Michele Busiri-Vici as resident architects, and built a marina, a yacht club, and a set of hotels with no visible signage and no road grid. The philosophy was explicit: those who belong here should not need directions. Six decades later, that principle is still the operational reality for a private chauffeur on the Costa Smeralda.
OLB Olbia | Italy's Busiest Private Aviation Hub in Summer
OLB Olbia Costa Smeralda processes more private aircraft movements in July and August than any other Italian airport, more than Linate Prime, more than Ciampino, more than Olbia on the same calendar day in August. The FBO Aviazione Sarda sits 3 minutes from the commercial terminal. A NetJets Phenom 300 landing at 17:00 on August 10th needs a car on the apron by 17:05.
FFGR Italia operates from a base in Arzachena, 20 minutes from Porto Cervo and 15 minutes from OLB. We coordinate simultaneous arrivals: private aviation at FBO, Vueling from Barcelona at T1, Ryanair from Stansted at T2. The same coordinator manages the fleet, not three separate dispatchers.
The Unsigned Roads | What Most Drivers Get Wrong
The internal Costa Smeralda road network was built without standard signage by design. Between Porto Cervo village and Cannigione, the road passes through 23 points where the lane width narrows to a single vehicle. At Cala di Volpe, the turn-off from the SP13 is unmarked. The Romazzino hotel access road requires crossing a dry stream bed between June and September. The villas of Liscia di Vacca and Razza di Junco use property reference numbers, not street addresses.
Our drivers complete a 40-hour orientation of the Costa Smeralda before their first client transfer. This is not optional. A GPS device that routes the Rolls-Royce Ghost down a lane designed for a Fiat Panda, 2,072mm width, 200mm clearance on each side, produces a memorable but expensive first impression.
Porto Cervo Marina | The World's Most Concentrated Superyacht Fleet
Porto Cervo Marina operates 700 berths accommodating vessels from 8 to 110 metres. In August, the Aga Khan Marina hosts the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta: the two most prestigious offshore races in the western Mediterranean. The quayside becomes, for ten days, the highest concentration of naval architecture and net worth in Europe.
Superyacht crew logistics are complex: provisions from Arzachena or Olbia delivered dockside, crew shore leaves coordinated between watches, VIP guests transferred from OLB to the marina with no visible wait time. FFGR Italia is the reference ground operator for crew transfers and owner logistics at Porto Cervo, Porto Rotondo and Cannigione marinas.
Cala di Volpe | When Access Is Everything
Cala di Volpe was designed in 1963 by Jacques Couëlle, who described his method as 'organic architecture': buildings that emerge from the rock rather than being placed upon it. The hotel has no visible right angles. The exterior walls are rough local granite. The swimming pool is filled with heated Mediterranean seawater. The private beach has no sunbeds visible from the road: because the road doesn't exist.
Day access to Cala di Volpe for non-residents requires an introduction to the concierge director. Our concierge team has managed this introduction for clients for years. On a Tuesday afternoon in mid-July, a confirmed table at the beach restaurant and a sunbed allocation for four are worth more than a chartered helicopter.
Forte Village | The South Shore Alternative
Forte Village (Santa Margherita di Pula, Costa del Sud) is accessible from CAG Cagliari Elmas in 20 minutes: not from OLB. It has been voted Europe's leading luxury resort 14 years in a row by the World Travel Awards. Its Thalasso Spa draws seawater directly from the Mediterranean at 35°C. The Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy is on-site with certified coaches.
Clients who split a Sardinia week between Forte Village (4 nights, south) and Cala di Volpe (3 nights, north) need a single operator covering both airports (CAG and OLB), both properties, and the 2-hour island crossing between them. That cross-island transfer, on the SS131 inland highway with no coastal views, is something most clients do not want to think about. We think about it for them.
Book a Sardinia Transfer
