Luxury Car Rental in Santa Teresa Gallura

Santa Teresa Gallura is the last town before the Strait of Bonifacio: on a clear day, from the Longonsardo Tower, the white cliffs of Corsica look close enough to touch. It is a frontier village laid out on a tidy nineteenth-century grid, with a piazza that smells of myrtle in the evening and a beach — Rena Bianca — tucked directly beneath the houses. Luxury here has nothing to do with yacht-club posturing. It is the freedom to drop the roof at eight in the morning and decide whether the day will end at the foot of a lighthouse or in front of a sunset over the western sea.

The surrounding landscape is raw granite carved by the mistral, stitched with Mediterranean scrub and junipers bent permanently by the wind. Distances are short, yet every road ends at the sea and not one of them runs straight — a standing invitation to drive. Any car will get you there; the right car turns the twenty minutes between one cove and the next into the best part of the holiday.

The car sets off from Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport and reaches Santa Teresa Gallura in around 75 minutes, covering the 65 km of the Gallura coast. You name the delivery point — the hotel entrance, the gate of your rented villa above Rena Bianca, the car park of your residence — and an LSM host is waiting with your chosen model: cleaned, fuelled and already registered to your booking. The handover briefing takes about as long as an espresso, and then the keys are yours.

There is also a detail unique to Santa Teresa: the port of Longonsardo, where the Bonifacio ferries arrive and depart. If you are stepping off the boat from Corsica, we can have the car waiting for you right on the quay — and the same goes for anyone anchoring offshore and coming in by tender. Requirements and conditions are provided at the quotation stage. Arranging it all takes a single message to our WhatsApp concierge or the online form: check availability a few days ahead, and on arrival the only thing left to think about is the road.

Start with the road that brings you into town: the SS133bis from Palau. It is twenty-odd kilometres of corners threaded between granite boulders and the scent of wild helichrysum, with sudden glimpses of the La Maddalena archipelago. Take it unhurried, in second and third gear, letting the engine sing on the way out of each bend — it is one of those stretches where your passenger finally puts the phone down.

Then there is Capo Testa, five minutes from the centre: you cross the narrow isthmus between twin beaches and climb towards the lighthouse through wind-polished granite sculptures that glow orange at sunset. Leave the car in the lay-bys before the headland and walk for ten minutes: the Valle della Luna — the amphitheatre of rock where a hippie community lived in the 1970s — opens up below you, dotted with coves of green water. On the way back, a swim at Rena Bianca and an aperitivo beneath the Longonsardo Tower close the loop perfectly.

The third itinerary is the most cinematic: the SP90 towards Castelsardo, the west-coast corniche. You drive with the sea constantly on your right, past Vignola Mare and the red rocks of Costa Paradiso, all the way to the medieval town perched on its promontory. Leave in the afternoon and you arrive in golden light, returning after dinner with the Capo Testa lighthouse as your beacon. It is one of the routes we cover in our guide to Sardinia's most beautiful roads to drive in a supercar.

The wind is part of the scenery here, so the first choice is a true open-top: the Ferrari Portofino M is made for the western corniche — open-air grand touring with a V8 that fills the granite cuttings of the SP90. If you prefer your elegance more understated, look to the Mercedes-AMG SL 63: fabric roof, flagship-grade comfort, even with the mistral blowing hard.

For the SS133bis and its tight corners, the answer is a Porsche 911 Carrera — compact, precise, tireless, the car that makes even the drive home feel too short. Travelling with family, paddleboards and cool boxes instead? An SUV such as the Range Rover Sport soaks up the last rough metres to the viewpoints without breaking composure. The LSM fleet counts more than 100 models and 150+ versions; and if the idea of an open roof has already won you over, our selection of convertibles made for the Sardinian coast is the right place to start.