When to go to Sardinia, month by month.

The short answer

Late May to mid June, and the second half of September. Warm sea, long light, restaurants fully open, roads and coves still calm. If those weeks are impossible, my next choices are early July and the first week of October. I avoid the middle two weeks of August, and I will tell you so rather than sell you into them.

April, the island waking up

Green, wildflowered and empty. Days reach the low seventies, the sea is still cold enough that swimming is a dare rather than a pleasure, and some coastal hotels open only at the end of the month. This is the best walking I get all year: the Supramonte, the Bosa coast, the old shepherd paths above Baunei without meeting anyone. Easter can be extraordinary inland, where the processions are for the village and not for visitors.

May, my quiet favorite

By the second half of May the sea has turned swimmable, the light stretches past nine, and the coast is open without being busy. Boat days are cheap by comparison and captains have time to talk. The one caveat is water temperature: if your week is built entirely around swimming, wait ten days.

June, the best all round month

If I could only book one month, it would be the first three weeks of June. Everything works, nothing is crowded, and the long evenings make a seven day week feel like ten. Prices climb through the month and jump at the end of it. This is when I place most of the storylines I write.

July, hot and still workable

The first two weeks are genuinely good if you plan around the heat: early boat departures, long lunches in shade, inland days that start at seven. By the last week the Costa Smeralda is fully awake and the popular coves need timing rather than luck. I move mornings earlier and give up on anything that involves a car park.

August, and the two weeks I avoid

Italy takes its holiday in August, and roughly the 5th to the 25th is the island at maximum load. Ferragosto, the 15th, is the peak of the peak. Rooms cost double, the good tables were booked in February, and the beaches you came for have a queue for parking. It can still be done well, entirely by boat and entirely inland, but it is the hardest week of the year to write and the least like the Sardinia I would show a friend.

If August is your only window, book eight to ten months ahead and plan to sleep away from the coast road. That single decision changes the whole week.

September, the reward

The sea is at its warmest of the year, the crowds leave with the Italian school calendar, and by the second week the coast belongs to whoever stayed. Light shortens noticeably by the end of the month, so days want a slightly tighter shape. For couples and for anyone without school-age children, this is the week I recommend first.

October, the last good chapter

The first ten days still swim. After that the island turns inward: grape and olive harvest, chestnut festivals in the Barbagia, mushroom season, wood smoke in the highland villages. Coastal closures begin, flight schedules thin, and a week here is about food and walking rather than boats. Some of my favorite trips have been late October, and none of them included a beach.

November to March, if you know why you are coming

This is real life on the island rather than a holiday version of it. Mild, wet, cheap and almost empty. Most coastal hotels close, island flights reduce to the Rome and Milan legs, and boat days are off the table. What is open is the interior: Cagliari, the archaeology, Carnival in Mamoiada and Ottana in February, which is one of the oldest and least commercial things in the Mediterranean. I take a small number of these trips a year and they are among the best storylines I write.

What actually decides your month

• Sea temperature. Comfortable from roughly mid June to mid October, warmest in September
• Crowds. Low until late June, extreme from 5 to 25 August, gone again by mid September
• Openings. Coastal rooms and restaurants run roughly late April to late October
• Flights. The widest choice from New York runs late May to late September
• Festivals. Sant'Efisio in May, village festas through summer, harvest and chestnuts in October, Carnival in February
• Price. Lowest in April, May and late October, highest in the two middle weeks of August

How I would choose

Tell me what the week is for rather than which month is best. A sailing week wants June or September. A walking and eating week wants April or October. A first visit with swimming at the center wants the second half of June. Once I know the point of the trip, the month usually picks itself.