Between olive trees and crystal clear waters, halfway between Arzachena and Porto Cervo, Cascioni Eco Retreat is a five star that chose the earth as philosophy, and slowness as a supreme form of elegance.
To find it you have to go along secondary roads that smell of myrtle and Mediterranean scrub, until the hill opens in a panorama 18 hectares of agricultural estate, three thousand olive trees and a silence that has the specific weight of privilege.
Cascioni Eco Retreat is a five star in the most authentic sense of the term: not in the sense of glossy marble and majestic lobby, but in that of hospitality thought with millimeter care, where every detail refers to the land that hosts it. Placed in that Gallura that still keeps the slow rhythms of work in the fields, the resort reinterprets the architecture of the stazzo, the typical rural house Gallurese, turning it into a haven of rare elegance.
The main building, with its clear stone arches and hand-painted roofs, houses the reception, restaurant and lounge bar overlooking the main pool, organic forms that seem to be drawn by the wind. All around, the 19 rooms and suites, almost all with garden and private heated pool, decline the same philosophy: spaces collected, silent, furnished with natural materials such as wood, stone, carved chestnut and fabrics of Sardinian tradition.
Not lacking the little ones objects of local culture, from wool and cotton weaving to the artisanal artifacts of the island: fragments of a heritage that is not exposed as souvenirs, but lived as an integral part of the experience.
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La Cascioni Country Villa
A short distance from the resort rises Cascioni Country Villa, a world in itself, hidden between granite rocks on a hectare and a half of wood. Five rooms, six bathrooms, a stone pool in Orosei, a whirlpool made from a rock quarry, gym and wine cellar: a private residence combining the freedom of the exclusive villa with all the services of the resort, including free shuttle and access to the restaurants of the group.
The Philosophy of the Earth
What distinguishes Cascioni Eco Retreat from conventional luxury is a rarely encountered consistency: here everything, kitchen, wellness treatments, the scents of the gardens, comes or is inspired by the seal itself. The vineyard, the hernias, the garden, the garden of the aromatic herbs and the small farm are not decorative elements: they are the productive soul of the place, and from them depends the entire experience of the guest.
Management is oriented to sustainability with the same seriousness with which a guest cares about it. The filtered water of the pools is reused to irrigate gardens and gardens. Photovoltaic systems cover part of energy needs. Internal mobility takes place on bicycles and electric microcars.
The botanical selection of gardens favours Mediterranean species with low water consumption, gathered in a true botanical abacus that promotes local biodiversity. It's not greenwashing. certified with the Ecolabel, the official EU brand for reduced environmental impact.
Ulìa, Cooking as Subtraction
In the restaurant Ulìa, lo chef Salvatore Camedda, originally from Cabras, already awarded the Michelin star, carries out a radical vision: a kitchen that wants to remove, more than to put. The raw materials of the estate and the small local producers are the starting and arrival point. Olive grove, vineyard, orchard, autochthonous wheat fields, vegetable garden and farm animals return to the chef ingredients in full of their taste, without unnecessary mediation.
In the hall, manager Gianfranco Soma leads an experience that follows the same narrative line: the tale of an excellent Sardinia that doesn't lie, that doesn't explain, that you just let yourself taste. Annex to the restaurant, Lounge Bar Ulìa, overlooking the large lawn and the pool, is the convivial space for aperitif, for the tasting of oil, wine and honey of the farm, for the evenings in which the border between guests and external adventors dissolves in the informality of a glass under the stars of Gallura.
The Mediterranean Spa and the Spa in the Forest
The Mediterranean Spa is among the most complete of the north-eastern coast of Sardinia. In addition to the classic wellness path, heated pool, scented sauna with local essences, Turkish bath, emotional showers, offers something unusual: Spa in the Forest, an outdoor space obtained under the trees, where the treatments are based on extracts of herbs collected in the adjacent botanical garden.
Olive oil, honey, wild lavender and medicinal plants of the property become raw material for rituals that seem to come out of a newly rediscovered ancestral tradition. The Spa in the Forest is open also to outside guests, confirming a vision that does not close the beauty between its borders.
Author Experiences
At Cascioni there is no limit to rest: you dip. The Author Experience Program allows you to actively participate in the life of the estate. You can visit the olives of local varieties (the Pizz’e carroga, the Tonda di Cagliari, the Bosana), visit the mill and take home a bottle of new oil. You can learn how to prepare the shutters, the ravioli and the seadas of the Gallura tradition, or participate in tastings of honey, cheese and local wines. For those seeking the contemplative dimension, the Dinner between the Olives, four candlelight courses among the rows, is one of those experiences that they tell for years.
The resort borders the Stagno Saloni, a natural oasis of thirty hectares where erica, myrtle, cyst and helicris form the frame of an ecosystem that houses over 180 species of birds, from red heron to swamp hawk, from sultan chicken to the stilt. Kayaking excursions and birdwatching sessions translate into silent encounters with a nature that is not staged.
How to Get to Cascioni Eco Retreat
Olbia airport is just a 30-minute drive away. From Milan it is only fifty-five minutes away; from Rome, forty. Cascioni is open seasonally, from May to October, the exact time Gallura is more itself: warm, fragrant, bright.
The address is SP 59 bis Porto Cervo – Baia Sardinia, Località Cascioni, Arzachena. But the real road to Cascioni begins when you decide to look for something different: not luxury as a stand, but as a measure. Not the holiday as an escape, but as a return. To the land, to the real flavors, at a time without hands.
