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Valle dell’Erica Resort Thalasso & Spa
Santa Teresa Gallura, Italy · Independent · Accessible Luxury
Sardinia's first holiday village, begun in 1958 when Anton Paolo Vincentelli set a handful of low houses into the heather at the top of Gallura, done carefully enough that the President of the Republic gave him a commendation for it. By the sixties kings and film people were coming. Delphina has since rebuilt it as two five-star hotels, the dispersed Hotel Erica and La Licciola from 2013, sharing nearly a mile of coast, a fleet of boats and the Le Thermae seawater spa, looking across at the uninhabited island of Spargi.
- Opened 1958
- Rooms from 807 sq ft (75 m²)
About Valle dell’Erica Resort Thalasso & Spa
- World Travel Awards has named it Europe's Leading Green Resort every year since 2019, and Italy's Leading Green Resort since 2020.
- The resort takes its name from Erica terminalis, the Corsican heath that covers the headland; the sister hotel La Licciola is named for a local oak.
- Conde Nast Traveller readers placed it third among the best hotels in the world in the 2025 Readers' Choice Awards.
- From the shore you can pick out the limestone cliffs of Bonifacio in Corsica, and boats leave the resort for Spargi, Budelli, Razzoli and Santa Maria in the La Maddalena archipelago.
- Entry-level rooms start at 807 sq ft (75 m²).
History
In 1957 a group of university students came down from Frankfurt to do research in Sardinia, and the owner of the valley, Anton Paolo Vincentelli, chose this stretch of granite coast at the northern tip of Gallura to build a few simple houses. Construction began in 1958. It was the first holiday village in Sardinia, and Vincentelli, a pioneer of the island's tourism, received a commendation from the President of the Republic for the quality and restraint of the work. Through the 1960s the place became genuinely fashionable, taking in show business and cultural figures and, by the resort's own account, princes and kings, all on the promise of unspoilt nature kept private.
Delphina hotels & resorts, a company formed by two Sardinian families, later rebuilt the property as a five-star resort of two hotels. The Hotel Erica is the historic soul, a dispersed hotel of 148 rooms scattered through lentisk, myrtle, helichrysum and the heather that gave the valley its name, furnished piece by piece with Gallura craftsmen and arranged around the Piazzetta degli Ulivi, a made Sardinian village square of small shops, bars and live music. La Licciola, built in 2013, holds 125 contemporary rooms and suites with Sardinian craft furnishings. The two share nearly a mile of coastline, the Le Thermae seawater spa, several pools, a run of restaurants and a boat fleet, and the group likes to call the result a five-star resort in freedom rather than a formal one.
The setting
The resort stands on the sea at Santa Teresa Gallura, at the very top of Sardinia, facing the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park and the Bocche di Bonifacio nature reserve. The uninhabited island of Spargi lies directly in front; Budelli, Razzoli and Santa Maria sit behind it, and the limestone cliffs of Bonifacio in Corsica with the Lavezzi and Cavallo islands are just beyond, all reachable on excursions that leave from the resort itself. The coast here is granite boulders worn smooth by wind and sea, fine sand and small hidden bays, with Mediterranean maquis running down to the water.
Amenities
- Delphina Wedding Team organises weddings from ceremony to reception
- Anniversary celebrations
Awards
- Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards (2025)
- World Travel Awards - Italy's Leading Green Resort (2020)
- World Travel Awards - Europe's Leading Green Resort (2019)
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