One of Alghero’s landmarks is the Cattedrale di Santa Maria in the Piazza Duomo - a mixture  of Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic styles with four oversized Doric columns that nearly cover its façade. The campanile and portal are from the original 1552 construction and modelled after the cathedral in Barcelona.
Nearby in the Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra  you can view  Spanish jewels, a marble statue of the Madonna della Misericordia, and a collection of stamped lithographs of Sardinian Romanesque churches.

Cafe Constantino - on Piazza Civica I think - very elegant, does piato completo eg. calmari or pork/fries/salad for 10 euro. Good for lunch or a light supper.

El Putal - catalan style - good pizza and veal, 32 for two with wine and water.

Ristorante Cassablanca - In the old town € 25 for 2 courses, wine and water. In old olive store, very interesting with vaulted cielings.

Trattoria Appena Prima - has an inside and outside with different menus and prices (neither cheap) excellent food - seafood salad, steak, veg, dessert, wine and water €70 for 2.

Miques di Mirall - right on the sea wall looking over towards the grotto. Excellent seafood Fritto misto and seafood Fantasia with wine and water €57.50 for 2 at lunch.

Book your Airport Transfer from Alghero Here

The service will run from 9 to 13:30 and from 16 to 00.30, every day, including Sundays.
The route is Via Garibaldi, Piazza Sulis, along the sea Dante; Valencia beach; Viale della Resistenza, Via Villanova Monteleone, Via Giovanni XXIII, Via XX Settembre, Via Lo Frasso, Via Mallorca, Via Garibaldi, Via Lido, Viale I May; Fertilia (optional detour to the golf driving range).

For more details call to the  tourist office in Via Carlo Alberto, (with multilingual staff: English, Spanish, German, Catalan, Portuguese, French, Russian and Polish). The office will be open daily, including Sundays, until 23.30.

We did a quick check of Alghero car hire prices booked online for a week in August 2009. The comparisons were done on May 23rd 2009 for 7 days car rental from August 8th to August 15th 2009

Auto Europe were offering a 2 door Fiat Panda with Air con for £180.12 for 7 days.

Holiday Autos quoted me £193 Pounds for an Opel Corsa for the same 7 days.

£205.01 Pounds at Hertz Car Hire would get me a Fiat Panda 2 door for the week. (Paid in Full in advance)

Europcar had a Fiat Panda 4 door for the price of €245.30 Euro (about £279 GBP)  almost 100 pounds more than the cheapest quote I obtained.

The prices above were the lowest priced cars on offer from each company at Alghero Airport on the day I was quoted. Prices will change by the day and availability too. Book early to avoid getting a car you don’t want or a more expensive price.

For people who want to spend a bit more or need a bigger car for the family - the following cars were also available.

Holiday Autos had a VW Caravelle 9 seater minibus for £567 Pounds
£411 pounds would get you a mini cooper convertible from Auto Europe

All the signs are good for the tourism business - with this first taste of summer. Restaurants, hotels, car rentals, shopping,  all starting to smile again at least for a few days - while awaiting the warmer months.  The only negative note was the protracted closure of the Caves of Neptune, because of restoration work not completed despite ads reopening for Easter.

Ryanair celebrated their new Memmingen (Munich West) Airport, seven new routes and 500,000 passengers by knocking 50% off its 1million lowest fares for travel across its European network in April, May and June which are available for booking from midnight tonight on the airlines website.