Travellers must now pre-book to visit some of Italy’s best beaches

Beaches in Italy have turned to booking systems to tackle overcrowding, with some shores now fully booked until mid-September.

Tourism in Italy is continuing to grow, with the country recording a 4.2 per cent increase in arrivals and a 7.5 per cent increase in overnight stays in the first quarter of 2026, according the Italian National Institute of Statistics.

Small coves in the country are often limited in space, and a number of beaches have introduced visitor caps to manage footfall and protect the natural environment.

In Sardinia, advance booking availability for La Pelosa beach for a maximum of four people for €3.50 (£3) per person is currently sold out until 15 September.

Access to La Pelosa’s white sands is limited to 1,500 spaces per day between May and October, and reservations are required to receive a QR Code for beach access.

Sebastiano Venneri, a tourism official with Italy’s Legambiente environmental group, told The Times: “Something has to be done since the number of tourists globally is jumping from one billion in 2000 to an expected two billion in 2030.

“The Pelosa beach in Sardinia risks vanishing just by virtue of visitors removing sand on their towels.”

Cala Goloritzé – a Unesco-protected beach on Sardinia’s east coast – is also bookable from March to November, for €7 (£6) per adult with a maximum capacity of 250 people.

The coveted cove can be booked up to three days in advance, with no visitor slots currently available for dates this week.

Elsewhere on the Italian island, Cala Brigantina and Su Sirboni are also operating under pre-booked access slots for holidaymakers with a daily tourist cap of 60 people and 786 people, respectively.

This is not the first instance of Italian beach access coming under scrutiny over summer.

Governor of the southern Italian region of Puglia, Antonio Decaro, called for visitors to be allowed to take picnics to private beaches in a Facebook video on 4 July.

Decaro said: “We are working to make the sea, more and more, an experience of freedom, for Apulians and for those who come from outside to discover this region. The sea is a common commodity; it cannot become a luxury.”

This was met with resistance from beach club operators who said the proposalsthreaten the region’s “image of excellence”.

Read more: Anger over plan to allow tourist picnics on Italian beaches