In Sicily, the Zingaro Reserve is one of the island’s most popular seaside destinations on the northwestern side of the island, a wild and paradisiacal area that combines splendid beaches with a rugged atmosphere, featuring few amenities and minimal human footprint. Not as many people know that on the opposite side of the same promontory, extending northward with the town of San Vito Lo Capo at its tip, there is another area of stunning coves, crystal-clear and wild sea: it is Baia Santa Margherita, which opens between the Monte Cofano massif and Macari, north of Trapani.
Baia Santa Margherita consists of a succession of coves, mostly rocky, a few golden beaches, inlets and rocks, along a coast several kilometers long. It is an ideal alternative for those who love the magnificent sea of this part of Sicily and, at the same time, a rugged setting without requiring too many comforts. Moreover, here you can snorkel near the shore and you gain an additional value: the west-facing exposure allows you to enjoy a spectacular and fiery sea sunset. Staying well past sunset is practically mandatory.
Where it is located and how to get there
Baia Santa Margherita is located in the municipality of San Vito Lo Capo. It is easily reachable by driving along provincial road 16 in the segment between the town and Castelluzzo. The road, moreover, is highly scenic: near Baia Santa Margherita there is a long straight stretch that allows you to embrace with a glance the crystal-clear sea, with Monte Cofano rising in the background. Then, near the village of Macari, the road rises above sea level and even more beautiful panoramic views unfold.
Once there, you can park in one of the two large parking lots, the Macari one and the Castelluzzo one, which serve as starting points for exploring the coast, strictly on foot or, for those who wish, with a tourist shuttle train.
Those without a car can rely on the Trapani-San Vito Lo Capo bus line, with a stop right in Macari, and then rely on a nice walk along the trails that skirt the coves of Baia Santa Margherita. The Baia Santa Margherita area is also very popular with cyclists, who take advantage of the coastal route that connects the Monte Cofano Natural Reserve to San Vito Lo Capo.
The coves of Baia Santa Margherita
The Baia Santa Margherita area has a wild and rugged character. Here, nature strikes with its beauty, but it is a brutal, almost violent beauty. There are no trees in sight; the little greenery you can notice lies on the hills behind the sea, especially toward Monte Cofano. The plain where the bay and its coves lie is a sun-baked land that, in summer, turns yellow and ochre, both due to the vegetation drying up and to the color of the rock on the coast. The landscape is bare, stripped. The sun sets straight down and enhances the colors, saturating them to the extreme, aided by the contrast between land and sea, here crystal-clear at times and then deep blue.
Parking on the Macari side, the one closer to San Vito Lo Capo, the first beach you encounter is Santa Margherita, which gives its name to this stretch of coastline. It is a genuine little beach, with intense yellow sand and shallow waters, ideal even for the little ones. Moreover, it is the only area where you’ll also find a small seaside establishment, with sun loungers and services. However, there is also the possibility to venture among the rocks and discover your own small access to the sea, for instance near the small bunker, a war relic just north of the beach, on either side of which two splendid coves open up.
Continuing along the coast southward, you encounter other decidedly rocky and wild stretches, where sand gives way to rocks and small, almost private coves. The coves have evocative names in Sicilian dialect such as Scaru Brucia, ‘a Chianca, Scaru Zu Asparu and Cala Calazza, the latter popular because it is a small strip of sand washed by a shallow and crystal-clear sea. But beyond names and locations, the entire Baia Santa Margherita stretch deserves to be explored and traversed centimeter by centimeter to discover your own corner by the sea.
Those who love walking can push further: a little to the west opens the Monte Cofano Nature Reserve, with trails that run along the cliff overlooking the sea, offering breathtakingly stunning views.
Cala Isolidda at Macari
A few minutes away from Baia Santa Margherita, following the coastline from the vicinity of the village of Macari, other small coves open up that deserve a visit and carry their own rugged and wild charm just as much as the first ones. Among these stands Cala Isolidda, or islet in Sicilian.
The name stems from the distinctive rock that rises from the water right opposite the cove. The small cove is dominated by the eponymous Torre dell’Isolidda, a sixteenth-century construction that was part of the old coastal defense system against corsair incursions. A white silhouette that adds further charm to the stark landscape. A small central promontory separates two coves, both facing the islet.
The beach is composed of white and small pebbles, surrounded by rocks. Remains of some fishermen’s structures linger on the shore. Nearby is also the so-called Cala del Bue Marino, a small rocky beach oriented toward Monte Cofano, which beautifies the panorama. A path accompanies those who enjoy walking from Cala Isolidda to the Bue Marino, continuing then to Baia Santa Margherita. The area is also highly loved by cyclists, who can ride along this scenic stretch of coast without danger.
In a Sicily increasingly equipped, anthropized and permeated by superfluous comforts, a wild and relatively intact area like Baia Santa Margherita and Cala Isolidda represents a happy island to enjoy the sea in all its natural beauty. A beauty, moreover, that takes on unique colors and rare panoramas, as only this corner of Sicily can offer.
