The city of Olbia is the most important town in the Gallura region facing the Mediterranean Sea, and is the arrival point for the majority of visitors arriving from the continent. Situated at the rear of a well-protected inlet, Olbia (whose name means "rich, happy") was founded between the 6th and 4th centuries b.C. by the Carthaginians followed sooner by the Roman rule.
Belong to this period the aqueduct of which we can visit the remains in the region of Cabu Abbas and the Bath in the homonymous street
We have even traces of ancient Roman Villas in the Gulf of Cugnana. With the fall of the Roman empire it suffered the attacks of the Vandals. We see it rising again in the early of the 11th century, period of erection of the austere church of Romanesque style devoted to the patron Saint of the town, St. Simplicio.
Of the Punic necropolis, in the highest part of the town, several hundreds of tombs in the shape of a well have been explored among the various object excavated it is a very beautiful necklace of vitreous paste now preserved in the Cagliari Museum. 3 kilometers far from it on the panoramic road for the Aranci Gulf rises the magnific nuraghe sanctuary with megalithic enclosure said Sacred Well because of its destination to sacrifices

The old city center has beautiful churches: San Paolo and San Simplicio, built in the 9th century. Outside the city limits one can visit the Cabu abbas Nuraghe Sanctuary.
Of the present Olbia we can say that is a pleasant and prosperous town, faced the sides of a wide natural inlet, that opens between the two magnificent calcareous horsts of Capo Figari and the Isle of Tavolara.

Along the road to Siniscola, one arrives at the San Paolo harbor where boats set sail for Tavolara Island, a limestone mountain in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. This island can be reached by way of the wide isthmus called the Splamatore di Terra (the earth spreader). Here one finds wide beaches, a tiny harbor, several small houses, and local restaurants.