Gorropu Canyon

Gorropu Canyon (Gola su Gorropu) is a limestone gorge in the Supramonte mountains of eastern Sardinia, about 1.5 km long, with walls about 500 m high that close in to 4 or 5 metres apart. You reach it on foot: about 4.3 km down from the Genna Silana pass on the SS125, or about 5.6 km along the river from the Sa Barva bridge on the Dorgali side, and you pay €6 (adults) in cash at the ticket office at the entrance. The easy way to do it is a guided day with the drive included: Beranu Experience’s Gorropu Canyon Trek with Off-Road Transfer & Lunch picks up in Dorgali, takes six hours in a group of up to 8 and costs from €75 a person (checked October 2026). It is rated 4.9 from 56 reviews, and when we checked on 26 October 2026 its next open date was 28 October 2026.

Check dates for the Gorropu trek

What Gorropu Canyon is

Gorropu is the gorge the Flumineddu river has cut through the Jurassic limestone of the Supramonte, on the border between the territories of Dorgali and Urzulei, about 14 km south-west of Dorgali in a straight line. The walls rise to about 500 m and the floor narrows to 4 or 5 metres, which makes it one of the deepest gorges in Europe. What you walk on is the river bed itself: white, water-polished stone, pools in places, and boulders that get larger the further in you go.

There is no road into the gorge and no viewpoint you can drive to. Every visit is a walk, and the walk is the point: an hour or two through holm oak and Mediterranean scrub, then the moment the walls close over you.

How do you visit Gorropu Canyon?

There are three ways in, and the right one depends on where you are staying and how much climbing you want on the way back.

• From the Genna Silana pass, on the SS125 between Dorgali and Urzulei. A signposted trail drops about 4.3 km to the gorge: about an hour down and about two hours back up, which is the hard part of the day. The Campo Base at km 190.5 of the SS125, five minutes from the pass, runs off-road transfers for anyone who would rather not climb out.
• From the Sa Barva bridge on the Dorgali side. You drive from Dorgali through the Oddoene valley, 13.9 km measured along the road with the last stretch on track, then walk about 5.6 km along the Flumineddu, about two hours each way, with far less climbing.
• On a guided day with the transfer included, from Dorgali, Cala Gonone or Orosei. An off-road vehicle takes you down the valley to the start of the walk, a guide leads the way in, and most include lunch.

The Gorropu Canyon map and trailheads guide covers each route, the parking and the starting points in detail, and the Gorropu Canyon hike page compares every guided option side by side.

What does it cost, and when is it open?

Entry is €6 for adults (18 and over) and €4 for ages 6 to 17, paid in cash only at the ticket office at the entrance to the canyon; it cannot be booked in advance. The concessionaire that runs the entrance opens the gorge every day from 10:00. Its own pages give two closing patterns, last entry at 15:30 with everyone out by 16:00, or visits until 16:30 and out by 17:00, so plan to be at the entrance by early afternoon. It advises visiting between mid-March and mid-November and discourages visits outside that window: rockfall in bad weather, short days and services closed.

Guided hikes either include the ticket or leave it to you. Escursì’s hike from Cala Gonone includes it; Jebel Sardinia’s guided hike from Orosei or Dorgali tells you to bring €6 in cash. Our Gorropu Canyon tickets guide has the full detail.

How long does it take, and how hard is it?

Allow most of a day. From Genna Silana you need about three hours of walking for the descent and the climb back, plus time inside the gorge; from Sa Barva about four hours there and back, on gentler ground. The guided off-road days take about six hours door to door. Escursì publishes its Cala Gonone route as 12 km with 453 m of height difference, difficulty E (hiking), about four hours on foot.

The path to the gorge is a walking trail with no technical sections. Inside, you walk on rock and scree, and deeper in the bed becomes a field of huge boulders where you need your hands; guides turn groups round where it stops being a walk. Listings ask for a moderate level of fitness and rule out people with heart problems. The difficulty guide covers kit, children and what the boulder section involves.

Which Gorropu hike should you book?

They cost about the same, so the choice is about where you are staying and when you are travelling.

Book whichever fits your trip:

Prices, ratings and review counts from GetYourGuide, checked October 2026. Operators price by season, so treat them as the shape of the market, not a quote.

When to go: the gorge and boat seasons

The gorge is at its best from April to June and in September and October, when the walk out is not a climb in full heat. When we checked on 26 October 2026, the guided days were winding down: the Dorgali trek had a date on 28 October 2026 and the Cala Gonone hike on 5 November 2026, while the Orosei hike’s first open date is 22 May 2027 and Orosei AdvenTours’ full-day panoramic trek starts again on 3 April 2027. Book with free cancellation: guides can change the itinerary in bad weather, which is also when the concessionaire warns about rockfall.

The coast below the gorge

Most people who come for Gorropu stay in Cala Gonone or Dorgali, and the other half of the trip is the sea. From the harbour at Cala Gonone, boats run along the Gulf of Orosei to coves you cannot drive to:

• Cala Goloritzé and Cala Mariolu: the long white-stone coast south of Cala Gonone, by dinghy or by larger boat; Goloritzé itself cannot be landed on, and the hike down to Cala Goloritzé needs a booked ticket.
• Cala Luna and the Bue Marino cave: the closest big beach, half an hour by boat, and the sea cave next to it, which you visit with a guide (cave tickets).
• The Gulf of Orosei by dinghy: a full day on a small boat with swim stops, or a boat you drive yourself.

Inland, the other walk worth a day is the Tiscali hike to a Nuragic village hidden inside a collapsed limestone sinkhole, in the next valley west.

Where to stay for Gorropu

Cala Gonone puts you on the harbour for the boat trips and within reach of every guided Gorropu day; Dorgali, 6.9 km inland by road, is where the Dorgali-side treks pick up and is closer to the Sa Barva road:

• Hotels in Cala Gonone
• Hotels in Dorgali

The where-to-stay guide compares Cala Gonone, Dorgali, Orosei and Santa Maria Navarrese for this trip.

How these facts were checked

Written 26 October 2026. The entry prices (€6 and €4, cash only, no advance booking), the opening hours and the mid-March to mid-November season are from the gorge’s concessionaire, Chìntula, on gorropu.info; the gorge’s length, wall height and narrowest width are from the same source and from Sardegna Turismo, the Region of Sardinia’s tourism site, which also gives the walking times from Genna Silana and the Sa Barva bridge and the Campo Base location on the SS125. The 4.3 km and 5.6 km walking distances and the road distances were measured along the trail and the road on our own map. Tour prices, ratings, review counts, durations, inclusions and next dates are from GetYourGuide, checked 25 and 26 October 2026. Prices and departures change with the season, so check the live calendar before you plan around a figure.