Pickleball. You either love it, or you’re deeply tired of hearing about it from your friends. As one of the fastest-growing sports in the US, I’d been curious to try it myself, but finding someone patient enough to teach me — and the time to learn — felt surprisingly difficult as an adult.
The opportunity came when I had a few days to experience Forte Village Sardinia, known for its academy programs on a stunning Italian island. But when I arrived, I was beyond thrilled to discover it offered pickleball lessons. Naturally, I signed up immediately — and was paired with a professional Russian coach.
He was, as you might imagine, intense. And relentless. But also encouraging, and deeply committed to correcting my terrible form. There were no breaks. Sure, I could take a sip of water, but I had to be ready every time a ball came flying toward me. If I missed one, another immediately came flying over the net seconds later.
Photo: Forte Village Resort
By the end, sweaty and barely functioning but highly invigorated, he looked at my face and cheerfully declared with his thick Russian accent, “You look like a tomato.”
He wasn’t wrong. But I was a tomato with a smile. Fitting what felt like months of training into an hour made me feel like I was ready to test my skills back home with other players.
While it may sound completely absurd to fly all the way to Italy to learn pickleball, Forte Village somehow makes this kind of thing feel entirely reasonable. Because it’s not just a luxury resort, but designed to function like a summer camp for adults and families.
Outside of getting roasted by both my coach and the Mediterranean sun, my days were spent bouncing between pizza-making classes, local wine tastings, walks on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and watching children zoom through the resort on bikes on their way to fencing lessons or football practice.
It felt like living inside a European summer holiday, but everyone had collectively decided free time should be spent learning something new, active, and just a bit challenging. A skillcation, if you will.
Fencing classes are taught by a former Olympian. Photo: Forte Village Resort
Forte Village turned the concept of a luxury vacation into something more interactive — Type-A travelers would love it. Of course, guests can just lounge poolside all day if they like, but the option is there to try something new, learn a new hobby, or take a new class. I could never find the time in my everyday life to try something new, but Forte Village seemed designed to help you find the time on vacation, without cutting too much into relaxation time. The classes and academies carry an additional fee, ranging from €80 (about $92) for a group lesson to more intensive specialized courses with certifications, like scuba diving, for €1,050 (about $1,220). Pickleball is priced separately: a single one-hour private lesson is €110 (about $128), or you can book a full five-day course at 90 minutes per day for €700 (about $813).
While many resorts around the world offer add-on activities — we’ve all been to a beach hotel that offers kayaking and scuba diving — the scale of Forte Village’s offerings puts it in a category unto itself. And that goes for the instructors, too. These are lessons from the world’s best athletes, including past world champions, professional coaches, and Olympians in their respective disciplines. These aren’t casual resort activities led by some summer intern half-heartedly holding a whistle. Children can train in soccer with elite coaches while adults finally try the semi-obscure hobbies they’ve wanted to learn someday.
The sprawling Sardinian resort has 31 “academies” where guests can learn everything from tennis or boxing to fencing, chess, sailing, DJing, scuba diving, and mountain biking, among others.
Photo: Forte Village Resort
I found it somewhat refreshing, and certainly far less embarrassing, to be a beginner in front of someone I will likely never see again. After my lessons, I’d relax on the beach where I could think about what I learned, rather than jumping immediately to the next activity.
Many luxury vacations revolve around comfort and escape, but Forte Village leans into curiosity instead. It reminds you how fun it is to try new things purely for the sake of enjoyment and would be an ideal spot for families looking for something other than a generic beach vacation.
The sprawling resort has bikes for guests to make their way from one end to another. Forte Village Resort
While the resort works surprisingly well for adults, it’d be a summer paradise for families.
Every day, I saw children biking independently between activities across the massive 123-acre property while parents relaxed with Aperol spritzes at the beach or retreated into the spa for a few quiet hours. Babysitting programs, arts and crafts, sports academies, and nature-focused activities make the entire resort feel designed around giving kids freedom and excitement while creating free time for adults.
The property has eight separate lodging options, as well as private villas, 21 restaurants and bars, plenty of beachfront bars and social areas, sports facilities, landscaped gardens, and 11 pools spread across the coastline.
Instead of feeling chaotic, though, Forte Village somehow manages to feel self-contained and easy to navigate — like it’s a tiny Mediterranean village
One of several thalassotherapy pools at Forte Village. Photo: Forte Village Resort
After hours of being publicly humbled on the pickleball court, the thalassotherapy spa felt almost medically necessary.
Forte Village is known for its award-winning thalassotherapy circuit, focused on therapeutic treatments using saltwater and other marine elements. At Forte Village, this takes the form of six pools with varying temperatures and salt concentrations designed to detox and rejuvenate the body. The resort claims it developed this modern version of thalassotherapy about 25 years ago, and it’s since become one of the resort’s signature wellness experiences.
While floating between stinging, steaming magnesium pools as my muscles recovered from my pickleball debut, I ended up chatting with a group of Albanian women who enthusiastically joined me through the proper spa circuit. I learned they’d been eyeing a trip to Forte Village for years based on this famous treatment and multiple health benefits. According to experts, it can help lower heart rates, speed recovery from muscle injuries, and support chronic pain management.
Spiaggia di Tuerredda in Sardinia. Photo: Denis Belitsky/Shutterstock
As tempting as it is to stay inside the Forte Village bubble all week, Sardinia deserves exploring, too.
Before heading out one afternoon, I asked one of the staff members which beach locals preferred. Spiaggia di Tuerredda, she told me. So we went — together. Accessing this particular beach requires reservations as visitors are limited. She took care of all the reservations and showed me where to enter, since she happily agreed to be my plus-one for the afternoon.
The beach looked exactly as I’d imagined Sardinia, with turquoise water, soft white sand, and boats floating quietly offshore beneath dramatic green cliffs. We grabbed coffees, wandered along the shoreline, and spent the afternoon soaking in the slower rhythm of Sardinian coastal life outside the resort walls.
That balance might be what I liked best about Forte Village. It gave me the structure and convenience of a skillcation, but still made it easy to explore one of the most beautiful parts of Italy.
I was only there for three days, but between wine tastings, beach walks, spa circuits, and my Russian coach blasting me with pickleballs, I felt like I’d packed quite a bit into one trip. I guess you could say I flew all the way to Sardinia to learn pickleball, but I also learned how to balance visiting a new place with learning something new — and figured out why skillcations are becoming one of travel’s next big trends.
Photo: Forte Village Resort
Forte Village has a beach, a few pools, the large spa, and plenty of places to open that book you’ve been saving. But it still feels more like a high-end summer camp, not a charming beach boutique hotel. Kids zoomed past on bikes, coaches ran soccer drills on the fields, and large, excited families took over roomy tables at dinner. I was the only person there grabbing a drink or eating alone.
The rooms are lovely, and the setting is beautiful, but it’s sprawling and packed with families. If you’re part of a family, or don’t mind high-energy resorts, it’s perfect. But if you’re looking for a charming, boutique beach hotel, this likely isn’t the best pick for you (unless you’re keen to learn pickleball, that is).
Getting to Sardinia can feel grueling after a long international travel day, especially during the peak summer season. You’ll need to fly into Cagliari Elmas Airport in southern Sardinia, reachable from major Italian airports like Rome Fiumicino (10 flights a day), Milan Linate Airport (9 flights a day), or Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (3-5 flights per day). From Elmas Airport, you can or have the resort organize your pickup.
If you’re arriving exhausted and want to ease into the trip a little more slowly, I’d highly recommend spending a night in Cagliari first. The city has a completely different feeling from the resort and is more reminiscent of the Sardinia most travelers imagine, with colorful streets, historic architecture, seaside cafes, and a more local atmosphere. 