Kamletos samples live ferry prices and availability every day, because we fold them into the total cost of a driving holiday. That means we spot route changes in the data before they show up in travel magazines. Here is what matters for the 2026 season – every claim links to a source listed below the article.
Piombino–Olbia: the fastest way to Sardinia is not on sale this year
Moby's seasonal Piombino–Olbia route used to be a popular shortcut: the shortest crossing from mainland Italy straight to Olbia, ideal for drivers who want to spend as little time at sea as possible. It ran repeatedly since at least 2018, most recently in the summers of 2024 and 2025.
For 2026, there is nowhere to buy it. Our July sampling showed that booking systems offer not a single bookable sailing on the route – even at the absolute peak of the season. Moby returns only an empty error record with no date and no price, and the aggregator Ferryhopper shows last year's data on the route page with a note that current data is unavailable.
Moby's official materials indirectly confirm it. The route is missing from all three documents the operator has published for the 2026 season:
- the press release opening bookings (October 2025),
- the brochure with complete 2026 timetables (as of March 2026),
- and the press release launching the summer sailings (June 2026).
All of them list Livorno–Olbia, Genoa–Olbia, Civitavecchia–Olbia and Genoa–Porto Torres – Piombino–Olbia not once. We found no explicit "we are cancelling the route" statement anywhere, so the accurate conclusion is: the route has disappeared from Moby's official 2026 offer and cannot be booked. Beware of comparison sites still claiming the route "runs year-round" – that is auto-generated text directly contradicted by the operator's own data and by our measurements.
How to get to Sardinia instead
- Livorno–Olbia (Moby/Grimaldi): the main replacement, ~8.5 h crossing. In our live sampling, a car + 2 people one way typically starts at ~€190.
- Piombino–Golfo Aranci (Corsica Sardinia Ferries): the only summer route straight out of Piombino, running June to September. Golfo Aranci is ~20 km from Olbia, so for the island's north-east it is a full substitute.
- Civitavecchia–Olbia (~7 h) and Genoa–Porto Torres / Genoa–Olbia for the west and north of the island.
Sardinia and Corsica 2026: what runs (Moby)
According to Moby's official route overview and press releases:
| Route | 2026 service | Note | |---|---|---| | Livorno–Olbia | year-round | main Sardinia crossing | | Genoa–Olbia | May – early November | Moby's sources differ on the start (7 May vs. 23 May) | | Civitavecchia–Olbia | year-round | | | Genoa–Porto Torres | year-round | | | Genoa–Bastia | 23 May – 28 Sep | Corsica, 4× weekly | | Livorno–Bastia | mid-May – 30 Sep | sources differ on the start (14 May vs. 1 Jun) | | Santa Teresa Gallura–Bonifacio | from 2 Apr, several times daily | fastest Sardinia ↔ Corsica hop |
Where Moby's own sources disagree on the exact start date we list both – check the actual departure in the booking flow before you pay.
A footnote for Elba: the ferry Giraglia returns to Piombino–Portoferraio from April (alongside Moby Niki); the main Elba operator remains Toremar, which our production sampling confirms as well.
Corsica Sardinia Ferries: new routes from France and a bigger ship
Corsica Sardinia Ferries enters 2026 in expansion mode:
- Toulon–Propriano (via Ajaccio) – a new route, already launched in November 2025, once weekly.
- Sète–Ajaccio and Sète–Porto Torres – new routes from July 2026, once weekly; plus a reinforced Ajaccio–Porto Torres link. The operator's own site does not publish exact dates, so these come from a secondary source.
- The fleet gains the Mega Serena (ex Stena Vision, ~2,000 passengers, 600+ cars), sailing Corsica, Sardinia and Balearics routes since late May 2026. More peak capacity means a better chance of a car deck spot even last-minute.
Croatia: a new Split–Bari route and a fast Zadar–Ancona catamaran
Jadrolinija announced its biggest international-route shake-up in years for 2026:
- The veteran Marko Polo leaves international duty; the newer flagship Dalmacija takes over the year-round Split–Ancona route and, in season, also Dubrovnik–Bari and the brand-new Split–Bari route.
- New this year: the catamaran Jelena on Zadar–Ancona, running 26 Jun – 30 Aug 2026, up to 5× weekly at peak, crossing in ~4 hours. Mind you – the catamaran is foot passengers only, no cars; with a car you stay on the classic ferry.
- SNAV opened its Croatia season (Ancona–Split, Ancona–Hvar, Ancona–Dubrovnik) on 1 April 2026.
Greece: no structural changes
On the Ancona/Bari–Igoumenitsa/Patras routes (Superfast, Minoan) we found no structural change for 2026 – only the usual seasonal timetable revisions. If you are driving to Greece, last year's logic holds: Ancona is the easier drive from central Europe, Bari has the shorter and cheaper crossing.
How we know
Kamletos computes the total cost of a holiday (car + ferry vs. flying vs. driving) from live data: we sample ferry prices straight from booking systems, vehicle included. When a route drops out of sale, we see it in the data immediately – which is exactly how we noticed in July that Piombino–Olbia returns no sailings, and went digging through official sources. The full source list for this article is below; our own measurements are from 21 Jul 2026.