Spiaggia dei Saraceni & Stazione di Tollo

Spiaggia dei SaraceniStazione di Tollo

1. 

   Spiaggia dei Saraceni

   sea

   Spiaggia dei Saraceni is the sandy strip just south of Ortona harbour, about 300 m long and wide enough for a medium launch.

   intermediateadvancedmedium rigging room

   In seasonMay to Sep

   The model here carries the month's average wind rather than a count of windy days: it reaches 10.1 kt in April, the strongest month it models for this spot.

   Spiaggia dei Saraceni: the long version, the launch and the rules

   More on Spiaggia dei Saraceni

   The water is shallow over a big flat area and choppy most days, though Tramontana and Grecale can build cleaner waves, with 1.5-3.5 m quoted on the best of them. It reads as an intermediate and expert beach rather than a place to learn. Bora is the one to watch: it comes offshore here, and no rescue cover has been published for the launch. It sits on the Abruzzo Adriatic coast, on the Costa dei Trabocchi, so the fishing platforms are part of the picture, along with rocks in places and a shore break. The seasons do not agree: May through September is the most-quoted window, spring to winter is the other answer, and nothing reconciles them. June, July and August mean bathers on the sand, so those are the months where finding a clear launch is the whole problem. Water runs 26.6 C in summer and 12.2 C in winter, lycra from May to September and a wetsuit October to May.

   Getting on the water

   Medium sandy launch on the roughly 300 m strip just south of Ortona harbour, wide enough to lay a kite out well back from the water. Parking runs along the coastal road with spaces right by the sand on a stretch that has stayed undeveloped; showers and food are on the beach. Access is off the Ortona exit, down toward the port, then south past the mole.

   If it goes wrong

   Nothing organised for kiters. Sea emergencies go to 1530, the coast guard line, and 112 routes there too. Summer lifeguards on this coast belong to the beach concessions rather than to the launch, and from October to May there is no cover at all, which is exactly the half of the year the wave conditions favour. Ride with someone else on the beach.

   Everything on Spiaggia dei Saraceni

2. 

   Stazione di Tollo

   sea

   Tollo, on the Abruzzo coast near Foro, is a local spot where rock breakwaters about 130 m offshore hold a strip of flat shallow water behind them.

   intermediateadvancedmedium rigging room

   In seasonMay to Aug

   1. JanJ10
   2. FebF5
   3. MarM13
   4. AprA8
   5. May, riders' monthM2
   6. Jun, riders' monthJ0
   7. Jul, riders' monthJ0
   8. Aug, riders' monthA2
   9. SepS2
   10. OctO8
   11. NovN10
   12. DecD8

   modelled: days with three hours in a row at 12 kt or more, between 06:00 and 19:00 local

   Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: May, Jun, Jul, Aug.

   The model is wrong here

   The modelled series peaks at 13% of days and never reaches 15% in any month, at a place that is ridden all season. The figures are drawn rather than dropped, and they are not the answer — the months riders name are.

   Stazione di Tollo: the long version, the launch and the rules

   More on Stazione di Tollo

   Inside it rides like a lagoon. The gaps through the rocks are about 30 m wide and you have to pick one, which is what keeps this an intermediate-and-up spot rather than a place to learn. The wind is thermal and the months are May, June, July and August, with SSE the direction to want and NNE the other one that works. Access is through a railway underpass from parking near Punto Verde or Strada Lomera, so plan the walk with your gear in hand. Nobody has published an average wind speed here, and no 2026 kite ordinance or rescue provision is on record; it is an unmanaged free beach kept in shape by the riders who use it. Water runs 26.6 C in summer and 12.2 C in winter.

   Getting on the water

   Fine sandy beach behind the Tollo railway stop. Park near Punto Verde or Strada Lomera and walk through the railway underpass; there is also a dirt-road access off Contrada Arielli.

   If it goes wrong

   None on this beach. It is a free, unmanaged stretch with no lifeguard post and no school on the sand. Under the Ortona maritime district's bathing-safety ordinance the duty to staff a rescue service falls on beach concessions, and on the municipality only where it has activated one on a free beach: one Italian Swimming Federation, SNS or FISA lifeguard per 150 m of shorefront, and only inside the dated summer windows — in the 2025 edition, the last two weekends of May 09:30-18:30, 31 May to 15 September 09:00-19:00, and the last two weekends of September 09:30-18:30. The nearest staffed point is the Punto Verde establishment. Offshore, it is 1530, the free Numero Blu, or 112.

   Rules and access

   This water sits in the Capitaneria di Porto di Ortona maritime district, which runs across Francavilla al Mare, Ortona, San Vito Chietino, Rocca San Giovanni and Fossacesia. The district's bathing-safety ordinance is reissued every year: n. 16 of 28 March 2025 is the last machine-readable edition and a 2026 replacement has been published as an image-only scan. Under the 2025 text, swimming is barred inside harbours and within 200 m of harbour entrances and outer works, within 200 m of jetties used by vessels, within 500 m of anchored ships, at river, canal and stream mouths — 100 m either side where the mouth is navigable — within 20 m of a trabocco, and inside marked launch corridors. Kite corridors are a separate category with their own geometry: at least 500 m long rather than the 300 m of an ordinary one, 30 m wide at the waterline, widening to 80 m at 250 m out and holding that to the 500 m limit, marked with yellow or orange buoys on a floating line at intervals of 20 m for the first 100 m and 50 m beyond. They require municipal authorization. Slipway corridors used for launching boats may not be used by surfers or kitesurfers at all. Nothing in the ordinance names Tollo, and no authorized kite corridor here was found.

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Kite bag rules for your airline

Type the carrier you are flying: what it charges for a kite bag, and the year of the policy that says so.

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What we could not settle. Ride here? These are the gaps worth filling.

• Is 'Spiaggia dei Saraceni & Stazione di Tollo' the name riders actually use for this area?