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Corsica

ChrisandPenney52

ChrisandPenney52

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Oxfordshire
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Cali now sold
Hi, considering Corsica in June this year. We were last there in the late '70's and loved it, but I'm sure a lot has changed. Will do our usual potter through France to get to the Med, but would love to hear about recent experiences with ferries and travelling/camping within Corsica
 
hi, we spent over 2 weeks there in 2003, we were camping and back packing, mainly walking and doing sections of the GR20 walk. we got the ferry from Nice to Calvi and spent a week camping in Calvi. There were quite a few campsites and we stayed about a mile out in a huge forest campsite, which was empty in September, but I imagine it would be rammed in Aug. would be perfect for a Cali though. Calvi was very nice, loads of places to eat - not particularly cheap though, a good place for posing.

We then spent a week camping in Corte. The campsite was horrible, basically a huge ants nest with rubbish facilities. Really liked Corte though and great access to the rugged mountains, was very chilled out in Sep and loads of places to eat out. We used public transport and would have loved to have gone to the south of the island.

We got the ferry back from Bastia to Nice, worth a visit also. Ferry both ways was from the centre of Nice, I remember one way it was really fast. Approx 5 hours on the slower ferry(?)

would love to go back one day and imagine it would be perfect exploring the island in a Cali.
 
Thanks for your info. Ferry booked last night in a sudden bout of enthusiasm. Will be there in early June. Chose the Nice to Calvi crossing both ways, a little under six hours outbound day crossing, ten hours overnight with cabin for the return. Crossings seem to book up quite early, even out of season, and although there are lots of different routes, there aren't many crossings on each route.
 
Hi Chris & Penny,

Seems we will be in Corsica at the same time, we are planning to do the North section of the GR20 (9 days) then chill for a bit before heading to Spain.
 
Enjoy. We were there a year ago now and loved it. We plan to return though not this year. Ideal Cali country
 
Just got back from 8 days on Corsica in the Cali - if anyone would like any info let me know
 
Just got back from 8 days on Corsica in the Cali - if anyone would like any info let me know

We will be arriving Corse on 8 June any info would be useful, good places to stay, beaches, snokelling. We will be on gr20 so no hiking info required!
 
Okay, here goes;
We arrived from the overnight ferry in Ajaccio early in the morning and headed north. The plan was a clockwise tour of the island on the coast roads but biasing our time in the south. The scenery along this road and in the north of the island is spectacular - rugged and impressive, but a lot of small-ish roads with hairpins and precipices! The passengers get much more time to look at the scenery than the driver - I was concentrating!
We lunched in Porto which is beautiful and well worth a longer stay, and breezed through Calvi which is also lovely - I would probably try to stay in one of these 2 places, although we pushed up to L'île Rousse to a campsite on a farm which a friend had recommended, although I wouldn't rave about it, unless you like it very rural and basic...
Next stop was half way up the 'finger' in the north - a place on the east coast called Marine de Pietracorbara and a campsite called La Pietra which was very nice, clean and friendly with a pool and 500m to the beach.
Then down to Ghisonaccia to Arinella Bianca campsite which was also on the beach and had a nice pool. Lots of shade, very well run with evening show, aerobics etc. The sort of place people go for their whole holiday. Lovely beach too.
From there all the way down to the south there are lots of beautiful beaches and we stopped lots - for the views and to have a picnic lunches from the fridge or the nearby boulangerie.
Next stop was 2 nights in Bonifacio at Pertamina campsite - lovely place, great pool, very well run and they were just finishing off new amenity blocks etc so should be even better now. Free pool aerobics and yoga etc, pool slide and excellent staff. From there we explored Bonifacio which was amazing; go on the boat trip that takes you out and around the coast - well worth the fee, and there is a longer trip that goes around the nearby islands as well if you have the time. Also the little train was a good little whiz around the town and up to the citadel.
Reluctantly we moved on to a campsite just across from a lovely beach at Porto Pollo, staying at Ras L'Bol which was a bit basic but fine. If you go a few km back up the road you come in on you find a restauant called La Crique (http://www.restaurant-la-crique.com/) which was simply amazing - the location was absolutely stunning and it was nice food as well - a highlight of our trip.
For our last night we moved on around the coast to a campsite we found by mooching around on Google earth - it is right on a fantastic beach and it's a simple but nice site. It's on Plage de Cupabia and I would highly recommend this is you want to park up and camp next to a lovely beach (can't remember the name).

All around this southern half of Corsica was fantastic scenery and lovely beaches. The roads are great - more for a sports bike or Porsche perhaps but no problem for a Cali; anything bigger would be a bit tricky - especially in the mountains in the north.
All our campsites had elec hook up, showers, toilets etc, and varying degrees of other comforts such as wifi, washing machines/dryers, pools etc. We found everyone extremely friendly (I've heard this isn't always the case when the island gets packed in Jul/Aug) and the camping ranged from 25 - 50 euros/night. Lots of Spar shops to buy food, water, wine etc and most sites had a delivery of bread and croissants for breakfast (if you're quick!). Lots and lots of places to stop and swim or snorkel - you will have to be fussy about when to stop or you'll never get anywhere! Roads all generally very good, GPS for France works perfectly, fuel still reasonable at about 1.35 euro/l, plenty of petrol stations and bigger shops to stock up on cheese.
We bought a nice tourist map of Corsica in a petrol station which was excellent for planning.
Take mossy spray.

Bit of a random download of info but ask any questions you have and I'll do my best to answer.
We had a fantastic time and would love to have stayed longer and taken the time to explore each place a bit more. All the campsites I have mentioned can be found on Google, but you could also drive around and every town, village or nice beach you come across has signs for campsites nearby so you could go around Corsica without a plan and you'd find plenty of places to stay.

Hope this helps.

Regards, TT
 
Just to add a bit more info - we went Toulon to Ajaccio with Corsica Ferries and with a standard Cali, no bike rack or roof rack, 2 adults, 2 kids, overnight cabin both ways, it was just over 500 euros all in. And that was off season and not a weekend.
Very painless way to travel by the way...
 
TT.....Really useful info thanks.....its on our list of places to visit (our son currently works out there and we will be briefly visitng later this Summer....without the Cali unfortunately!).... Your description may have just moved it up the list for a Cali trip! :)
 
TT

Thanks for taking the time to give us such a lot of information, sure it will come in useful.

Stuart.
 

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