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Corsica Beaches | Corsica Travel Guide | Filitosa | Bonifacio | Corte | Corsica Hiking | Corsica Map

Corsica highs and lows:

Yes, awesome: High and mighty rock landscapes, long and short hikes, big and little beaches, boating, pre-historic sites, outdoor activities in general. The road network, climate and local cuisine are excellent, people and costs fine.

No, awful: Style free, concrete friendly new urban development; neglected old and historic buildings. Ajaccio, yuk! Porto Vecchio and outskirts of Corte, Ile Rousse, Calvi, demi-yuk. Where have all town planners gone? Gone to live in Monaco, every one, on a fat pension no doubt.

The Nice - Corsica ferry arriving in Ile Rousse, central north coast. See also Ile Rousse beach.

This gallery of Corsica pictures offers a round-the-island-tour, starting from northern ports on this page, wobbling down the hairy west coast road to Porto, through the amazing Calanches rock formations to the hideous capital mess of Ajaccio, on to the neolithic menhirs of Filitosa and - in the far south east - stopping off at the delightful and spectacular fortified port of Bonifacio.

From bonny Boni we then travel north up the fast and relatively straight east coast roads, taking in several of the Mediterranean's best beaches, flashing through the sadly unremarkable Porto Vecchio to get to the heart of Corsica's independence movement, the more-or-less geographical centre and the hub of the island's hiking, climbing, canyoning and so on, Corte. From there it's a really fast trip back to the northern ports, not much more than half an hour.

Calvi's popular little town on Corsica's north-west coast, with a large and excellent beach, though some unsightly development is seeping in.

Getting to Corsica by plane is easy enough with 30 minute flights from the Cote d'Azur or direct flights from varied airports in the UK and many European countries to Calvi, Bastia or Ajaccio [try to avoid the big A as it's large, complex and car-jammed], but the ferry from French and Italian mainlands is a good alternative if you're in the vicinity anyway, saving on packing, passports, airport stress and you get to drive your own car, just don't bring a wide vehicle if you're planning to drive the narrow and winding mountain roads.

Corsica Ferries is the best known fleet and runs - depending on the time of year - from Nice, Toulon and Marseilles in France; Livorno, Genoa, Piombino, Savona and more ports in Italy. Ferries dock in north Corsica at Bastia, Ile Rousse or Calvi, or in the southwest in Ajaccio or Propriano.

Bastia's Vieux Port and Terra Vecchia. Click for photos of the west coast road from Calvi to Porto.

On the north-east coast Bastia is much older and less touristy than the other two northern towns, dating from Roman times and sporting a charming tangle of ancient streets and a refreshing interest in commerce, though this raison d'etre results in some unsightly industrial zones.

Bastia town is not very large and is short of budget accommodation but has a lively daily market, a handful of magnificent churches and is connected to an airport 16kms [10miles] away by shuttle bus; the town has its own stony beach though there's a much better sandy one a kilometre south, L'Arinella or head west by 4WD vehicle and scramble over to the island's best beach Plage de Saleccia or go north into the wilderness of Cap Corse.

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