Corsica trip May 2024

The Hawk

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We are spending 20 or so days in Corsica this May/June. We are travelling in a VW T6 Camper.
We will use our ACSI card as necessary, and have booked a ‘SUN HOLIDAY’( Eurocamp) 4 night stay upon arrival.on the Island.
I’ve checked the POI and not much shows up for Corsica. Does anyone have recent experience of wild/ free/ cheap overnight stops? I have the usual Apps but wanted to seek any 1st hand recent good/ bad experiences from this Group.
Thanks in advance for any tips

Graham & Sue
 
The Hawk said:
We are spending 20 or so days in Corsica this May/June. We are travelling in a VW T6 Camper.
We will use our ACSI card as necessary, and have booked a ‘SUN HOLIDAY’( Eurocamp) 4 night stay upon arrival.on the Island.
I’ve checked the POI and not much shows up for Corsica. Does anyone have recent experience of wild/ free/ cheap overnight stops? I have the usual Apps but wanted to seek any 1st hand recent good/ bad experiences from this Group.
Thanks in advance for any tips

Graham & Sue
Click to expand...
Hi, we did Corsica & Sardinia back in 2019. Unfortunately wild camping on both islands isn't allowed and rangers do patrol.
There are plenty cheap sites and Aires however if you do some simple Internet searches.
To be honest it didn't spoil our enjoyment as there is still plenty to do and see.
We got the ferry from Marseille and travelled in a T5 with an oz tent for an extended living space. ( great bit of kit though a bit military looking !)
 
I travelled to Corsica and Sardinia in Sep/Oct 2019. They're not as easy as some places to wildcamp but I managed using various apps and only stopped at 3 campsites and an official aire in about 6 weeks. Beautiful islands I would like to visit again.
 
Victor said:
Hi, we did Corsica & Sardinia back in 2019. Unfortunately wild camping on both islands isn't allowed and rangers do patrol.
There are plenty cheap sites and Aires however if you do some simple Internet searches.
To be honest it didn't spoil our enjoyment as there is still plenty to do and see.
We got the ferry from Marseille and travelled in a T5 with an oz tent for an extended living space. ( great bit of kit though a bit military looking !)
Click to expand...
Thanks for your comments/ experiences

Graham and Sue
 
korky said:
I travelled to Corsica and Sardinia in Sep/Oct 2019. They're not as easy as some places to wildcamp but I managed using various apps and only stopped at 3 campsites and an official aire in about 6 weeks. Beautiful islands I would like to visit again.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your comments/ advice

Graham & Sue
 
We went to Corsica and Sardinia in 2018.Thoroughly enjoyed both islands.

On Corsica we found several wild camp spots in the mountains.Also a few beach car parks.What aires we saw were expensive so didn't bother. There were plenty of water fountains where we could fill up with water.

Sardinia had some aires, all free when we were there.

Both islands had good supermarkets in main towns.

Both islands were small enough that you could return to a previous spot without too much mileage.

Enjoy.
 
jann said:
We went to Corsica and Sardinia in 2018.Thoroughly enjoyed both islands.

On Corsica we found several wild camp spots in the mountains.Also a few beach car parks.What aires we saw were expensive so didn't bother. There were plenty of water fountains where we could fill up with water.

Sardinia had some aires, all free when we were there.

Both islands had good supermarkets in main towns.

Both islands were small enough that you could return to a previous spot without too much mileage.

Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply.
Regards
Graham & Sue
 
Hello Graham & Sue - how was your trip to Corsica in May/June 2024?

We are planning to go in May this year so are interested in hearing about your experience.
 
UFO said:
Hello Graham & Sue - how was your trip to Corsica in May/June 2024?

We are planning to go in May this year so are interested in hearing about your experience.
Click to expand...
Hi UFO (Please let me know what you'd like me to call you)
We had a fantastic time in Corsica.
.Let me know what you are interested in; Ferry crossings, Sites, Aires, Beaches, Mountains, Railway journeys, Corsican Beer, POI's etc. and I'll pull something together for you.
Sue keeps a Journal of our travels so I can refer to that in subsequent responses.

Regards

Graham
 
Hello Graham, David here.

Our current thinking is to leave UK late April.

Ferries identified -
• France – Corsica. Ferry Toulon - Ile Rousse
• Corsica – Sardinia. Ferry Bonifacio - Santa Teresa di Gallura
• Sardinia – Sicily. Ferry Cagliari – Palermo (only one sailing a week on Saturdays)
• Sicily – Italy. Ferry Messina - Villa San Giovanni
Quite a big trip with the return to UK from South Italy, so I may revise so we don't rush each place,

Looking at P4N there appear to be plenty of places to stop overnight. We typically wild-camp with a campsite every 5 to 6 days. What was your experience?

We prefer small towns / villages where we can wander around for a day soaking up the place. Smaller museums which focus on the heritage and local culture - understanding how the locals lived and now live.

A few bigger towns and cities are OK, where we would typically focus on a couple of the top sites.

Also like to get into the wild, as long as it doesn't need 4x4, mountains, coast.

I don't have a feel for how densely populated Corsica is, what the roads are like, how touristy it is, so your experience of these would be of interest.

I have had a quick look at
corsicalovers.fr

35 best places to visit in Corsica (in photos)

Here are 35 of the best places to visit in Corsica: most beautiful beaches, most beautiful villages, most beautiful views... The most beautiful corners of Corsica
corsicalovers.fr corsicalovers.fr
Lots of recommendations. How long were you in Corsica?

Your overall impression of Corsica, bearing the above in mind, would be useful.

Thank you
David
 
UFO said:
Hello Graham, David here.

Our current thinking is to leave UK late April.

Ferries identified -
• France – Corsica. Ferry Toulon - Ile Rousse
• Corsica – Sardinia. Ferry Bonifacio - Santa Teresa di Gallura
• Sardinia – Sicily. Ferry Cagliari – Palermo (only one sailing a week on Saturdays)
• Sicily – Italy. Ferry Messina - Villa San Giovanni
Quite a big trip with the return to UK from South Italy, so I may revise so we don't rush each place,

Looking at P4N there appear to be plenty of places to stop overnight. We typically wild-camp with a campsite every 5 to 6 days. What was your experience?

We prefer small towns / villages where we can wander around for a day soaking up the place. Smaller museums which focus on the heritage and local culture - understanding how the locals lived and now live.

A few bigger towns and cities are OK, where we would typically focus on a couple of the top sites.

Also like to get into the wild, as long as it doesn't need 4x4, mountains, coast.

I don't have a feel for how densely populated Corsica is, what the roads are like, how touristy it is, so your experience of these would be of interest.

I have had a quick look at
corsicalovers.fr

35 best places to visit in Corsica (in photos)

Here are 35 of the best places to visit in Corsica: most beautiful beaches, most beautiful villages, most beautiful views... The most beautiful corners of Corsica
corsicalovers.fr corsicalovers.fr
Lots of recommendations. How long were you in Corsica?

Your overall impression of Corsica, bearing the above in mind, would be useful.

Thank you
David
Click to expand...
Sorry for the slow response David.

We 'did' 3 weeks in Sardinia in May/ June 2023, and apart from 1 night in Cagliari (where we chose to stay on a secure Aire) we wild camped free of charge.
We spoke to local police and soon realised that parking up overnight was fine so long as 'no camping activity' took place. Things seem to change after June 30 when entire towns are 'out of bounds' for Campervans for the High Season.
So, when we started planning for Corsica we were surprised to read in a number of articles/posts that 'Wild Camping' is illegal! We changed our approach and we used ACSI sites for many of our stopovers, never pre-booked and staying an initial night but invariably ending up 2-3 nights at each location. We found that this gave us a more relaxing and secure holiday. We landed at L`lle-Rousse and travelled clockwise around the island. We loved Calvi and St Florent, were slightly disappointed with Cap Corse, and avoided Bastia (too big and industrial for us). The East coast south of Bastia to Porto Vecchio was really nice (. We travelled into the mountains, did the Route de Bavella, enjoyed a visit to Corte, and stayed in on a campsite in Tattone a few nights( jumped on a train and visited Ajaccio (nice journey but we we were underwhelmed with Ajaccio))

Porto Vecchio is worth seeing, and a day in Bonifacio was really nice. Sagone was a good stopover from where we drove to Piana ( definitely worth doing)
We met a Dutch couple, who are regular travellers to Corsica, and they confirmed that YOU CAN wild camp 'out of season'. We also spotted a number of isolated locations that looked suitable.

Our approach to each island was different, both enjoyable, and difficult/ unfair to pick a favourite. Corsica was more relaxing! Sardinian beer is cheap, Corsican beer is expensive!
We invested in National Geographic Adventure Travel maps for each trip (3309 & 3315) and found them most useful in marking up POI's in advance and route planning.

Hope this helps.

Graham
 
Thank you Graham. A useful overview.

You landed at L`lle-Rousse in Corsica and travelled clockwise around the island. How long were you in Corsica?

From Corsica you went to Sardinia where you spent 3 weeks. How did you get off Sardinia - ferry to where?

I am starting to think that focusing on Corsica and Sardinia and spending more time on each, as you did with Sardinia, makes more sense than trying to include Sicily in this trip - save this for a future trip. Also travelling in April and May would seem sensible.
 
UFO said:
Thank you Graham. A useful overview.

You landed at L`lle-Rousse in Corsica and travelled clockwise around the island. How long were you in Corsica?

From Corsica you went to Sardinia where you spent 3 weeks. How did you get off Sardinia - ferry to where?

I am starting to think that focusing on Corsica and Sardinia and spending more time on each, as you did with Sardinia, makes more sense than trying to include Sicily in this trip - save this for a future trip. Also travelling in April and May would seem sensible.
Click to expand...
Hi David
I may have confused you; we went to Sardinia in 2023 and Corsica in 2024.
We spent between 20-24 days on each.
We could have easily stayed longer on each TBH.
Ferry prices between the 2 islands appear very expensive for such a short journey.
We had originally considered doing both islands in 1 trip but had commitment in the U.K. that prevented us doing that.
Doing Corsica & Sardinia in one trip would be a great holiday! Sardinia is a big island.
Weather in April may not be so good. Our 1st week in Sardina( Early May 2023) was overcast/ rain.

Hope you will share your adventure later!

Graham
 
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