Has anyone ever driven to Corsica?
Discussion
This summer the wife and I are heading off to Corsica in the Elise. Hopefully to enjoy some sunshine and to take advantage of the great rock climbing available. Has anyone ever driven there? We are taking the ferry overnight from Marseille to Bastia. Any advice or knowledge would be much appreciated.
I did it with my wife and two young kids 2 years ago. You will love it. We took the impreza that time, although I've done extensive Euro touring in the 996.
I saw very few british cars there, one of which happened to be an elise.
We took the Genoa to Bastia ferry and drove to Reims, Grenoble over route Napoleon to Monaco, along to Genoa and spent about 10 days on Corsica.
Great place, ensure you visit vinyards and I highly recommend a few trips into the mountains (including the rail journey!)which will scare your other half for sure (surfaces can be a bit tricky in places but on the whole very good.
Beaches are superb.
Try and avoid early August if you can, very busy with the holidaying French.
I saw very few british cars there, one of which happened to be an elise.
We took the Genoa to Bastia ferry and drove to Reims, Grenoble over route Napoleon to Monaco, along to Genoa and spent about 10 days on Corsica.
Great place, ensure you visit vinyards and I highly recommend a few trips into the mountains (including the rail journey!)which will scare your other half for sure (surfaces can be a bit tricky in places but on the whole very good.
Beaches are superb.
Try and avoid early August if you can, very busy with the holidaying French.
We stayed about half way down the East coast, Aleria. Etang de Diane is a lagoon where they harvest oysters etc has the most amazing floating seafood restaurant there.
Travelling anywhere in Corsica takes a very long time - a combination of traffic volume and small roads. I would say you are looking at a 1.5 to 2 hour drive to the other side. The locals really are in another league to anywhere else in Europe I've been absolutely suicidal you will see some amazing stuff!
Corte is a very nice old town in the mountains in the middle. Ajaccio is a busy high class marina type place, both well worth visiting and are the roads used in the WRC. You can drive from the East coast to Corte very easily and then get the mountain train to Ajaccio which is a great experience.
Mosquitos are prevalent on Corsica, be prepared for this!
Plage de Palombaggia near Porto Vecchio is a fantastic beach with white sand turquoise sea, although may be quite busy when you go. We were last week of August though and it was fine.
Travelling anywhere in Corsica takes a very long time - a combination of traffic volume and small roads. I would say you are looking at a 1.5 to 2 hour drive to the other side. The locals really are in another league to anywhere else in Europe I've been absolutely suicidal you will see some amazing stuff!
Corte is a very nice old town in the mountains in the middle. Ajaccio is a busy high class marina type place, both well worth visiting and are the roads used in the WRC. You can drive from the East coast to Corte very easily and then get the mountain train to Ajaccio which is a great experience.
Mosquitos are prevalent on Corsica, be prepared for this!
Plage de Palombaggia near Porto Vecchio is a fantastic beach with white sand turquoise sea, although may be quite busy when you go. We were last week of August though and it was fine.
Utterly brilliant place, I lived there for a while - highly rec'd a trip to Calvi for the beach/yachts/citadal/retaurants/bars. We went back (I met my wife there) a few years ago with the kids and had a superb time - the high point being an invite to the army base but that's another story!
If you're looking for something a bit more active parts of the GR20 (or the whole thing) are beautiful, especially when it gets up around Monte Cinto (3000m-ish), I'm sure there'll be some staggering climbing, probably based from Corté I'd imagine as that's mountain territory.
Good luck with the drive down (I've a 111S too), should be great fun - the only thing I'd say is that there's a two week period in August (I think) when everyone in Paris shuts up shop and heads to the south coast - every year there are major delays going down south so just try not to hit it at the wrong time - even the A/B roads get chewed up.
If you're looking for something a bit more active parts of the GR20 (or the whole thing) are beautiful, especially when it gets up around Monte Cinto (3000m-ish), I'm sure there'll be some staggering climbing, probably based from Corté I'd imagine as that's mountain territory.
Good luck with the drive down (I've a 111S too), should be great fun - the only thing I'd say is that there's a two week period in August (I think) when everyone in Paris shuts up shop and heads to the south coast - every year there are major delays going down south so just try not to hit it at the wrong time - even the A/B roads get chewed up.
Thanks a lot for your tips :-) We might do something similar later on.How is the quality of the roads under normal circumstances,(my father used one set of rear tyres for his holidays ages
ago...)
What would be a nice central place to explore the countryside when renting a place via gîtes-de-france.fr?
Regards
Rainer-CH
ago...)
What would be a nice central place to explore the countryside when renting a place via gîtes-de-france.fr?
Regards
Rainer-CH
Get a Michelin guide, and as long as you book ahead a couple of night in advance, you can plan your iteniery as you go. Also when we went last year, try and get hold of a local beach guide (half english, half french). A lot of the beaches aren't really visible from the road, and some of the entrances are very well concealed. Some of the approaches to the beaches are NOT elise territory though. As well as taking the sump off, you'll aslo rip your arse off!
Stay away from some of the ports, as they all offer the same mediocre food, unless you really search out a really 'local' place. The interior is absolutely stunning.
More expensive than Cannes, Nice, etc! Take care, esp. in a RHD car on some of the mountain roads, as they're VERY tight, with MASSIVE drops!
Corsica
Stay away from some of the ports, as they all offer the same mediocre food, unless you really search out a really 'local' place. The interior is absolutely stunning.
More expensive than Cannes, Nice, etc! Take care, esp. in a RHD car on some of the mountain roads, as they're VERY tight, with MASSIVE drops!
Corsica
Edited by fergus on Thursday 11th February 17:18
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