designergigi

I saw a wonderful show on National Geographic recently showing Corsica. It was fascinating and seems to be a great destination. <BR>I would be interested in your opinions of these three and which you would suggest for a vacation that's just for browsing and exploring the small villages. <BR>Thanks! <BR><BR>

Patrick

We spent about 10 days on Sicily several years ago. This summer we did 10 days on Corsica, 10 days on Sardinia, and 4 days on Lipari, plus a 2 night return to Taormina.<BR><BR>Overall I have to say I liked Corsica better than Sardinia. The scenery is generally more green, lush, and varied. Part of the problem we had planning both Corsica and Sardinia, is that we prefer to stay in small to medium sized towns and don't care about resorts and beaches, which seemed to be the vast majority of information we could get.<BR><BR>Favorites for us: <BR><BR>Erbalunga in northeast Corsica: Stayed at the delightful Castel Brando Hotel where you could walk through this tiny fishing village and eat at delightful little restuarants. Also drove the entire peninsula in that corner of Corsica.<BR><BR>Calvi: not exactly a &quot;small&quot; village, but a delightful port filled with cafes, restaurants, and a quaint little shopping street just a block back from the port.<BR><BR>Ajaccio: birthplace of Napolean, and we were there for the fireworks on Bastille Day (but we couldn't figure out why the firewords were red, white, and green (instead of blue). Don't miss the drive between Ajaccio and Calvi along the coast, stopping at Porto and going through the breathtaking calanques. If fact we did that as a separtate trip after having driven the central route through Corte, and wished we had just done the coastal route instead.<BR><BR>Bonifacio: Again, not exactly small, but the old city on the cliffs is so picturesque, and there are about a million little restaurants in this city.<BR><BR>We took the ferry (with our car) from Bonifacio to St. Theresa on Sardinia.<BR><BR>La Maddalena: this island off the northeast coast of Sardinia was our favorite. It seemed amazingly less touristy that other places, but everynight the streets were filled with all the locals in the piazza, having dinner in the many restaurants, and even doing various entertainment. We spent several days here exploring the other smaller islands and bays.<BR><BR>Costa Smerelda: Hated it!! Could have stayed home in Florida and spent the week in nearby Boca Raton instead -- very modern, plastic, expensive, and just too too much!!<BR><BR>Alghero: Again, a sizeable town with a great old part. Nearby daytrips to the spectacular grottos.<BR><BR>Cagliari: Quite a large city, which we found a lot more interesting that anything we read would have led us to believe. Great public gardens, and a spectacular stairway entrance to the old walled part of the city.<BR><BR>In 18 days, you could get a real flavor of both Corsica and Sardinia.<BR>Or you could do Sicily and the Aeolian Islands (Lipari). You can get a lot of information on Sicily here as there have been many recent posts on towns and attractions there, so I won't add mine.<BR><BR>But I think your time is too short to try to do all three of the islands.<BR>

designergigi

Patrick, I was so hoping you would pick up this thread. It's been great reading about your travels. <BR>It appears that we share similar styles of travel and preferences. <BR>I am in the beginning stages of planning my December trip. These three destinations are real possibilities as is Argentina, Capetown or Vietnam.<BR>As this progresses and I narrow my search, would you mind if I email you directly? <BR>I thank you for your comments. It all reaffirmed what I have found to date. <BR>Gigi

Patrick

No problem at all. But this new information of your trip being in December has sort of thrown me. I had a hard time booking hotels in Corsica, Sardinia, and Lipari when I was trying to contact them last winter for a June/July trip. You will find much of Corsica and Sardinia &quot;closed down&quot; in December I suspect, making it a less attractive destination (this is just a guess, not a statement from personal experience, other than I know many of our hotels were closed during December). Suddenly I think Sicily would be a much better destination -- warmer too.<BR>[email protected]

Travelnick

I have read some of Patrick's note trips on SArdinia and I think he summed it up very well, following our Sept experience. His Boca Raton ref is spot on -but Porto Cervo in many ways is still very well done if you like 60s designer architecture (same with Porto Rotonda) -which it would not appear is up your street. But the water quality is fantastic -colour and clarity. Capo D'orso and Baja Sardinia - very close to Porto Cervo were cheaper and also with very pretty coast line(but also a la Boca Raton). Porto Cervo has some truly outrageous prices - e.g E15 for an hour on internet vs 4 at nearby Palau. I went to Maddalena as well and although I share Patricks view to some extent - the main town has a lot more character than the rest of the north east as much older and there is a nice buzz at night time, I thought the restaurant prices still represented very poor value for money. I agree Alghero has very nice old centre but not a hell of a lot else. My general feeling afterwards was a bit of resentment to an over priced holiday where we frequently experienced very poor service and mediocre food. I felt very strongly that the Greek islands offered more of a buzz and so much better value with the downside that the cleanliness is lower - water, and towns. <BR>Corsica from the plane looked as Patrick described much greener. We heard 2 opinions from people that had been to both on the same trip - one preferred Corsica - prettier as greener, the other Sardinia -do not know why as just overheard. If you type in Sardinia, you seem to get threads not on Italy section - there is another contributor to Sardinia who is a great supporter of southern sardinia with some well informed views.

Marilyn

Sorry to go off topic, but designergigi if that is you, the former gigi, I can't seem to get an email through to you at your new e-address. Have written at least 3 times. Please contact me at either my hotmail account or at (my first and last name)@yahoo.com<BR><BR>Thanks and apologies if this is off track.

designergigi

Patrick, thanks for giving me your email address. When I get a little more time I will start in earnest on this project. <BR>Travelnick, many thanks to you as well. I shall be working on this for awhile and may call on you with specific questions, if you don't mind. <BR>Marilyn~I believe you refer to another person. There were/are 4 of us who post on this forum. That's why I chose designergigi. It's my profession and name. Perhaps you were thinking of gigiinSF? Not me. <BR>Cheers!

Travelnick

No problem. Checked out a number of hotels in the region if you do go for northern Sardinia - but as Patrick said, Sardinia really shuts up - we were there in last week Sept and some smaller coastal places were just totally shut - despite a fair number of Germans and Brits (on Ryanair cheap flights) still there.

GAC

Patrick: the fireworks are red, white and green to reflect the desire of many Corsicans to become independent from France (after all, prior to Napoleon's time, Corsica had much stronger ties to Italy).<BR><BR>Designergigi: If you stay away from the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, you will find that there are many wonderful towns and beach resorts to visit on that Italian Island.

Patrick

Thanks GAC. I know I had to keep reminding myself in Corsica -- particularly Ajaccio that we were in France not Italy. But you'd think on Bastille Day, they'd turn at least a little French!