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Corsica - A Short Trip Report (sort of) about a Spectacular Island

Corsica - A Short Trip Report (sort of) about a Spectacular Island

Old Sep 22nd, 2013, 11:01 AM
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Corsica - A Short Trip Report (sort of) about a Spectacular Island

This will be more of an impression, with some facts and comments, kind of trip report. No "I rose at 8AM and had breakfast" reporting.

When I was planning this trip for me and my husband I went to my trusty Fodor's forum and got some information from a small handful of people (thanks, guys!) and realized that there wasn't that much info out there. So this is my contribution.

We first flew from JFK to Nice, spent 3 days there and then flew to Corsica. Our time on Corsica was broken down this way: 4 nights in Calvi, 2 nights in Corte, 1 night in Bonifaccio and 3 nights in Ajaccio. We rented a car and my trusty husband did the driving.

Impressions:
Roads & Driving: Some of the coast roads (driving south from Calvi) and the mountain roads inland are super crazy scary. Narrow roads with many, many hairpin turns and no guardrails. At two points in the driving my husband had to turn back 'cause he wouldn't go any further. And I was happy he did. The first was the road on the coast from Calvi south and the second was in the Restonica Valley. Crazy Corsican drivers too - zooming around blind curves. Yow!

The beaches near Calvi were spectacular. Turquoise waters with the Citadelle in the background. Restaurants right on the beach, Palm trees and even Pine trees. Totally enchanting. I'd go back in a minute.

Weather: Extremely windy at times. We never did get boat trips to the Calanches and the Scandola National Park because boats were not going out. Definitely were disappointed. Temps were high 70's to very low 80's. And NO HUMIDITY! Fantastic.

Geography: A big reason we went. The mountains are highest inland but they're really all over the island. And then there are beaches to rival some in the Carribbean.

Medieval villages all through the mountains. We walked many cobblestone streets. Up & down. Up & down. But wonderful.

Food - Every place seems to offer pizza. Food was expensive. Specialty - Wild boar stew. I wasn't crazy about it but my husband liked it. I thought it was like tough pot roast. Lots and lots of ice cream. Delicious salads everywhere we went. Got sandwiches for lunch one day while sitting on a wall in Calvi, and in a park in Ajaccio so as to try to cut down on the $ spent on food.

Tourists: Most were French. We met two other Americans in our 10 days there.

Favorites: Calvi beaches, and its beautiful port. Our hotel "Sainte Christophe" and our room with a terrace overlooking the Mediterranean and the Citadelle, didn't hurt. The fact that way up in it's Citadelle there's an actual village. Corsica's varied stone colors on the mountains. Breathtaking vistas almost all over the island. The weather.

Should you go? Yes, yes, yes.

If you have questions, just ask me and I'll do my best to answer them.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2013, 11:30 AM
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happy you had a good visit, D and K
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Old Sep 22nd, 2013, 03:48 PM
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Thanks for the impressions. Do you have photos online?
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Old Sep 22nd, 2013, 06:44 PM
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Hi Kenav. I posted a question about traveling to Corsica just last week. Alas. No one answered.
So I was happy to see your report. I am using miles and do not have enough to travel to Nice so it is Paris for us.
You flew from Nice to Corsica. Which airline did you use.
Thanks.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 04:27 AM
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Thanks Stu.

This is only the 3rd morning we're back so photos haven't yet been edited and put on line. I will give a link once they're done.

Sher - We used miles too. It was the same amount for us from JFK to Paris or to Nice. Since we had never been to Nice before, we decided to go there and spend a few days. For the leg from Nice to Calvi, Corsica (and then AJaccio back to Nice) we used Air France/Air Corsica (codeshare). I believe it cost $250 R/T per person.

Where are you getting your FF miles from? Where are you flying from?
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 04:34 AM
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Sher - I just looked at your query on Fodor's. You say that your house is near Porto Vecchio and the Ajaccio airport is close by. But it's not. It's 2 1/2 hours away via a very challenging road. Closer to Porto Vecchio is Figari airport near Bonifaccio, just about a 1/2 hour away.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 01:48 PM
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Perhaps difficult for you to answer, having used self drive, but could you offer an opinion on how practical it would be to explore the island using public transport?
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 02:14 PM
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Kenav, glad you like it, just got back myself, it was windy last week wasn't it, although by Tuesday glorious Sunshine.....
This was our 5 th visit to the Balange region and still,some new nooks and crannies for us to discover..... We had wild boar stew for the firs time. My BF loved it, me I could take or leave it.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 02:51 PM
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Corsica needs more promotion to international visitors, so thank you for this report.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 04:05 PM
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Well, kerouac, maybe it doesn't need more promotion to international visitors, then it would be too crowded for the likes of you and me!! Truthfully though, there were plenty of tourists in September, so I can't imagine it in August when even more French tourists are there.

Smeagol - It was windy almost the whole time we were there Sept 10-20. But the first couple of days was crazy windy. So sorry we missed seeing Scandola cause the boats weren't running.

SeeDee - I don't really see how you can get around without a car. I know there is a train, but not sure where it goes. Also there are some buses. In Ajaccio we took the bus into the center of Ajaccio from our hotel on the Sanguinaire Road so that we wouldn't have to deal with our car for a day. But it ran only 1x/hour and stopped running at 7PM.

Perhaps if you stayed in one area of the island only it could work. Perhaps Smeagol who is more acquainted with Corsica than I could tell you.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 06:20 PM
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kenav. With Delta, we must use 77,000 miles to fly from Pittsburgh to Nice. We can get to CDG for 60,000 miles each.
There is not way we will have almost 160,000 miles by then but I do have the miles to get to Paris.

I noticed that there is an airport closer but I think it is smaller and I felt that AJA would be a better fit but I should have done the actual miles and figured on only about an average of about 50km an hour because of the road.

I appreciate your looking at the post so you could really give me some input which is what I wanted. I am going to check out the closer airports and the carriers that fly to them. I wouldn't mind the $250 if we could do the round trip from the mainland for that.

WE also need an automatic car so I have been sending email to inquire about the availability of these cars. Learning to drive a stick shift is just not an option and especially on the roads.

Thanks for the help. That is exactly what we needed. I also think that even if we have a car we will not be driving all over unless something far away from the house really calls to me. That is the only drawback about staying in one place.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 09:06 PM
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I've always have a car when we are there so I cannot really comment. Although I do know taxis are VERY expensive. Someone recently did a trip report on Corsica and Sardinia and they took public transport, try searching for that as I can't remember what they said.
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Old Sep 23rd, 2013, 09:09 PM
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Kenav the wind dropped in the Calvi region from around Tuesday and was lovey, by Thursday it was glorious but when it was windy OMG I was being sandblasted on the beach.!!

Did you have any particular restuarant favourites ?

We stay in Lumio ( about 6 miles out of Calvi) but frequently go into Calvi, I just love that citadel, so I know your hotel had a FAB view, lucky you!!
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Old Sep 24th, 2013, 05:35 AM
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Sher - If you don't know how to drive a manual shift car, yes, I would suggest an automatic absolutely However, I've always found it difficult to find automatics in Europe and the cost! But the roads in Corsica, as I've mentioned, can be challenging and you don't need stress. It's one thing to drive 2 1/2 hours on a highway. It's another to drive that time with almost constant twists and turns, many times on the edges of cliffs, and speeding cars.

Interesting that Delta charges so many FF miles to get to Europe. I've found that with Delta and that's why I don't use their CC anymore. I stay with AA (use their CitiAAdvantage card) - even if I sometimes don't like their planes. It was 40,000 FF miles R/T per person for us to go JFK to Nice.

Smeagol - As far as restaurants are concerned: I started to make a list of "good" ones from Trip Advisor and then realized maybe it would be easier to make a list of the "don't go there" ones instead. It really helped while in Nice as well as Corsica. In Nice we did like a small restaurant called La Masion Bleue. We went twice. Off the tourist sea front hub, so not overpriced, but very close to that area.

Basically loved any restaurant in Corsica that was on the beachfront. Only one meal that was expensive and really not up to par - "La Peche" in Ajaccio on the Sanguinaire Road. Found their fish soup almost inedible. One woman ran around with little mincing steps and seemed to fly. One server very nice and another just dumped plates down in front of us. My duck was good, but the nougat ice cream was bizarre. Would never go back.

Since we were in Ajaccio at the time the winds died down in Calvi I guess it hadn't reached there yet.
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Old Sep 24th, 2013, 06:24 AM
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Kenav. I was surprised when I checked the miles and they want so much more to fly to Nice. It is almost twice what you used on AA. Nice would give me a little more choice. If I have to fly into CDG, I would rather not travel from there to Orly to do the tail end of the trip but we will see.
I am having enough trouble trying to find an automatic in Ajaccio let alone Figari but I have sent inquiries again so wish me luck.
Thanks again.
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Old Sep 24th, 2013, 06:36 AM
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I'm impressed with the "no humidity" report...
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Old Sep 24th, 2013, 07:00 AM
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Sher: Check rhiniocarhire.com. I saw automatics in Figari on their site. Are you going next year? May be too early to book a car, but you can see that they actually have them!

Dukey - Have you been to Corsica and found it humid? I was amazed at the glorious weather.
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Old Sep 29th, 2013, 08:40 AM
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Oh - BTW - There were no McDonald's Starbucks, etc. or chain hotels in Corsica (at least where we were). What a pleasure!
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Old Nov 16th, 2013, 12:57 PM
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I have finally gotten my pix together for our trip to Nice and Corsica. Here's the link. If it doesn't take you to the slideshow right away, just click on Slideshow.

http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/v...fd7207a7b1fe91
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Old Nov 16th, 2013, 03:22 PM
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Ooops - try this:

http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/v...9889752d9a603c
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