We plan a trip to Corsica and Sardinia in September. I did not find much information on this forum, so have several basic questions. We will rent a cat which I plan to pick on one island and return on the other, and we plan to fly into one and fly out from the other (we are from the east coast of the US, Washington,DC).

Is it reasonable to go to both islands for 8 days or better pick one (which one then?)?
How best is to distribute time between them? In which sequence is better to travel.
Are there any small airlines commuting there from Italy or France (I found that EasyJet flies for about 30 euros from Milan to Sardinia, curious about other alternatives).

Also, any advice on best places to see/stay is greatly appreciated. Fodorites are the best resource!

In 8 days you'll barely scratch the surface of either Corsica or Sardinia (this plus the fact that picking up a car in one country and returning it in the other is expensive).
I would chose Sardinia but then I am very partial to it

Check Ryanair, Meridiana, Alitalia and EasyJet for flights to Cagliari, Olbia or Alghero from mainland Italy (Ryanair also flies from the UK, Spain and Germany).

I have extensively planned a similar trip to yours. Flying to Rome/train to Civitevechia (port city) and fast ferry to Olbia. Will pick up car and drive to Santa Teresa (just west of Costa Esmerelda) and stay there for 4 days and ferry one day to Corsica from Santa Teresa as our base. Then drive to Alghero along coast and stay there 5 days and tour around Alghero and drive down to Bosa for the day. Will drive back to Olbia and then be in Rome for 1.5 days. I think my itinerary will work well and give us a flavor of Northern Sardinia with a touch of Corsica. Happy to give you more details of itinerary if you like.

missmolecule, I will be happy to see details of your itinerary and share mine. You can e-mail me directly at [email protected] if you prefer.
We too are leaning towards touring northern Sardinia and making a day trip to Corsica.
About Sardinia I am still not sure how much south we should (or afford to, timewise) go to pick up the most essentials

I believe that there are car ferries to and from both Sardinia and Corsica out of the port of Genova in Italy, so that might help when it comes to renting and returning a car within Italy.

I haven't been checking this site lately...so sorry! We did a similar trip last year and what we discovered is that you need to rent separate vehicles in both Corsica and Sardinia! That's what we did and we had a great trip! We love both islands and we'll be back in Cagliari this October for a couple of days.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Lisa

With 8 days, I would visit one or the other but not both. Have you read this excellent trip report?

http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/tripreport.asp?tripid=1673

Wow,
I haven't been checking back for a while and missed a lot of answers.

We settled on 7 days in Northern Sardinia with a day trip to Corsica from Santa Teresa.

Lisabelina, if you are still reading this, why do you need separate vehicles for Sardinia and Corsica? Can't we bring our car on a ferry over to Corsica and back?

Moreno, mysardinia.com is a beautiful site, I will try to contribute after we had returned. Since you are a Milanese, we will be staying in Milan on the way to and from, I might ask you a question later.

Marchy007,
We were surprised about needing 2 cars also! It has to do with the law of both islands but it's workable if you leave your car in Santa Teresa and then pick one up in Bonifacio. The ferry ride to Bonifacio is absolutely spectacular!
Have a wonderful trip!
Lisa

I think I should note that Sardinia is part of Italy while Corsica is part of France. Even though it would be great to travel in both islands, I advise everyone that you have to be ready with all your travel documents when you plan to do some island hopping.