Île de Beauté : Corsica part 1 (Sept. 2025)
Part 1 of our Corsican adventures, all the places we saw and all the food we ate!
We started our périple to Corsica in early September, stopping in Montpellier for a night to see some friends and head to the beach before we hopped on the ferry (car included!) the next evening in Marseille. (It’s also important to note that at this point in our trip, I already had quite a few blisters … keep that in mind for later!)
A ferry nice journey
We had booked a cabin in the ferry for a good night sleep and cheers-ed with the first of many a Corsican beer to our vacation as we hit the high seas. A sunset and a quick dinner of some sandwiches we snagged before boarding later and we were waking up along the coast of Corsica. Our ferry docked in Propriano and we decided to grab a quick breakfast and a coffee since we had all day before checking into our first hotel.
We headed up and over to Sartène, a quaint little town, perched high in the mountains with some killer views. We had only been on the island for a couple hours and I was already ready to come back, the landscapes are truly unmatched. We snagged some sandwiches from a boulangerie with some delicious-looking charcuterie and fromage, Corsican specialties, before heading down some winding roads to the coast and to our first beach of the trip!
Ok technically two beaches since I had spotted two great contenders on our way up to our hotel for the evening - Plage de Rondinara and Plage de Santa Giulia. Sparkling and shiny blue water greeted us as we made our way down to the beach, even with a few clouds overhead. We had a blast soaking up the sun and the sea and even getting in a nap or two.
Our hotel was a little north of Porto-Vecchio and so we stayed in the area for our first Corsican dinner … and apéro of course! It was this fateful evening that I was introduced to my new best friend - Cap Corse, a local liquor that can be drank either on the rocks or as a spritz and comes in two colors; white or red. All are delicious. Louis and I shared a pizza and a wild boar ragout with pasta, a classic dish, before promptly heading back and crashing hard at our hotel.
The next day, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping as we headed to Plage de Palombaggia where we spent the day. And boy, if I thought the water yesterday was blue, I wasn’t prepared for the sunshine today! We enjoyed our focaccia sandwiches on the beach and tried the famous beignets de brocciu, or cheese (similar to ricotta) stuffed beignets.
Since we were beach pros now, (we had already done three in two days!) we decided to grab some swimming goggles to do some DIY snorkeling since there were colorful fish everywhere, best investment of the trip!
We spent the evening in Porto-Vecchio, walking around, window shopping and exploring the old city before I decided my feet had had enough. An apéro later and a dinner later and I was in much better spirits. We enjoyed some charcuterie, another pasta dish and les aubergines à la bonifacinne, or stuffed eggplants. It was super delicious and we were pretty pumped to be heading back down to Bonifacio to try them again in the region they are from!
up to the mountains we go
We decided we wanted to change it up and switch from a beach day … to a waterfall day! Corsica is known for its natural pools in the mountains and we headed out early on a hike to explore the Piscines de Cavu. The water was super cool and refreshing and we had a blast splashing around in the natural basins along the river. We even got a glimpse of our next landscapes - les Aiguilles de Bavella. My feet were dead, however, and luckily we found a shepherds cabin that sold cheese … and ice-cold beverages for a well-deserved break!
A couple hours later, and a bunch of really winding roads later (Corsica is not for the faint of heart / vertigo-inclined / carsick) and we were officially in the mountains, with killer views looking out to the sea. We made it to our little camping, bought some charcuterie, veggies and cheese for the ultimate Corsican girl dinner and enjoyed the peace and quiet in the mountains … and our neighbor the cat!
It was at this point (3 days after arriving in Corsica), that my blisters were bad. Like really bad. Like bleeding and crying in the bathroom and Louis doing a small surgery bad. And so the next morning after all that I woke up and could barely walk or put on a shoe without being in so much pain, I started to see all hopes of our mountain hikes and adventures fly out the window …
A stop in the only pharmacy in the area for some blister bandaids and walking limping around a town all decked out for a medieval festival later and I was feeling a bit better. We had a quick lunch and then decided to drive up the mountain pass to check out the views, even though the whole hiking situation seemed very unlikely.
Call it the luck of the mountain (or a little bit of stubbornness), but once we got on top, I was pretty convinced I wasn’t leaving Corsica without doing a hike and at least a bit of the famous trail - le GR20 that splits the island in two and is one of the most famous treks in France. I bandaged up my feet and laced up my sneakers and we headed up on a shorter version of the trail we initially wanted to do.
Turns out the hike went straight up, so while my legs were taking a hit, my feet were hanging in there. Again, these hikes are definitely not for those scared of heights … at one point I turned around and basically looked down, down, down at the sea. We were on top of the world! It wasn’t my fastest or most efficient hike, but I was super happy and proud to have made it on top! The views were unmatched (and maybe even better than the original hike we had planned). We were truly in the middle of the mountains that we had seen the day before! And fueled by little Corsican cookies that were very similar to biscotti, canistrellis, that come in a wide variety of flavors ranging from chestnut flour (native to Corsica) to clementine and other local flavors!
Like the good adventurers we were, we celebrated with a beer (Pietra anyone?) at the refuge down at the bottom of the trail. Dinner was a repeat of our Corsican girl dinner to finish the leftovers before tucking in before another big day …
… and another big hike! I was feeling bit more confident with my new fancy blister bandaids (spoiler alert, I still had to stop half a dozen times and change shoes and socks) and we decided to keep going with our original program, a longer hike to see a hole in the mountains (although now that I say it, it sounds a little less cool). We stopped for breakfast in our village (one of our favorite cities of the trip!) and fueled up on coffee and patisseries before heading back to the mountain pass for one last hike.
We hiked through a forest, taking advantage of the shade before coming to a clearing with a stellar view of the Aguilles and decided it was the perfect spot for a pause ... and a charcuterie sandwich (sensing a theme here?). Then we headed up, up, up a narrow and rocky trail to the Trou de la Bombe, our final destination. It was pretty impressive to see, however the crowds of tourists doing sketchy, off-trail climbing to get an Instagrammable photo was sometimes questionable. So we did what we do best, and booked it back to another refuge to grab a refreshing beer before hopping in the car and heading back down to the south and to Bonifacio, our next stop!
