Corsica
You can be here in August for about €835, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Good time in August: 31°C days, sea 26°C, peak fares.
May, June and September are the months, with open trails and roads that still move, and a sea warm enough to swim in from June; July and August bring the mainland French and the campsites fill. The GR20 is walkable from June to early October, and many mountain refuges and coastal restaurants close outside that window.
Best months here: June, July, September. August is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Corsica is a mountain range in the sea, with granite peaks over 2,500 metres a morning's drive from turquoise coves, and a culture that is neither French nor Italian and insists on the difference. The roads are slow, the villages are stone and the food is chestnut, brocciu cheese and charcuterie. It suits walkers, drivers who do not mind hairpins, and anyone who likes an island with an interior.
What you can do
- 01Walk a stage of the GR20 from Vizzavona or Haut Asco, then return by train or road.
- 02Take the boat from Bonifacio along the chalk cliffs to the Lavezzi islands and swim there.
- 03Eat a fiadone and sample charcuterie in a village restaurant in the Castagniccia, chestnut country.
- 04Drive the Calanques de Piana road at dusk, then a boat from Porto to the Scandola reserve.
- 05Ride the narrow-gauge train from Ajaccio to Corte across the mountains, about two hours.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Base in two places, one coastal and one inland, and expect slow driving between them; Porto-Vecchio's beaches are lovely and crowded, Ajaccio and Bastia are convenient rather than pretty.
Unusual things
- ◦The Filitosa prehistoric site near Propriano, with carved menhirs among olive trees.
- ◦Cap Corse's Sentier des Douaniers coastal path from Macinaggio, past Genoese towers to Centuri's lobster port.
- ◦The Aiguilles de Bavella pass, with rock needles and a short walk to the Trou de la Bombe hole in the ridge.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Shuttle, 20 min, €8; car essential
- Car needed?
- Recommended for most of what is worth seeing
- Getting around
- A car is essential, and distances in hours matter more than kilometres; the mountain train links Bastia, Corte, Ajaccio and Calvi a few times a day. Airports at Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi and Figari, and ferries from Marseille, Nice, Toulon and Italy.
- Clock
- Same time as Zurich (Europe/Paris) derived
- Daylight
- 13.9 hours of daylight in August · sunrise 06:32, sunset 20:28 derived
- Currency
- EUR
Good to know
Forest and scrub fire risk is high in summer and access to some areas can be closed; mountain weather changes fast and the GR20 has fatal accidents most years.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Zurich in August, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Varna
Tropea
Porto
Tenerife
Santiago de Compostela
Barcelona