tips for corsica please

[hoxtonchick]

we're going in a couple of weeks, with ds (4), dd (11 months), my parents & brother (so built in baby sitting :o). staying in adjacent villas, \link{http://www.vfbholidays.co.uk/res_web_accom_directory.aspx?supplierCode=VFB&cat1=159&cat2=276&accomId=2792&productId=2942\here}, & we're hiring cars.

tell me what to do!

Not swank for starters you lucky hoxty
Have you got a baby carrier, a good comfy one for dd? (Can lend you a Bushbaby if needed)...because you really have to do that footpath they mention. The upland walks in the Balagna are outstandingly beautiful and generally easy to follow (network of GR and PR paths, usually balise with marker posts).
The nearest beach, Ostriconi, will be really wild by the way. I think it is the part of the coastline known as the Desert des Agriates - glistening white sand, rocks...and no shade. Very beautiful, just a bit remote.
We had couscous under the plane trees in the central square in l'Ile Rousse, and if the mad aquarium is still in business ds will enjoy that.
Something else you will all enjoy, especially ds, is a trip down to Calvi on the coast tramway U Trinichello (it hugs the shore between Calvi and l'Ile Rousse and continues round as far as Bastia via a connection. Check your nearest "station" and the timetables. It is open sided so on a fine day it's a lovely trip.
Calvi has the old citadel to wander round and lovely portside restaurants to eat in
I've just googled it as we never visited Lama or the Ostriconi valley and it looks stunning.
We spent our upland week further south in Zicavu, and to be honest Hoxty, you will probably just enjoy chugging down some Patrimonio or Muscat de Cap Corse and enjoying those glorious views.

Am assuming you have scoured the Corsica.net website which is written in English by Corsican residents and has lots of local info...

Hope you are flying into Ste Catherine at Calvi, it is only a short hop from there up the coast and I believe they have finally upgraded that road

marina, you are a star, thank you so much. i told my mum i didn't need a guidebook, posting here is just as good :). we don't have a carrier for dd, but we do have a mountain buggy which we'll take - do you think that will be tough enough?

Provided it is a "real" ATP and you have willing hands to lift her over stone walls etc, possibly. Terrain can be rocky though.
I am VERY happy to lend you the carrier if you prefer, it is light and height-adjustable so more than one person can use it. Also has sun canopy. We could do a coffee handover in the city week beginning 12th June if you do want it.
Do have some guidebooks somewhere if you want them also but as they are ten years old they are now sadly out of date.
Look out for honey, chestnut flour cakes, muscat de Cap Corse, fabulous pork products from the free-range pigs - in fact look out for the pigs full stop, especially on mountain roads. We first encountered them muscling in on some resting cyclists at a pass summit and eating someone's shorts out of their pannier
You are going to love it there so much. They don't call it the Ile de Beaute for nothing :)

oooh, i'm so excited. it is a proper mountain buggy, but it sounds like the carrier might be useful. we're going on the 18th, so meeting you the week before would work perfectly. and the children enjoy trashing starbucks....

Corsica is lovely, you'll have a great time. We really enjoyed it--were in a Mark Warner, but skived off and did our own exploring.

No advice - as never been although Marina's rave postings on the place make me feels as if I have . It looks fantastic - thanks for posting the link. The prices for the latter half of August seem particularly reasonable for the other property on your link.

Have a great time!

That's the beneficial effect of a September 1 start for the French school year gem. A lot of holiday accommodation in France dives in price after about August 15th :)
Will mail you re Bushbaby and a meet-up Miss Chick. hopefully you never saw my posting re dd going Supervoid in it on an unforgettable hike round the Weald of Kent, but I promise the carrier escaped unscathed unlike hapless dh's Berghaus

la la la, fingers in ears, i can't hear you marina :o. thanks so much, will look out for the e-mail.

will give a full report when we return gem. we used to stay in vfb villas as kids (mainland france though). have to admit that mum has arranged it all....

glad you had a good time too arabica :).

Yes please HC. Although we are house swapping this year and I think that is going to be the way to go now (off to Sweden in case you're interested - Time Out guide says it is the best city ever with beaches, forests and design shops ).

The flights are going to be £150 for all 4 of us and the accommodation and car hire (swap) is free for 10 days! Toys, car seats, cots included.

Sorry excited hijack over! There is one swap for Corsica listed but I'm bagsy-ing it.

Have mailed you hoxty, hope the address I have on file for you is correct :)

i have the e-mail marina. thank you. will reply when i get a second.

sweden sounds fabulous gem, we can swap experiences. none of us are keen on heat at all, so i reckon sweden would be a pretty good destination!

we're back! had a great time. we went to calvi (beach, with shade. brilliant. nice meal by the marina), bastia (bit dull, decent shops though!), ile rousse & cap corse (no children, mountain roads, much travel sickness....). and quite a lot of hanging out by the pool. no walking as it was 35 degrees. it was very beautiful & surprisingly green. lama is gorgeous, & we had the best meal of the week in the mayor's restaurant.

Bump for Yoyo who is off there soon.
Glad you had a nice time Hoxty - beginning to think the "come in June, it is warm but bearable" line no longer holds good for Corsica though...we had a heatwave too.
We ate in L'Abri Cotier at the marina but you could take your pick really
Good job you didn't haul our blasted Bushbaby out there after all then!

hi marina! 17 degrees & raining suits me pretty well actually .

I am loving this! Office door wide open, cool air, rain splashing off roof tiles...yum! We had the most wonderful walk in the Corsican mountains in a downpour though Hoxtonchick...spectacular rainbow over Monte Incudine

Thanks Marina!

Thirty five degrees!! DD1 will flake out in that. Thankfully, we have also got a pool so it will be well used.

Hoxtonchick - anything you'd avoid? Our children are 10, 7 and 3 and I hadn't planned to take a buggy but might be an idea for the airports. Did you go from Stanstead?
Glanced through The Rough Guide yesterday and it said that dining out was extremely expensive in Calvi. I refuse to spend the entire week cooking though as I am sure it will fly past.

where are you staying yoyo?

we flew from bristol which was fine, but very far away from our house in east london, & added way too much time in the car at both ends of the journey. we often fly from stansted though, & it's a fair distance from the terminal to the gates, so a buggy might be a good idea for your 3 year old.

i thought pretty much everything was expensive in corsica. for instance, 2 juices & a diet coke cost 7.5 euros. main courses were at least 10 euros. maybe i'm just mean .

ds loved the beach in calvi. the water was really shallow, & very warm. avoid the aforementioned twisty roads if your children have sensitive stomachs. and you need to have nerves of steel as a driver too!

ah, but i'm a lazy so & so marina!

Hoxtonchick - we are staying in Marine de Davia which is 4 km from Ile Rousse. The beach is supposed to be 400 m away and it is meant to be the ideal place for a family seaside holiday (I'll let you know if this is true when we get back). I am just getting around to thinking about what I need to take for everyone and realise that I need to get some Summer stuff for myself fairly urgently!
How did you find VFB? We are going with Corsican Places and so far they have dealt with our queries very efficiently. We got the tickets through a week or so ago and the instructions seem very comprehensive and clear. I just hope the villa is nice! We had to go for a very large one (availability problems) and to fit our budget think it is quite simply furnished. The owners will be there to greet us apparently (perhaps this means they live very near but hopefully not too near!).
I don't think we'll be attemting the very twisty journeys - three children vomiting in hot weather in a hire car does not a good holiday make! I quite fancy a train journey though (and DS would be in heaven).
The excitement is building nicely thanks to your timely post.

We hired much smaller properties via Corsican Places (tiny studio in Calvi Citadelle then family second home in the mountains nearish Ajaccio) and if that experience was anything to go by we were very impressed yoyo. They are a specialist operator and the two reps we dealt with were expats (French mainland and English) who had fallen in love with the place.
I think they still get high helpfulness ratings 10 years on and they certainly know the locality.
Our worst moment - gunning down a 1-3 pass in an open-topped Twingo and meeting a charabanc coming the other way, on the wrong side of the road. We were on honeymoon and young and foolish so we thought it was a great laugh...with hindsight. The roads inland are darn scary!

Just a query for anyone who knows. I have been considering Corsica for summer hols, will it be unbearably hot in July/August? TIA

YES - and stormy, possibly even gusty winds at times in August

thanks for the quick reply marina - will definitely look elsewhere.

Marina - you were not supposed to answer in the affirmative then (at least not until we've been there)! Our place does not have air-con so unbearable heat would be awful.
How long would a train journey to the South of the island take? Have seen two beaches in travel sections recently which look magical.

You will be right by the beach Yoyo I assumed from Saadia's wording that she doesn't like extreme heat, as I don't.
It's not like Morocco or Greece or anything searing like that, don't panic!
The winds are an occasional hazard right through the summer...but they last a max of 48 hours. We had two storms and one windy day in a fortnight.
Trains south are a possibility we looked into but I think that unless you got the first train of the day in the North a day-trip right the way down the island and back was not feasible because we are not talking TGVs here.
I guarantee there is enough beauty in any one corner for this not to be a major disappointment