Corsica? Ideally an aparthotel...

[NameChange30]

Does anyone have any recommendations or tips for a family holiday in Corsica, please?
4 people, children are 7 and 3, want a pool and proximity to sandy beach. Ideally would like to stay in an aparthotel for the best of both worlds (will do a bit of self-catering as well as eating in hotel restaurant or elsewhere). A kids' club would be a bonus although 7yo is autistic and anxious so unlikely to go... 3yo more likely to be up for it.
TIA!

A few things about Corsica:

• it is quite expensive
• the public transport network is not great so you might want to rent a car as well
• If you fly to Ajaccio you should find the type of accommodation you are looking for in nearby Porticcio with some activities for kids. During the tourist season they have a ferry system that goes from Porticcio to Ajaccio so you can travel by boat
• If you are flying to Bastia, the town is not as nice as Ajaccio and the beaches around there tend to be pebbles rather than sand.

Thank you.

There are no direct flights from the UK to Ajaccio, as far as I can see. It looks like Bastia is the only option - and that's flying from Gatwick which is not ideal for us. There are BA flights from Heathrow to Figari but they're £££.

If getting there is going to be a pain it'll put me off. "Holidays" with my lot are hard enough as it is!

There should be direct flights from easyJet for Ajaccio but I think they only run part of the year (something like May/June to September).

Well I'm looking for August which is peak time! Couldn't see any flights to Ajaccio.

That's a shame. I used to travel to Corsica and could take an EasyJet direct flight to Ajaccio in the summer but the last time I went was about 5 years ago so it looks like they stopped that route.

The easiest way if you need connecting flights then is to fly to Nice and then fly Nice to Ajaccio on Air corsica/Air France.

We love love love Corsica - been 7 or 8 times. It has all you'd want from the south of France but with better beaches, fewer crowds and amazing dramatic scenery. We've flown to Bastia, figuri and Calvi. Check out corsican places for ideas - it's not cheap but they sort flights as well as car too. Otherwise we've stayed in mobile homes on campsite which work well with kids the age yourselves are.

Honestly we’ve been three times and it’s rammed in August. Very popular with the French and second homers. It’s also very expensive, much more so than France, Spain or Greece. A few years ago in Calvi a beach bed was 25 euros each, so 50 euros per day for the two of us. I’d only ever go now in June or September.

I’m not sure why you’ve chosen Corsica with two young children but I can’t help but feel there may be better options out there.

You can fly from Gatwick to Figari with EasyJet

We are a bilingual family living in England so we try to go to France as much as we can. We've been to Brittany two years in a row and it's lovely but the weather was shit last year and I'd like to go somewhere with a better chance of sun. I also fancy it because it seems like an exotic/holiday destination rather than just another trip to mainland France. DH (the French one) has been wanting to go for a while; I think he might have been on holiday there as a child which would make sense as it's clearly a more popular destination for French people rather than Brits. Another reason for us to go (would rather befriend French families than English-speaking ones).

However, if it's going to be too expensive and a faff, I'll rethink. Could possibly do south of France (SE or SW) but don't fancy it as much.

What are the better options, in your view? Bear in mind I'd like France and decent weather, and it has to be August so everywhere is going to be busy!

I think it depends where you go - we were near Propriano last July and it was by no means busy and no more expensive than anywhere else in Europe. If you want French culture but a guaranteed great climate plus beautiful beaches then you can't beat it. (Also from a half French family and we've been all over France over the years) Maybe I'm biased but every holiday we've had in Corsica has been fabulous

I didn’t realise you only wanted French speaking destinations; I was thinking somewhere like Spain (Balearics) or Greece would work better with flights, aparthotels, kids’ clubs and young children.

As a PP has said then, look at Corsican Places. Back in the day they used to do charter flights once a week too. Not sure if they still do, but they will certainly offer the best choices. I think we also looked at a French destinations brochure too which specialised in all places French and included Corsica. Might inspire you to other destinations too.

mamadoes and theresnolimits
Thank you very much for recommending Corsican Places, there are some good options for accommodation and flights (including a flight option I hadn't found elsewhere). It is all pretty expensive so I think we need to carefully consider how much we want to go to Corsica as opposed to somewhere a bit cheaper. I wonder if we should do a long weekend in France with friends another time and go elsewhere (ie not France) for our August holiday.

Corsica does look beautiful though! I really fancy it. If we had easy going children I'd go for it, but we very much don't, so I can imagine lots of battles and meltdowns and wondering why the fuck we spent a fortune going only to have a stressful time!