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Mark Warner - Corsica May

5 replies

onlineid · 05/04/2003 10:21

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zebra · 05/04/2003 17:19

We did something similar -- Majorca with a 5 month old. We walked, took buses and taxis. We were in a resort that seemed far from most town centres, but actually, it wasn't too far to walk anywhere we needed (like a supermarket).

In the taxis we did the wrong thing and strapped the baby to us in with the seat/shoulder-belts! Major risk of poor babe being crushed to death if taxi had braked very hard. I now know a better choice would have been to strap ourselves in, with the baby outside the belt, but still held in our front carrier (Baby Bjorn). We also put the Baby Bjorn on DH's back, put baby in, and went cycling. Poor baby got too hot, among other safety problems you might think of...

Could you take a carseat?

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onlineid · 06/04/2003 10:17

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Marina · 11/04/2003 13:59

Where is the resort in Corsica, onlineid? Some parts of the island (Calvi to Corte/Bastia and then to Ajaccio) are quite well served by trains and buses. Because of the island's generally mountainous terrain public transport takes ages, we found (stayed in Calvi, and Ile Rousse, approx 30 miles up the coast was wonderful but a full day trip by little rattly train). Personally from what I have seen of the island I would not cycle far unless I had thighs like tugboats and serious experience on all-terrain bikes. 1 in 5 gradients appear from nowhere and the Corsicans drive with "mediterranean zest".
But it is a wonderfully friendly place and it is not at all unsafe to venture out on the roads as a pedestrian etc. We did a lot of hiking in the inland mountains as part of our honeymoon and found everyone really welcoming.
I would also have thought that Mark Warner themselves will be very happy to tell you what local public transport serves the resort. I think other mumsnetters have been to a MW site near Ajaccio (or Propriano?) so might have some more ideas.
If you can, I would take, or arrange to hire locally, a comfortable backpack. We did not have ds then but I remember the pavements in Calvi being uneven, cobbled or non-existent. Wonderful island though, have a great holiday.

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miriamw · 12/04/2003 20:31

We went to Mark Warner in Corsica with ds age 5 months. They do have UK car seats available if you want to use a taxi or hire car, and they can also arrange an all day nanny if you wanted to go off by yourselves. You can also ask to borrow one of their buggies for the day if you want, though most people took their own.

There is a little village within walking distance (10 mins or so), as well as some restaurants if you want to escape, though we mainly stayed at the hotel - we were never forced to sit with others in the evening unless they were people we were already talking with.

We found that the childcare was superb. The nannies are all English and the ratios are very good. The creche has a fenced garden with plenty of shade and outdoor toys, and the toddlers often go for walks, have a big room with loads of ride-on toys, tons of painting etc. I felt very guilty at the thought of putting my young one into the creche, but on reflection we all had a better time because of it - and I came home with some lovely artwork which I would never have done myself at that age.

There is a child's pool, separate from the adults, and I seem to remember that there was a play area - ds was too small!

Baby listening service was good and reliable. We would have prefered for ds to have been in a separate room, but didn't have the option, so landed up with the cot in the hallway section of our room (ie just outside main sleeping area in front of bathroom).

From memory it would be wise to take a non-slip bathmat.

Have a great time.

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tigermoth · 13/04/2003 17:03

We stayed in a small villa complex near Propriano in Southern Corsica. Like us, many families had toddlers anrd pushchairs. The tour operator offered a bus service into town, so no one to my knowledge relied on the local buses - I didn't see many to be honest. Many families hired a car for at least some of their holiday, especially it they wanted to go out and about. The area is very hilly so even if the roads are OK, you would inevitably have to some uproad pushing if you intended to go for long walks with a pushchair. The roads that I saw were Ok for pushchairs (just) and the town and village pavements were OK, too. We saw many very fit cyclists - a few had child seats. If you feel ambitious, cycle hire might be an alternative you could look into.

HTH

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