Corsica, read from the water.
Which Scandola boat actually stops at Girolata. What the Piana calanques cost out of Porto against Sagone. Where the Lavezzi crossings leave from, and when the wind takes the decision out of your hands.
The Corsican days that fill first.
The full Corsica list →Boats out of Ajaccio, Porto and Bonifacio carry more travellers than everything else on the island put together. Here is what each one costs and how long it takes.
1
Ajaccio & Sanguinaires Gulf Boat Tour
A 3-hour guided boat tour of Ajaccio Bay with stops at the protected Sanguinaires islands and sea-only Mezumare, plus swimming.
From · $42
Read our review →
2
Town Highlights and Coast Open-Top Bus Tour
from $14
3
Scandola Nature Reserve Guided Boat Tour
from $82
4
Sea trips Scandola Girolata and Calanches de Piana
from $84
5
Magic Sanguinaires Sunset from Ajaccio/Porticcio – Aperitif
from $58
6
Scandola Nature Reserve Eco-Friendly Boat Tour
from $53
7
Bonifacio by Sea: Unmissable Escape from Ajaccio/Porticcio
from $84
8
Cruise Calanches de Piana and Scandola Reserve
from $96
The stretches of Corsica people come for.
Red cliffs at Piana, a UNESCO reserve you can only see from a boat, granite islets off the far south and an apéritif somewhere between them. Each has its own harbour, its own price and its own best hour.
Scandola and the Calanques de Piana: choose your harbour.
Every Gulf of Porto trip →
One coastline, four departure points. Porto puts you under Capo Rosso within the hour; Sagone and Cargèse trade time for a swimming stop; Ajaccio turns the same water into a full day at sea.
Straight out to Capo Rosso and back
The short version, and the reason Porto’s quay is a row of boat kiosks: the red calanques, the Capo Rosso tower, a cave or two, home before the afternoon wind gets up.
The long way round, with a swim
Down the coast to the reserve, an hour ashore or in the water at Girolata, then the calanques on the run home. The version most people mean when they say they did Scandola.
A full day on a semi-rigid
The capital sits a long way south of the reserve, so this is a day at sea rather than a morning: fast hull, few passengers, and Girolata in the middle of it.
Ajaccio ends every afternoon at the Sanguinaires.
The capital keeps its own gulf: four red islands at the mouth of it, a lighthouse on the last one, and a fleet that leaves the harbour at five so you are out there when the rock turns colour. Wine usually comes with it.
Bonifacio stands on chalk, and the sea keeps getting under it.
The old town sits on a white cliff with the sea working away underneath it, caves and all. From the marina it is twenty minutes along that cliff and forty more to the Lavezzi granite. Half the boats do both.
North of Calvi the road gives up before the coast does.
The Balagne runs from Calvi’s citadel to L’Île-Rousse in hill villages and vineyards, then stops dead at the Agriates: forty kilometres of maquis with nothing through it. Saleccia is a boat ride or an hour of rough track, and it is worth both.
- 1Pointe de la Revellata Snorkeling Boat Tourfrom $41
- 2Sortie snorkeling en bateau en bordure de réservefrom $46
- 3Introduction to Diving Dive with an Instructorfrom $106
What a day on the Corsican coast actually costs.
Every tour on the island, sorted by price. The cheapest way onto the water costs less than lunch on the quay.
Two hours out of the harbour: short calanques runs, snorkelling drops off Calvi, town tours in Ajaccio.
The standard Corsican boat day. Scandola and Piana with a swimming stop, the Lavezzi crossings, sunset sailings with wine.
Small semi-rigids, skippered days, 4x4 runs into the Alta Rocca and catamarans with lunch aboard.
Three parts of Corsica you cannot drive to.
Beaches and old towns exist all over the Mediterranean. A reserve where landing is banned, an archipelago with no shade and a desert with no road are Corsican problems, and boats are the answer to all three.
The Scandola Reserve
Scandola has been protected since 1975 and UNESCO-listed since 1983: red volcanic rock, sea caves, ospreys on ledges nobody can reach. You cannot land anywhere inside it, so the whole visit happens from the water and the number of boats allowed in is limited. Girolata, the fishing hamlet next door with no road to it, is where the crews stop instead.
- 1Scandola Nature Reserve Guided Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,375 reviews
- 2Sea trips Scandola Girolata and Calanches de Piana★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,146 reviews
- 3Scandola Nature Reserve Eco-Friendly Boat Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 932 reviews
The Lavezzi Islands
Halfway to Sardinia, the Lavezzi are a scatter of rounded granite and white sand inside a marine reserve — no shop, no shade, no fresh water, and a cemetery for the sailors lost when the frigate Sémillante went down here in 1855. Boats leave Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio all morning in summer, and none of them go when the strait is blowing.
- 1Catamaran trip with snorkeling at the Lavezzi Islands★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 471 reviews
- 2Lavezzi Islands and Caves Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 380 reviews
- 3Lavezzi Archipelago & Cerbicales Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 268 reviews
The Agriates Desert
Not sand: forty kilometres of low maquis, granite and abandoned shepherds’ huts between Saint-Florent and the Balagne, with the island’s best beaches on the far edge of it. Saleccia and Ghignu are reached by boat from Saint-Florent or by an hour of unpaved track that hire-car agreements quietly forbid, which is why the 4x4s and the catamarans both do good business.
- 14×4 Agriates Desert and Beach Excursion from Calvi★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 142 reviews
- 2desert of the agriates : Saleccia – Ghignu★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 142 reviews
- 34×4 Day Tour Mountain & Agriates’ Saleccia Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 118 reviews
Corsica keeps its best hour for the sail home.
All the evening sailings →Magic Sanguinaires Sunset from Ajaccio/Porticcio – Aperitif
Read our review →
Sunset boat cruise with Aperitif at the Sanguinary Islands
Read our review →Book these before you reach the port.
Most of the island can be arranged the night before over a beer on the quay. These four cannot: they run on protected water, one daily departure and a weather window that closes without asking.
- 01Scandola Nature Reserve Guided Boat TourLanding inside the reserve is banned and boat access is capped, so the good departures go early.
- 02Catamaran trip with snorkeling at the Lavezzi IslandsA marine reserve with no shade, no water and no shop — and the summer crossings fill weeks ahead.
- 03Magic Sanguinaires Sunset from Ajaccio/Porticcio – AperitifOne departure, and it leaves on the light rather than on your dinner booking.
- 04desert of the agriates : Saleccia – GhignuSaleccia has no paved road: it is a boat from Saint-Florent or an hour of rough track in a 4x4.
The libeccio cancels boats. Corsica has a dry answer.
A south-westerly can shut the whole west coast for a day, and skippers cancel rather than argue with it. That is the day for the Asco and Bavella roads, a tasting in the Balagne or at Patrimonio, and Ajaccio’s old town, which was built by people who knew the wind.
By port — wherever you are staying
Ajaccio39 tours
Calvi19 tours
Porto-Vecchio17 tours
Bonifacio16 tours
Bastia8 tours- Every Corsican review →
The coast road, port by port.
Gulf of Porto
The AgriatesLatest Corsica tour reviews.
Newer reviews first →
The unmissable Scandola departure from Île-Rousse
Read our review →
Single Life Burial in Ajaccio: Original Track Game
Read our review →
Historical & Gourmet Getaway in Ajaccio from cruise port
Read our review →
