Corsica
France
A mountain range in the sea, with the GR20 down its spine and water the colour of a swimming pool around it
Photo by Big Dodzy on Unsplash
Photos by Cecile Musy, Vidar Nordli-Mathisen, lucas Favre and Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of France
May to June, and September — the high summer is hot, full and the roads are single file with hire cars
Climate month by month
The next sixteen days in Porto-VecchioOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 120mm in Nov
Where it is
41.93°N, 8.74°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Walk a stage of the GR20 even if you will never do all of it
- Stand on the cliff at Bonifacio and look down
- Take a boat into Scandola
- Swim at Rondinara early, before the cars arrive
- Drive the interior through Corte rather than round the coast
Corsica travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget France
Good valueCards everywhere, including the bakery. Refuse the conversion when a terminal offers to charge you in your own currency, which is the one way to lose money here.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank machine — Crédit Agricole, BNP, Société Générale, LCL. The independent machines in tourist streets charge and the bank ones do not.
Avoid these
- the village machines in season, which empty by Sunday
Use these instead
- Crédit Agricole
- Banque Populaire, in Ajaccio, Bastia or Porto-Vecchio
Draw in a town before heading into the interior. The mountain villages and the beach kiosks are cash and the nearest machine can be an hour of hairpins.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of France
SafeSafe for visitors. The roads are the hazard — narrow, unbarriered, with a drop on one side and a hire car coming the other way. Swimming is unpatrolled on most beaches and the mountain weather turns fast on the GR20.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the mountain roads — narrow, unbarriered, with a drop on one side and a hire car on the other
- the beaches without a lifeguard — which is nearly all of them
- the GR20 in bad weather — one of the hardest waymarked routes in Europe and not a summer stroll
- fire-risk days in high summer — the maquis burns and paths and roads close
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa France visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of France
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodCharcuterie from pigs that eat chestnuts, brocciu cheese in everything from omelettes to cake, and wild boar stew in the interior. The wine is good and barely leaves the island.
Getting around
LimitedNo ride-hailing on the island. Taxis are expensive and negotiated, the towns have a handful each, and a hire car is what everybody does — booked months ahead for the summer.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Paris — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of France
Why these are France's numbers and not Corsica's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Corsica, so these are medians for all of France. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for France, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
French
- HelloBonjourbon-ZHOOR
- PleaseS'il vous plaîtseel voo PLEH
- Thank youMercimer-SEE
- Yes / NoOui / Nonwee / non
4 more phrases
- Excuse meExcusez-moiex-koo-zay MWA
- How much is it?C'est combien ?say com-BYEN
- The bill, pleaseL'addition, s'il vous plaîtla-dee-SYON
- Cheers!Santé !son-TAY
Open with bonjour before anything else. Launching straight into a question without it reads as rude, and explains a lot of reputed French coldness.
Religion
Catholic, and strictly secular
Laïcité is a constitutional principle: religion is kept out of public institutions, and conspicuous religious symbols are banned in state schools. Cover shoulders in cathedrals.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonjour before anything else, every single time you enter a shop
- Keep your voice down in restaurants and on public transport
- Keep both hands visible on the table while eating, wrists on the edge
- Dress a notch smarter than you would at home — it changes how you are treated
Don't
- Do not ask for a doggy bag or substitutions; the dish arrives as the kitchen intends
- Do not start with English without at least attempting bonjour, parlez-vous anglais
- Do not tip more than rounding up — service is included by law
- Do not eat while walking; it reads as slightly uncivilised
Where to stay in Corsica
No Holistay rentals in Corsica yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Corsica on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Ajaccio AJA
15 minfrom the airport· 5 km as the crow flies
15 min into town; a hire car for everything else.
Also worth pricing: Bastia BIA — the northern half of the island.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
