‘A Med island holiday without the crowds': family-friendly Corsica

The Guardian

02-04-2025

I had held out as long as I could, but there was no getting out of it. The catcalls were rising; the baying, cackling audience of under-11s intoxicated by a combination of ice-cream sugar rushes and my obvious, clammy fear. It was day 14 of a two-week summer holiday, and our final afternoon in blissful 30C Corsican sunshine. I just needed one more chapter, lounging with my book, soaking in the last of the bone-warming sun slowly edging down towards the island's dramatic mountainous spine.
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But my calculating offspring had not forgotten ill-fated promises made on a previous evening, probably a little too deep into the second carafe. I was probably caught off-guard at Barny's, a sensational sushi restaurant in the town of Ghisonaccia, enjoying our best meal of the holiday. They know when my defences are down; when I'm fully relaxed into holiday 'yes' mode, and prime for being taken advantage of.
So, here we are. I'd avoided going down the thrilling water slide at the Eurocamp Arinella Bianca's family pool for as long as I could, and had nowhere left to run.
It was my husband's turn to disappear into the sanctuary of the adult-only pool in the wellness suite – complete with a whirlpool area, lazy river and priceless peace and quiet – so all other sacrificial options were gone.
I gave in, launched myself down, followed by child one and child two. Screams, splashing, laughing, coughing. I might have quickly had my fill of the water slide, but I could have stayed on the island for a whole lot longer. The campsite is located just outside the town of Ghisonaccia, on the east coast, a smart choice if you want to be as well-positioned as you possibly can on an island with a huge mountain range running down the middle. It is less known than the ports of Bastia, Calvi and the capital, Ajaccio, as well as the more glamorous Porto-Vecchio and photogenic Bonifacio. But you pay less for accommodation and, with a hire car allowing us to explore, we planned day trips to the southern tip of the island too.
Ghisonaccia felt up-and-coming, with restaurants, independent shops, stalls, supermarkets and a weekend street fair with live music. The crowning glory for a tourist information enthusiast like myself was a supremely helpful, well-stocked and multilingual office in the centre of town, which helped us discover family-friendly river walks farther inland, as well as the nature reserve Etang D'Urbino, just 10 minutes north.
We'd chosen Corsica as our latest Mediterranean island holiday after a string of successes over the years with Sicily, Mallorca, the more rural Elba, and hopping about on ferries between Croatia's Hvar, Korčula and Vis.
Corsica lies between the south-east of France and the west of Italy, accessible by ferry from Marseille, Nice and Toulon in France, or Savona, Livorno and Genoa in Italy. We arrived in Bastia via Savona and used Corsica Ferries there and back. Manage your expectations, especially in peak holiday season; the prices are reasonable for an overnight cabin, which we chose to limit the time wasted travelling, but we failed to anticipate stuffy rooms and 7am arrival times leaving us tired and irritable. Next time, I'd opt for the shorter, half-day journeys to spend as little time as possible inside the ship.
Although it is close to Sardinia and has a long, complex and turbulent history of invasion and ownership, Corsica is definitely French, but with a unique feel. It was the birthplace of Napolean, and its economy relies on tourism as well as healthy subsidies from Paris. Profiles of the island say it is one of the most underdeveloped parts of France and its proud inhabitants want to keep it that way.
There is a banquet of beaches to choose from. You could come every year for a decade and still find new favourites. Some, like Plage de Santa Giulia, are vast, popular and easily accessible, signposted off the main roads; while others, like Plage de l'Ostriconi, are more rural and worth the pilgrimage on paths through shrubland and Corsican pines. We spent a few days trying various beaches along the east coast from the port of Bastia in the north, through Solenzara and the upmarket towns of Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio. In the end, though, our favourite was actually our very own beach, just a few steps from our chalet, Plage de Ghisonaccia, a beautiful sweep of white sand where you could eat in one of the beachside restaurants, play volleyball, get involved in water sports or just find a secluded spot. It's where we discovered Ghiso Beach restaurant a few minutes' walk up from Arinella Bianca. The children ate their first burgers and fries of the holiday and then played on the sand while we shared a delicious cuttlefish and octopus dish with a bottle of chilled white wine.
Other days we spent on the site, bouncing between the pool and letting the kids explore the activities and sports facilities. The full-throttle shows from the entertainment team were the highlight of the evenings we spent on-site.
There are 229 pitches at Arinella Bianca, ranging from tent spaces to luxury glamping in two- or three-bedroom wooden chalets and lodges sleeping up to eight. Our smart, clean and modern three-bedroom chalet had formidable air conditioning, two shower rooms, loads of storage and great indoor and outdoor spaces for cooking and eating.
For many years now​, parts of Corsica have suffered from overtourism, which has affected the fragile ecosystem and local resources, leading to visitor quotas and demarketing campaigns. For our visit, we decided we would tread the less-beaten track. Even though we chose a resort campsite, it's on the Côte Orientale, an agricultural area that is still relatively unknown but is slowly becoming the island's top camping holiday destination.
So pick an area and stay local, as we mostly did. With its winding roads and traffic jams, getting anywhere in Corsica by car can be an ordeal, especially in mountainous areas. Plage de Ghisonaccia became our favourite beach partly because it didn't involve a stressful car journey, and we spent our days exploring the Pinia forest, one of the last maritime pine forests left in Europe, which bordered the beach. We walked the shores of the Urbino coastal lagoon, foraged samphire to have with our barbecue-baked sea bass, and went for refreshing swims in Fium'Orbu river, just a few minutes inland from the campsite. A Med island holiday without the crowds.The trip was provided by Eurocamp. A premium three-bedroom holiday home at Arinella Bianca costs from £766 in mid-June and from £1,611 in mid-August.