Every season, a handful of clients ask us in June whether they can take a boat to Corsica in August. The honest answer is usually no — not because it cannot be sailed, but because the yachts suited to it, and the berths at the other end, were spoken for in February. This is the itinerary that most rewards planning, and the one most often left too late.
Why it is worth the effort
Two hundred nautical miles from Cannes, the Mediterranean stops being a coastline and becomes an archipelago. Corsica’s western shore has anchorages that hold four boats rather than four hundred; the Lavezzi islands between Corsica and Sardinia are granite and turquoise and effectively uninhabited; the Maddalena is a national park with water that does not look real in photographs and looks better in person.
It is also, on the Sardinian side, the one part of the Mediterranean that competes with the Riviera on its own terms — Porto Cervo in August is a spectacle, and worth two nights and no more.
The crossing
From Saint-Tropez or Nice to Calvi is roughly a hundred miles of open water. On a well-found motor yacht it is six to eight hours; it is usually run overnight, or begun at six in the morning, so that guests wake as the Balagne coast appears. It is the one genuinely exposed passage of the trip and it is entirely weather-governed — expect the captain to move it by a day if the mistral is running, and be glad of it.
This is also why the yacht matters. A boat with stabilisers at anchor and under way, adequate range and a crew who have made the crossing before turns it into a non-event. A boat chosen for a week between Cannes and Antibes may not.
- Nights 1–2 — Riviera warm-up: Lérins, Cap d’Antibes, then the crossing.
- Nights 3–4 — Calvi and the Balagne; Girolata and the Scandola reserve.
- Night 5 — Golfe de Porto and Les Calanques de Piana at sunset.
- Nights 6–7 — Bonifacio, then the Lavezzi and Cavallo.
- Nights 8–9 — Maddalena archipelago; Porto Cervo for one evening.
- Night 10 — north-west up the Corsican coast, or return crossing.
Corsica, west coast
Calvi is the natural landfall: a citadel above a curved bay, a marina that functions, and pine forest running down to the sand. From there the coast south is the best of the island. Girolata is reachable only by sea or on foot, and the Scandola reserve beyond it is a UNESCO site where anchoring is restricted and diving is prohibited — the crew will have the current rules, which change.
The Golfe de Porto and the Calanques de Piana are the visual high point of the trip: red porphyry cliffs, best seen from the water in the last hour of light. Anchor, eat late on deck, and do not plan anything else that evening.
Corsica and Sardinia are planned in winter, not in June.
Bonifacio and the strait
Bonifacio is entered through a narrow cleft in white limestone cliffs, with the town balanced on top of them, and it is one of the great arrivals in the Mediterranean. The marina is deep in the fjord and berths for larger yachts are few — book far ahead or plan to anchor outside and tender in.
South of it lie the Lavezzi and Cavallo islands, granite boulders in shallow turquoise water, and the strait itself, which demands respect: it funnels wind and the current runs. It is a morning passage, not an afternoon one.
Sardinia and the Maddalena
The archipelago is a national park with a permit system, zoned restrictions and real enforcement. Your agent obtains the daily permits in advance; the crew will know which zones allow anchoring and which do not. Budelli’s pink beach may be viewed but not landed on. Spargi and Santa Maria hold the best anchorages, and in June they are close to empty.
Porto Cervo is thirty minutes further south and is a different holiday altogether — vast berths, considerable prices, and a scene that peaks in the second half of August. One evening is the correct dose. Berths there in high season are booked by winter and cost more per night than anywhere in France.
Cost, and the honest caveats
Expect the APA to run at the top of its range: this is a fuel itinerary, roughly 500 to 600 nautical miles across ten days, with berths in three countries’ worth of price levels. VAT treatment changes between French and Italian waters and the final invoice reflects the split of days actually sailed in each.
Two caveats worth stating plainly. The crossing can move, and a rigid schedule at either end — a flight, a dinner, a party — is the enemy of this itinerary. And ten nights is the minimum that does it justice; at seven you are buying a crossing rather than a holiday. Our note on charter costs sets out the arithmetic, and if the dates are already tight this year, talk to us now about next.