Corsica by car, north to south

Corsica is small on the map and enormous in practice. The island is 183 kilometres from Cap Corse to Bonifacio, which sounds like a morning's drive until you meet the first switchback. Give it nine days. Eight if you must, but you will regret the eighth.

Days one to three — Bastia and Cap Corse

Fly into Bastia, pick up the car at the airport, and resist the urge to drive anywhere for the first evening. The old port is a working one, the fish is landed a hundred metres from where it is served, and the town has none of the polish of the south. That is the point.

Then the cape. The D80 loops the peninsula in about four hours if you never stop, which you will, roughly every twenty minutes. Nonza's black beach is worth the descent. Centuri, at the top, does the best langoustine on the island and knows it.

Days four to six — the interior

Most visitors hug the coast and miss the part of Corsica that made the rest of it famous. Corte sits in the middle, a university town in a gorge, and it is the right base for the Restonica valley. Start walking early: the road up closes to cars by nine in high season and the pools at the top are cold enough to hurt, in a good way.

From Corte, take the D69 south. It is slow, it is beautiful, and there is one petrol station in ninety kilometres. Fill up in Vivario.

Days seven to nine — the south

The Col de Bavella is the best hour of driving on the island — pine forest, red rock, and a pass at 1,218 metres where everyone stops for the same photograph. Come down into Porto Vecchio, then choose a beach. Palombaggia is the famous one and it is genuinely lovely at eight in the morning. By eleven, go to Rondinara instead.

End in Bonifacio, on the chalk cliffs, and stay one night more than you think you need.

Practical notes

Hire the smallest car you can live with; village streets were built for mules. Book ferries months ahead if you are bringing your own car from Nice or Livorno. Most of the island shuts between mid-November and Easter, which is either a problem or the entire attraction, depending on what you came for.

Our Corsican houses — six of them, from a converted convent above Pozzo to a bungalow at Coti-Chiavari — are on the site with real availability. September is quietly the best month and the one we sell out of first.