Corsica

Region

French Mediterranean island, about 110 nautical miles from Cap Corse to Bonifacio

Scale

Bonifacio to Santa Teresa in Sardinia about 7 nautical miles, to Porto Cervo about 25

Season

May to October, with June and September the best combination of weather, space and price

Main port

Bonifacio, about 350 pontoon berths plus 170 visitor places, maximum 85 m LOA and 6 m draft

The quai d'honneur at Bonifacio is the berth the largest yachts take, and it is contracted well before August

Arrete 260/2026, dated 3 July 2026, established two organised mooring sectors in the Gulf of Sant'Amanza with 14 buoys for vessels of 26 to 70 m

The port's own listing describes 15 ecological buoys in Sant'Amanza for vessels of 24 to 75 m

Bouches de Bonifacio reserve

anchoring on Posidonia is monitored by rangers and fined, sand only, with the Donia app the standard reference

Lavezzi

four seabird protection areas closed under Decree 235/2023, with Cala Lazarina and Cala di u Grecu the usable sand anchorages

Scandola

UNESCO World Heritage since 1983, partial anchoring ban in the core zones and a 250 m exclusion around marked osprey nests

French and Corsican press reported through 2026 that quotas and a booking system are being prepared for Scandola and the Calanches

Belvedere-Campomoro

Arrete 2026-067 sets a mooring field of about 115 berths, roughly a third for visitors, with a 5 knot approach along marked channels

Balagne

Arrete 2026-057 defines access channels and motor vessel restrictions at Monticello

East coast

Arrete 2026-009 bans anchoring and dragging around the aquaculture installations in the Etang de Diane

Ajaccio was closed to traffic from 23 to 31 May 2026 for a freediving event under Arrete 2026-090

Winds

the mistral accelerates hard through the Strait of Bonifacio, and the libeccio builds swell along the whole west coast

Charter VAT

French VAT at 20 per cent on a charter starting in Corsica, with exemption only for the proportion genuinely spent outside French and EU waters

The old French lump sum reduction has gone. For yachts of 15 m and over, AIS data is the accepted evidence of time outside EU waters

Airports

Figari Sud-Corse for the south, Ajaccio for the west, Calvi for the Balagne and Bastia for the north east, all strongly seasonal

Figari is roughly 20 to 30 minutes from both Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio

West coast highlights

the Gulf of Porto, the Calanches de Piana, Girolata with no road to it, and the Scandola reserve

North coast

Calvi under its Genoese citadel, Saint-Florent, and the Agriates beaches of Saleccia and Lotu reachable by tender

Everything structural goes to the French mainland or Italy. Corsica has no superyacht yard

One island, four coasts

Corsica runs about 110 nautical miles from Cap Corse in the north to Bonifacio in the south and each coast is a different trip. The west is the spectacular one, with the red porphyry of the Calanches, the Gulf of Porto, the Scandola reserve and Girolata reachable only by boat or on foot. The south is the social one, with Bonifacio in its cliff, Porto-Vecchio behind its gulf and the Lavezzi islands scattered in the strait. The east is a long straight beach with Solenzara and very little else. The north is Cap Corse, Saint-Florent and the Balagne beaches at Calvi and Ile Rousse.

The proximity to Sardinia is the point most owners miss. Bonifacio to Santa Teresa on the Sardinian shore is about seven miles, and Porto Cervo is around 25. A boat doing the Costa Smeralda can cross for lunch, and the two weeks that begin in Porto Cervo almost always end in Corsica because the anchorages are as good, the prices are half, and the strait between them is the finest short piece of water in the western Mediterranean when the wind allows it.

Bonifacio, and the harbour in the cliff

Bonifacio is one of the great arrivals in the Mediterranean. The entrance is a slot in a 60 metre limestone cliff, invisible until you are on it, opening into a long narrow fjord with the medieval citadel standing directly above the quay. The marina holds around 350 boats on pontoons with 170 places kept for visitors, takes a maximum length of 85 metres and up to six metres of draft, and the quai d'honneur along the town side is where the largest yachts lie with the restaurants a step from the passerelle.

It is also the most expensive and the most contested berthing on the island in August, and it is booked. The alternatives in the south are Porto-Vecchio at the head of its gulf, which is the smart resort end of Corsica and takes rather less size, and the anchorages themselves: Rondinara, Santa Giulia, Palombaggia and the Cerbicale islands on the east side of the cape, and Sant'Amanza just around the corner from Bonifacio, which has become the answer for anything the marina cannot take.

Fourteen buoys for a 70 metre yacht in the Strait of Bonifacio, established by decree in July 2026, because the alternative is a fine for anchoring on seagrass.

The 2026 decrees changed where a large yacht may stop

France has been closing anchoring over Posidonia for several years and Corsica caught up in 2026. In the Strait of Bonifacio nature reserve, anchoring on the dark ground is monitored by reserve rangers and fined, and the practical rule is that the hook goes on clean sand only, with the Donia app the standard tool for reading the bottom. The most significant instrument for a large yacht is Arrete 260/2026 of 3 July 2026, which formally established two organised mooring sectors in the Gulf of Sant'Amanza carrying 14 buoys sized for vessels between 26 and 70 metres. The port's own listing puts it at 15 buoys for 24 to 75 metres.

The rest of the island has been reorganised the same way. At Belvedere-Campomoro, Arrete 2026-067 replaced the 2017 regime with a mooring field of about 115 berths, roughly a third of them kept for visitors, motor access to the buoys capped at five knots along marked channels, and no anchoring on the red marked western flank. In the Balagne, Arrete 2026-057 sets access channels and motor restrictions at Monticello. On the east coast Arrete 2026-009 bans anchoring and dragging around the aquaculture installations in the Etang de Diane, and Ajaccio was closed to traffic from 23 to 31 May 2026 for a freediving event under Arrete 2026-090.

Lavezzi and Scandola are reserves first and anchorages second

The Lavezzi archipelago in the strait is granite, sand and clear water, and it is inside the Bouches de Bonifacio reserve. Four seabird protection areas were established under Decree 235/2023 and are closed. Cala Lazarina and Cala di u Grecu remain the usable anchorages and both are sand only, with rangers watching berthing times and numbers more closely each season. Cavallo, the private island next door, is a separate world with its own small port and its own rules about who lands.

Scandola on the west coast has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1983 and is the most restricted water in Corsica. Anchoring is partly prohibited in the core zones, marked by yellow buoys and temporary signage, and a 250 metre exclusion applies around marked osprey nests through the summer. French national and Corsican press reported through 2026 that the authorities are preparing quotas and a booking system to deal with the number of tourist boats working the reserve and the neighbouring Calanches. An owner planning Scandola in 2027 should confirm the access regime before he plans the day.

The west coast is the reason to come

From Ajaccio north the coast turns theatrical. The Gulf of Porto is ringed by red cliffs that go orange at the end of the day, the Calanches de Piana above it are a UNESCO landscape of eroded porphyry, and Girolata sits in a bay with no road to it, so the village is supplied by sea and the anchorage empties completely once the day boats leave. Scandola closes the northern side of the gulf with sea caves, stacks and an osprey population that is the reason for the restrictions.

Further north the Balagne opens out. Calvi has a Genoese citadel above a crescent bay with a marina below it and the mountains behind, and it is the one place on the island with a summer social season worth the name. Saint-Florent at the base of Cap Corse is quieter and prettier, with the Agriates desert beaches, Saleccia and Lotu, a tender ride away and reachable no other easy way. Cap Corse itself is a 20 mile finger of villages and small harbours, of which Macinaggio at the top is the practical one.

The wind through the strait decides the week

Two winds run the island. The mistral and its local relatives come out of the north west and accelerate viciously through the Strait of Bonifacio, where the gap between Corsica and Sardinia squeezes the flow and 30 knots and more for three or four days is normal rather than exceptional. The libeccio comes from the south west and builds swell on the whole west coast, which is the one that closes Porto and Girolata. In settled weather the strait is glass and the crossing to Sardinia takes an hour.

The season runs from May to October. June is warm, green and quiet and is the best value month on the island. July fills. August is full, with the French and Italian holidays overlapping and the Bonifacio quai contested for weeks in advance. September is the connoisseur's choice, with warm water, empty anchorages and the mountains still walkable. The interior is a genuine alternative to the water, with the GR20 crossing the spine of the island and villages an hour inland that look nothing like the coast.

Getting guests in

Corsica has four airports and they map onto the coasts. Figari Sud-Corse serves Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio and is the one that matters for the south, roughly 20 to 30 minutes from either. Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte serves the west and the middle. Calvi Sainte-Catherine covers the Balagne and Bastia Poretta the north east and Cap Corse. All four are strongly seasonal, with heavy French and northern European scheduled traffic between May and September and thin schedules either side of it.

That seasonality is the planning point. A guest change in the last week of September is a different exercise from the same change in July, and the connections in April and October usually route through Paris, Nice or Marseille rather than direct. Ferries from Nice, Toulon, Marseille, Livorno and Genoa carry cars and are the fallback. Road transfers on the island are slow because the roads follow the mountains, so a crew change is best planned at the airport nearest the boat rather than at the nicest anchorage.

France applies, which cuts both ways

Corsica is France, so the boat is inside the EU customs union and inside the euro, with no clearance formalities from mainland France or Italy and full access to EU technical and medical support. A charter starting from a Corsican port carries French VAT at 20 per cent. The old lump sum reduction has gone, and the exemption now applies only to the proportion of the charter genuinely spent outside French and EU waters, evidenced rather than assumed. For a yacht of 15 metres or more, AIS data is the accepted proof of where it actually was.

The commercial exemption for a qualifying vessel of 15 metres or more registered as a commercial ship is available where the tests for the previous calendar year are met, and it is a matter for the owner's fiscal representative rather than the captain. The practical consequence for a cruise that combines Corsica and Sardinia is that both legs are EU and both are taxed as such. There is no duty free arbitrage in this corner of the Mediterranean, and an itinerary designed to create one will not survive an AIS trace.

Ashore, and what Corsica is not

Bonifacio's citadel, Calvi's, and the Genoese towers along the whole coast give the island a harder and older character than the Riviera. Food is Corsican rather than French, which means charcuterie, brocciu cheese, chestnut flour, wild boar and the Patrimonio and Ajaccio wines, and it is honest cooking at prices that will not frighten anyone who has just come from Porto Cervo. Porto-Vecchio and Calvi carry the summer nightlife, Bonifacio the restaurants along the quay, and Ajaccio the only real city life.

What the island does not have is a scene. There is no Piazzetta, no Gustavia, no equivalent of the Riviera's August. Shopping is limited, the smart hotels are few, and guests who measure a week by the addresses they visited will be disappointed. Guests who measure it by water, mountains and dinner on a quay under a citadel will not. Provisioning at scale is straightforward at Ajaccio, Bastia and Porto-Vecchio and thin everywhere else, and anything technical means the mainland or Sardinia.

The honest downside, and what is not published

The berthing ceiling is the first constraint. Bonifacio takes 85 metres and is the largest port on the island, and it is full in August. Above that a yacht lies in Sant'Amanza on one of the reserve buoys or offshore, which is why the 2026 decree mattered. The mistral is the second, because a three or four day blow through the strait removes a third of a fortnight and pins the boat on one side of the island. And the shore support is the third: for anything structural, Corsica sends the boat to Italy or the French mainland.

Checked in August 2026, the ports of Bonifacio and Saint-Florent publish tariff pages, but no Corsican port publishes a superyacht rate card of the kind Porto Cervo posts, and none publishes a fuel price. The Sant'Amanza mooring sectors are established by decree but the buoy fees are collected on the water. The Scandola quota and booking system reported in the French press has no published date or mechanism. And nothing tells an owner how many of the 170 visitor places at Bonifacio will be free on an August afternoon, which is the number the day turns on.

Für wen: An owner already committed to a Sardinian season who wants the same water at half the price, or one who prefers mountains, Genoese citadels and empty anchorages to a social calendar, with a boat of 85 metres or less and a captain who reads decrees.