Latest / Phil and H Travel - Is It Worth It? Top Travel Destinations Explored! / Thinking of Visiting Corsica? Listen to This First.

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Thinking of Visiting Corsica? Listen to This First. · Phil and H Travel - Is It Worth It? Top Travel Destinations Explored!

• 0:00
  Today we are looking at a destination that is, I think
• 0:04
  it's fair to say, suffering from a pretty severe case of main
• 0:08
  character syndrome on social media right now.
• 0:10
  Oh, absolutely. It's everywhere.
• 0:11
  You've definitely seen the photos on your feed.
• 0:13
  I mean, the water is that impossible electric Gatorade
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  blue color. The rocks are these incredible
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  sculptural red granite formations, and the people
• 0:24
  draping themselves all over them look just effortlessly chic.
• 0:28
  We're talking about Corsica. The eel, the beauty.
• 0:31
  Exactly. The island of beauty and the
• 0:33
  pitch online seems to be something like, come here if the
• 0:37
  Amalfi Coast is too basic for you.
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  It's being sold as this sort of, you know, thinking person's
• 0:41
  paradise. The cool girl of Mediterranean
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  island. That's it exactly.
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  But you know, looking at this massive stack of research you
• 0:48
  sent over, I feel like there's a huge bait and switch happening
• 0:51
  here. OK, Yeah, tell me.
• 0:53
  Because the photos they sell, luxury relaxation, but the data,
• 0:56
  the actual reports from the ground, they suggest grueling
• 0:59
  endurance tests. There is just this massive gap
• 1:02
  between the Instagram Reel and the reality of, say, trying to
• 1:06
  get a rental car out of the parking lot in Bastia.
• 1:09
  You are so spot on about that gap and that's exactly what we
• 1:12
  need to explore today. You use the cool girl analogy
• 1:15
  and it's perfect. It's trying so hard to look like
• 1:18
  it didn't try at all. Right.
• 1:20
  I just woke up like. This exactly, and you're right,
• 1:23
  the marketing, or maybe more accurately the user generated
• 1:26
  marketing on TikTok and Instagram, it positions this as
• 1:29
  the next white Lotus location. Oh for sure, Season 3.
• 1:32
  Yeah, you expect to land sip of spreads, float on a raft and
• 1:36
  just have zero cares in the world, but the reality of
• 1:41
  Corsica is friction. Friction.
• 1:43
  That's a good word for. It It's a place that actively,
• 1:46
  almost intentionally, resists you.
• 1:48
  It's mountainous. It's surprisingly expensive.
• 1:51
  The infrastructure is, let's say, limited.
• 1:53
  Intentionally so, maybe. I think so, and quite frankly,
• 1:56
  the island doesn't really care if you have a good time or not,
• 1:58
  it's just there. That is a bold tourism strategy.
• 2:01
  Come visit, we don't care. It is, isn't it?
• 2:03
  So before we get into the, you know, the nitty gritty of why
• 2:06
  it's so difficult, let's define the mission of this deep dive.
• 2:10
  Because reading through all this, I get the sense that if
• 2:12
  you go in with a tourist mindset, you will be absolutely
• 2:15
  miserable. Hmm.
• 2:16
  Yes, you'll hate it. But if you go in with a traveler
• 2:18
  mindset, it might be the best trip of your entire life.
• 2:22
  Exactly. So we need to figure out if the
• 2:24
  juice is worth the squeeze. Is the so-called rawness of
• 2:27
  Corsica a feature, or is it just a massive hassle disguised as
• 2:32
  authenticity? That is the central question.
• 2:35
  This deep dive is for the learner, for the person who is
• 2:38
  about to drop, you know, maybe €5000 on a trip and needs to
• 2:42
  know am I going to have a life changing nature experience for
• 2:46
  her or am I going to spend a week feeling carsick on a
• 2:50
  hairpin turn fighting with a waiter who just refuses to bring
• 2:53
  me a menu. Right, it's one or the other.
• 2:55
  We need to breakdown this mountain and medley strategy,
• 2:58
  this idea combining high Alpine adventure with Mediterranean
• 3:00
  beaches, and see if it's actually executable for a normal
• 3:03
  person, you know, without a private helicopter.
• 3:06
  OK, so let's start with the absolute basics, the context,
• 3:09
  the geography. We keep seeing this phrase in
• 3:11
  the notes, the mountain in the sea, and to me that sounds a bit
• 3:15
  like a brochure slogan. I mean, Hawaii is a mountain in
• 3:18
  the sea. Tenerife is a mountain in the
• 3:20
  sea. How is Corsica different?
• 3:22
  Why does this specific geography create such a a logistical
• 3:26
  nightmare? It comes down to two things,
• 3:29
  gradient and density. If you look at a topographic map
• 3:32
  of Corsica, it honestly looks like a crumpled piece of paper
• 3:36
  that someone tried to smooth out but just completely failed.
• 3:39
  OK, so very rugged. Extremely most Mediterranean
• 3:43
  islands you know. Think of Sardinia right to the
• 3:45
  South where the Cyclades in Greece.
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  They have coastal plains, they have flat bits where you can
• 3:49
  build a proper highway or resort.
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  Strip right? An easy place to put an airport.
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  An easy place for everything. Corsica is essentially a violent
• 3:56
  geological event that just happens to be surrounded by
• 3:59
  water. You have peaks hitting 2700
• 4:02
  meters. That's nearly 9000 feet.
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  Wow, 9000 feet is serious elevation.
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  That's like Colorado territory rising out of the ocean.
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  It is. And because it rises so sharply,
• 4:12
  so brutally from sea level, there's almost no transition
• 4:15
  zone. You don't have these gentle
• 4:17
  rolling foothills. You had the sea, then a Cliff,
• 4:20
  and then a mountain. Bam.
• 4:22
  And this seems to explain the identity crisis the island has
• 4:26
  politically. It's been French for over 200
• 4:28
  years. Right, since 1769.
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  But physically, culturally, it doesn't feel like France.
• 4:34
  Then you look at a map, you see names like Monafaccio, Agaccio,
• 4:37
  Porto Vecchio. They all sound Italian.
• 4:40
  They do, and it sits right off the coast of Italy.
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  It was ruled by the Republic of Genoa for centuries, so the
• 4:46
  Italian influence is massive. So is it Italian?
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  Well, if you ask a local they will tell you very firmly it is
• 4:52
  not an onion and it is not French, it is Corsican.
• 4:55
  Unapologetically itself. Yeah, exactly.
• 4:58
  And that geography defines your first impression.
• 5:00
  You mentioned the White Lotus expectation earlier.
• 5:02
  When you land on a Greek island, what do you expect to see?
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  White stucco buildings, blue shutters, maybe a grandma waving
• 5:09
  at you from a porch. It feels welcoming.
• 5:11
  Right. It's designed to be welcoming.
• 5:13
  The architecture in Corsica is severe.
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  It feels like a fortress. I saw that in some of the Street
• 5:17
  View images, the houses are tall, made of stone.
• 5:21
  With these narrow little windows, they almost look like
• 5:23
  they're bracing for impact. That's the history coming
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  through in the stone. You see these Genoese
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  watchtowers dotting the entire coastline.
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  They weren't built for aesthetics.
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  They were built for defense. To see who was coming.
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  To see who was coming to invade. For centuries, the people of
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  Corsica lived in the interior, in the mountains, to hide from
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  invaders coming from the sea. Pirates Moors For navies, the
• 5:48
  coast was seen as a dangerous place.
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  So the architecture is naturally defensive.
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  It's not trying to win you over. It doesn't beg for your
• 5:55
  approval. It's stoic.
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  It's there to survive. But then you have this other
• 5:59
  layer, this sensory thing that seems to completely contradict
• 6:02
  the severity of the landscape, and that's the smell, the maquis
• 6:05
  ah. Yes, the Mackeys.
• 6:07
  I want to dig into this because the notes make a huge deal about
• 6:11
  it. Napoleon Bonaparte, who was born
• 6:13
  there, famously said he could recognize his island blindfolded
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  just by the smell. Is that just a romantic myth or
• 6:19
  is there actual biology behind that?
• 6:21
  Oh, it's very real biology. It's not just flowers.
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  The McKee is a specific, unique ecosystem.
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  Think of it as this dense, thorny, impenetrable scrubland
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  blanket that covers about half the aisle.
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  Impenetrable. I mean literally, if you try to
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  walk through it off a trail, well, you will be shredded.
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  It's made-up of Myrtle, Heather, rock, rose, thyme, wild mint and
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  a plant called cystis, which is incredibly sticky and aromatic.
• 6:47
  OK, so a lot of herbs, but what creates the smell?
• 6:51
  It's the mechanism. Corsica gets incredibly hot in
• 6:53
  the summer. The sun just bakes this
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  vegetation and the plants to protect themselves from drying
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  out. Release these highly
• 7:00
  concentrated essential oils into the air.
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  So the heat is effectively vaporizing the oils like a giant
• 7:05
  natural diffuser. Precisely.
• 7:07
  You were literally walking through a cloud of herbal
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  essential oils mixed with sea salt and the smell of dry dust.
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  It is visceral. It's arguably the most fragrant
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  place on earth. But it's not a light floral
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  scent like a Rose Garden. It's a savory, almost cooking
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  herbs scent. It's heavy and that smell hits
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  you the moment you step off the plane or the ferry.
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  It's the 1st signal that you're somewhere truly wild.
• 7:28
  OK, so it smells amazing, it looks dramatic, but let's talk
• 7:31
  about when to go, because the sources are absolutely screaming
• 7:35
  a warning about one particular month, August.
• 7:38
  The August warning, yes. Usually August is prime time for
• 7:42
  a European holiday. Why is it a do not enter zone
• 7:45
  for Corsica? August in Corsica is effectively
• 7:50
  Paris by the sea. You have to understand the
• 7:53
  French vacation rhythm. Everyone goes at once.
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  The entire country goes on holiday for most of August.
• 7:58
  Yeah, and a huge percentage of them go to Corsica.
• 8:02
  The population of the island swells massively, but the
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  infrastructure, the roads, the water supply, the electricity
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  grid, the number of restaurant tables, it all stays the same.
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  So what does that actually look like on the ground?
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  Is it just busy or is it actually broken?
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  It borders unbroken. It looks like total gridlock.
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  We're not talking about a little traffic, we're talking about
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  traffic jams that stretch for kilometers just to get into a
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  beach parking lot. Kilometers just for a parking
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  lot. Yes, it also looks like prices
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  literally doubling overnight for accommodation, for car rentals,
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  for everything. If you try to go to a famous
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  beach like Plage to Palm Baja in August, you are not experiencing
• 8:39
  nature. You're experiencing a crowd.
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  You're fighting for a square meter of sand next to a family
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  from Leon who are yelling at their kids.
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  The Instagram versus reality check is at its absolute
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  harshest in August. You go there for the empty
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  turquoise Cove and what you get is a crowded public pool
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  atmosphere. So if August is the trap, what's
• 9:00
  the solution? Is it the classic shoulder
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  season? September is the golden month.
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  Absolutely golden. Why September specifically?
• 9:06
  Well, the French families have all gone back for Laurentre back
• 9:09
  to school, so the crowds drop off by probably 6070%, but the
• 9:13
  sea is still incredibly warm from the summer heat.
• 9:16
  Right, the stored heat effect. Exactly.
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  And prices drop across the board by about 30%.
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  June is also very good, but the water can still be a little
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  chilly because of that depth we talked about.
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  September is the sweet spot. It's where you get the White
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  Lotus experience without the Lord of the Flies reality.
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  OK, let's assume our listener is smart.
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  They've listened to this. They've booked for September.
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  They land in Bastia. Now we hit what the notes call
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  the logistics of friction. The dream begins to crack.
• 9:45
  The arrival The notes mention the rental car struggle as the
• 9:48
  very first moment this happens. It is the first hurdle you land.
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  You're excited, you've got the smell of the Mckees in the air.
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  You walk out of the terminal and you see the queue.
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  A giant line. A giant line.
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  Even in September, rental car inventory is tight.
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  You could easily be standing there for an hour.
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  But here's the specific trap, the one that gets so many people
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  regarding the cars themselves. The transmission trap.
• 10:12
  Oh, this is the manual versus automatic issue.
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  In North America, automatics are standard.
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  In Corsica, manuals are the default because they're cheaper
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  to maintain and they're frankly much better for the mountain
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  roads. If you require an automatic,
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  you're going to pay double, sometimes triple, the price.
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  If you can even find one. If you can even find 1.
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  So what we see is a lot of tourists who think, oh I drove a
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  stick shift 10 years ago in college, I'll be fine.
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  They rent the cheaper manual car to save a few €100.
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  And then they realize Corsica is not a parking lot practice
• 10:43
  session. Exactly an hour later they find
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  themselves stalling on a 15% gradient hill with a line of
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  angry locals and delivery vans right behind them honking.
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  It is high stress driving from the moment you leave the
• 10:57
  airport. And the cars themselves?
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  The notes describe them as rallied.
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  What does that mean? It means they've been driven
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  hard. You'll often get a Fiat 500 or a
• 11:06
  Renault Clio that has dents, scratches, maybe a worrying
• 11:09
  rattle. The environment beats these cars
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  up. They are not pristine.
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  Which brings us to the actual act of driving.
• 11:17
  We talked about the mountains, but let's dive into trap #1 the
• 11:20
  Google Maps illusion. The biggest trap of.
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  All. I looked at some of these roads.
• 11:24
  I pulled up the drive from Corte in the center to Porto on the
• 11:27
  West Coast. On the map, it looks like
• 11:30
  nothing. It's 80 kilometers.
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  About 50 miles. In the US, or even on mainland
• 11:35
  France, 80 kilometers is what, 45 minutes an hour tops?
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  If you budget an hour for that drive, you are going to miss
• 11:44
  your dinner reservation by about two hours.
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  Two hours. That drive is nearly two hours
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  and 15 minutes of constant, relentless turning.
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  Two hours and 15 minutes for 50 miles.
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  That's an average speed of what, 22 miles an hour?
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  In the interior, the average speed is off and around 30 to 35
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  kilometers per hour. And this is where you as a
• 12:04
  traveler need to understand the why.
• 12:08
  You know, you ask yourself, why haven't they fixed this?
• 12:10
  Right, exactly. Look at Switzerland or Austria.
• 12:13
  They have massive mountains, but they also built these huge
• 12:16
  tunnels and viaducts. They engineered the friction
• 12:19
  out. They engineered it out to
• 12:20
  maximize efficiency. In Switzerland, you just shoot
• 12:22
  through a hole in the mountain, you're there.
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  So why not in Corsica? Corsica kept the friction.
• 12:27
  Part of this is a lack of funding.
• 12:29
  It's historically A poorer region of France.
• 12:32
  Part of it is about Environmental Protection, but a
• 12:34
  huge part of it goes back to that defensive mindset we
• 12:37
  touched on. They didn't want it to be easy.
• 12:39
  Exactly. Historically, they didn't want
• 12:42
  easy access to the interior. They didn't want invading armies
• 12:45
  marching quickly into the heartland, so the roads follow
• 12:48
  the contours of the land. They trace every single ravine
• 12:52
  and every single Ridge. They were designed to be slow.
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  So you're basically paying the price for an 18th century
• 12:58
  defensive strategy every time you get in the car.
• 13:01
  Essentially, yes, and the physical consequence of that is
• 13:05
  severe motion sickness. This is a major point in the
• 13:08
  notes that can't be overstated. Even for people who don't
• 13:11
  normally get carsick. Especially for them, because
• 13:13
  you're never going straight. The lateral G forces are
• 13:16
  constant. We see so many reports of
• 13:18
  families where the kids are vomiting in the backseat by day
• 13:21
  2 and the driver is just shattered because the cognitive
• 13:25
  load of driving these roads is so high.
• 13:27
  You are not zoning out listening to a podcast.
• 13:29
  You are rallying. You're shifting gears every 15
• 13:32
  seconds, watching for falling rocks and, well, other hazards.
• 13:35
  That sounds absolutely exhausting.
• 13:38
  And then you had the biological hazards.
• 13:39
  Let's talk about the wild right of way.
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  This is one of the most uniquely Corsican things by law and by
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  custom free range livestock, cows, goats and especially pigs
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  have the right of way. They roam completely freely,
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  even on the main roads. So you can come around to blind
• 13:56
  hairpin turn at 2000 feet on a Cliff edge and there's a pig.
• 14:00
  There is a pig and he is very likely sleeping on the warm
• 14:03
  asphalt because the blacktop pertains heat better than the
• 14:05
  soil and he is not moving. For your little Fiat 500, you
• 14:10
  stop for the pig. It really sets the tone, doesn't
• 14:13
  it? It just says you are not in
• 14:15
  charge here. Completely.
• 14:16
  It forces you to slow down. It forces you to accept that
• 14:19
  nature is the dominant force. You cannot optimize your travel
• 14:22
  time in Corsica. You simply get there when you
• 14:24
  get there. So the strategic advice here is
• 14:26
  crystal clear. Don't try to be a hero.
• 14:28
  Correct. The biggest mistake we see year
• 14:31
  after year is people trying to tour the whole island in a week.
• 14:33
  It's too big and it's way too slow.
• 14:35
  So you have to choose. You have to to choose.
• 14:37
  Pick a region, either the north based in maybe Calvi or Bastia,
• 14:41
  or the South based in Puerto Vecchio and stick to it.
• 14:45
  Plan only one major movement per day.
• 14:48
  A Grand Tour will mean you spend your entire vacation inside a
• 14:51
  car feeling nauseous. Let's move into the experience
• 14:55
  section now that we're though and we survived the drive.
• 14:58
  The sources call this the Mountain and Medley.
• 15:00
  Yes. The payoff?
• 15:02
  Let's start with the mountain part.
• 15:04
  I feel like everyone has heard of the GR20.
• 15:07
  It has this legendary, almost mythical status in the hiking
• 15:10
  world. It does.
• 15:12
  But there's a term used in the notes that really caught my eye.
• 15:15
  GR20 Hubris. What is going on there?
• 15:18
  This is a really serious safety issue.
• 15:20
  Actually. The GR 20 is widely and
• 15:23
  correctly considered the hardest long distance trail in all of
• 15:26
  Europe. Harder than the Tour de Mont
• 15:27
  Blanc. Much harder.
• 15:28
  And I think because it's in Europe and not say the
• 15:31
  Himalayas, people massively underestimate it.
• 15:34
  They hear the word trail. They think well groomed path.
• 15:37
  Like the Pacific Crust Trail or the Appalachian Trail in the
• 15:39
  States? No.
• 15:41
  Absolutely not. Those are highways.
• 15:43
  Compared to the GR 20, The GR 20 isn't really a trail.
• 15:46
  In many places, it's a route. It involves scrambling over
• 15:49
  giant granite slabs, using chains and ladders bolted into
• 15:53
  the rock to pull yourself up vertical sections.
• 15:55
  Chains and ladders. Yes, and facing serious exposure
• 15:59
  where a slip of fall means death.
• 16:01
  It's much closer to mountaineering that it is to
• 16:04
  hiking in many sections. And people are showing up
• 16:06
  unprepared for this. Constantly.
• 16:08
  The mountain guys call it the Nike Free mistake.
• 16:11
  You see people showing up in flimsy running shoes with jeans
• 16:14
  on, carrying massive suitcases instead of proper hiking packs.
• 16:17
  A. Suitcase.
• 16:18
  I am not kidding. They aren't prepared for the
• 16:20
  terrain or for the weather, which changes in an instant.
• 16:24
  The mountains in Corsica create their own weather systems can be
• 16:27
  sunny and 30° at the beach and hailing with freezing winds at
• 16:30
  the summit on the exact same day.
• 16:32
  So what's the alternative? What if you're just an average
• 16:35
  hiker, someone who enjoys a good walk, loves the mountains, that
• 16:39
  doesn't want to use chains and ladders over a deadly drop?
• 16:42
  My advice is ignore the GO-20 completely.
• 16:46
  Just put it out of your mind, OK?
• 16:47
  Instead, look for the Mayor of Mayor trails.
• 16:50
  This translates to sea to sea. There are several of them, and
• 16:53
  they run across the island horizontally but staying at much
• 16:56
  lower elevations. And these are actual trails.
• 16:58
  These are actual trails. They're beautiful.
• 16:59
  They pass through authentic little villages where you can
• 17:01
  actually stop and get a coffee, and there's so much more
• 17:04
  manageable. Or even simpler, just do day
• 17:06
  hikes to the Alpine lakes. Like Lac de Nino.
• 17:09
  Lac de Nino is the classic. You hike up through the pine
• 17:12
  forest and you emerge into this incredible high altitude
• 17:15
  plateau. You see the famous pazines?
• 17:18
  These are spongy, grassy peat lawns dotted with pools of water
• 17:22
  and there are wild horses grazing.
• 17:24
  Wild horses. Through the wild horses you get
• 17:26
  that incredible high mountain feel without any of the death
• 17:30
  defying risk of the GR20. And a quick but important
• 17:33
  warning on connectivity. Up in those mountains, there's
• 17:36
  absolutely no signal, right? 0 Nothing.
• 17:40
  If you're hiking your Montesinto the highest peak, your phone is
• 17:43
  a brick. It's just a camera.
• 17:45
  You must have offline maps downloaded onto your phone
• 17:47
  before you go. Relying on a live connection is
• 17:50
  genuinely dangerous. OK, let's flip to the other side
• 17:53
  of the coin, the medley, the beaches, and the water.
• 17:58
  We talked about the crowds, but I found this contrarian surprise
• 18:01
  in the notes really interesting, and it's about the water
• 18:04
  temperature. Yes, this catches a lot of
• 18:06
  people off guard. You think of a Mediterranean.
• 18:09
  You think of warm bath like water.
• 18:11
  Especially in August or September.
• 18:13
  But in Corsica, because of that super steep topography we
• 18:16
  discussed, the drop off from the shore is extreme, the
• 18:20
  bathymetry, the underwater topography, it just plunges deep
• 18:25
  very, very fast. And deep water equals cold
• 18:27
  water. Exactly.
• 18:29
  Deep water just doesn't heat up as fast as the shallow
• 18:31
  continental shelves you find in parts of Italy or the Caribbean,
• 18:34
  so it can be a real shock if you jump in expecting, you know,
• 18:37
  warm soup. It's refreshing for sure, but it
• 18:39
  is crisp. And there are hazards in that
• 18:41
  crisp water. I saw sea urchins mentioned in
• 18:44
  bold capital letters. The rocky coves are beautiful
• 18:46
  because they are rocky. That's the appeal.
• 18:48
  But rocks are the perfect habitat for sea urchins, and
• 18:52
  they are everywhere. And if you step on one.
• 18:54
  It's a trip to the local pharmacy or hospital, or a very
• 18:57
  painful evening with a bottle of wine, pair of tweezers and a
• 19:01
  sterilized needle. Water shoes are not a dorky
• 19:05
  tourist accessory here. They are essential safety
• 19:08
  equipment. But when you get it right, when
• 19:10
  you have the shoes on and you find the right spot, it sounds
• 19:13
  magical. The example of the Kelongs to
• 19:15
  piano comes up again and again. That is the Mars with an ocean
• 19:19
  visual. It's a UNESCO World Heritage
• 19:21
  Site on the West Coast for good reason.
• 19:23
  You have these jagged, wind sculpted red granite rocks that
• 19:27
  twist into shapes that look like animals or hearts, and they
• 19:30
  plunge straight down into the deepest blue sea you can
• 19:33
  imagine. If you go there at sunset, the
• 19:36
  light hits the rocks and they glow like they're on fire.
• 19:38
  It is otherworldly. It's one of the most beautiful
• 19:40
  places on the planet. But timing is everything for the
• 19:43
  beaches, right? Even the famous Sandy ones.
• 19:45
  Everything. The rule is simple. 800 AM.
• 19:48
  If you want to enjoy the famous beaches like Palombaja or Santa
• 19:51
  Julia in the South, you have to be there early.
• 19:54
  To get the Instagram shot. To get the peace and quiet, you
• 19:57
  get 2, maybe 3 hours of paradise.
• 19:59
  By 110AM, the zoo arrives. The umbrellas, the screaming
• 20:04
  kids, the chaos in the parking lot.
• 20:06
  The magic window is always the morning.
• 20:08
  All right, let's brace ourselves and talk about the painful part,
• 20:11
  the economics of Corsica. The sticker shock.
• 20:15
  We've established that it's expensive, but let's really
• 20:17
  breakdown the cost of rawness. Why is it so pricey?
• 20:20
  What's going on? It's the classic island tax, but
• 20:23
  on steroids. Almost everything has to be
• 20:26
  imported. The fuel, most of the food, the
• 20:28
  building materials, it all comes on a ferry from mainland France
• 20:32
  or Italy. And that adds A surcharge to
• 20:34
  every single thing. To everything.
• 20:36
  Plus, the tour season is actually quite short.
• 20:38
  Businesses have to make their entire year's profit in about
• 20:41
  four months, from June to September, so they price
• 20:44
  accordingly. But the value proposition is
• 20:46
  really tricky, right? Because you aren't paying for,
• 20:49
  say, white glove service. No, and that is where a lot of
• 20:52
  people get angry and feel ripped off.
• 20:55
  If you pay €200 for a hotel room in Thailand or Portugal, you're
• 20:59
  getting a slice of luxury. You're getting a concierge,
• 21:01
  maybe a spa, a beautiful pool. So what does €200 get you in
• 21:06
  Corsica? In Corsica, €200 might get you a
• 21:09
  dated room with a small bed, a temperamental air conditioner
• 21:13
  and a window that sticks. So what on earth are you paying
• 21:16
  for? You are paying for the view.
• 21:18
  You are paying for the fact that the coastline hasn't been
• 21:20
  destroyed by development in other parts of the Med.
• 21:24
  That €200 room is in a concrete high rise surrounded by 50 other
• 21:28
  concrete high rises. In Corsica.
• 21:31
  You're paying for the view of a protected pine forest and a
• 21:33
  pristine Bay. You are buying exclusion.
• 21:36
  You're paying for what's not there.
• 21:38
  Precisely, You're paying for the lack of concrete.
• 21:40
  OK, so let's run through the budget tiers so listeners can
• 21:43
  see where they might fit. Let's start with the scraper.
• 21:45
  The scraper is trying to do it for maybe 50 or €60 a day.
• 21:50
  To do this, you are camping. And honestly, Corsica has some
• 21:53
  excellent campsites. They're clean, they're well run,
• 21:56
  often right near a beach or in the mountains.
• 21:58
  And food. You're shopping at the Spar or
• 22:00
  casino supermarkets. You're living on baguettes,
• 22:02
  local cheese and cheap but good Corsican wine.
• 22:05
  You are not eating out and transport.
• 22:10
  This is the killer. Hitchhiking is very difficult
• 22:12
  and the bus system is sparse and unreliable.
• 22:15
  You really need to find a way to share a car or bring your own if
• 22:18
  you're coming from Europe. OK, let's move up to the smart
• 22:21
  traveler. This is the sweet spot.
• 22:23
  We're talking maybe 160 to €200 a day per person.
• 22:28
  First you go in the shoulder season, September or June, you
• 22:30
  rent a small manual car smart. You mix picnics for lunch, which
• 22:34
  is a joy there with moderate dinners, maybe pizza or menu
• 22:37
  course, a set menu. And for accommodation, you stay
• 22:40
  in what are called burgerees. What are those?
• 22:41
  They're traditional stone shepherd huts that have been
• 22:44
  converted into little rental properties.
• 22:46
  They're rustic. They're charming, often out in
• 22:48
  the countryside with amazing views.
• 22:51
  They are so much better value than the bland hotels on the
• 22:54
  coast. And finally, the baller.
• 22:57
  The baller is €500 plus per day. The Sky's the limit.
• 23:02
  You're renting a villa in the hills above Porto Vecchio with
• 23:05
  an Infinity pool. You're chartering a private boat
• 23:08
  to explore the coves, which means you bypass the winding
• 23:11
  roads entirely. So you're buying your way out of
• 23:13
  the friction. This.
• 23:14
  Is how you buy your way out of the friction.
• 23:15
  If you have the money, Corsica is easy.
• 23:18
  You just fly over the problems, literally and figuratively.
• 23:21
  Let's move to culture, food, and safety.
• 23:24
  I love the section because it flips so many assumptions.
• 23:27
  Let's start with what the notes call culinary contrarianism.
• 23:31
  You're on an island. It's July.
• 23:33
  It's hot. Your brain automatically goes to
• 23:35
  grilled fish, fresh seafood, light salads.
• 23:38
  But the best, the most authentic food is from the mountains.
• 23:42
  This goes right back to the history we talked about.
• 23:45
  The Corsicans were mountain people, shepherds and farmers,
• 23:49
  so the cuisine is heavy wintery Alpine food.
• 23:53
  Give me the headline dish. Sivate the Sangliere wild boar
• 23:57
  Stew. It's a dark, rich Stew cooked
• 24:00
  for hours in red wine with herbs from the maquis.
• 24:03
  It's served with heady polenta and.
• 24:05
  People are really eating this in the summer heat.
• 24:07
  They absolutely are. You're sitting there sweating,
• 24:10
  eating this incredibly heavy meat Stew, but it is profoundly
• 24:13
  delicious. And we have to talk about the
• 24:15
  polenta because it connects to a vital piece of corsk in history,
• 24:19
  the chestnut. Right, the notes mentioned the
• 24:21
  bread tree. For centuries, the Genoese
• 24:23
  rulers mandated that every landowner plant a certain number
• 24:26
  of chestnut trees to prevent famine, so the chestnut became
• 24:29
  the staple carbohydrate. Instead of wheat or potatoes.
• 24:31
  Exactly. They dried the chestnuts, ground
• 24:33
  them into flour, and made everything from it.
• 24:36
  Polenta, bread, cakes, even beer.
• 24:39
  So that polenta in your Stew isn't made from corn, it's made
• 24:42
  from chestnut flour. It's sweeter, denser, and has
• 24:45
  this amazing nutty flavor. And the famous pigs, the source
• 24:50
  of the incredible charcuterie. They eat the chestnuts too,
• 24:53
  right? That's the secret.
• 24:55
  The semi wild pigs roam the forests eating fallen chestnuts
• 24:59
  and acorns all autumn. That diet is what gives the meat
• 25:03
  this distinct nutty, complex flavor that you just cannot get
• 25:07
  from industrially farmed pork. The Lonzo, the Coppa, the
• 25:10
  pursuit to it's world class cured meat.
• 25:12
  But again, it's heavy, salty, preserved food.
• 25:15
  Yes, if you go to a restaurant demanding a light quinoa salad
• 25:18
  with avocado, you are on the wrong island.
• 25:21
  I want to touch on the service aspect again.
• 25:23
  You mentioned earlier that the locals are guarded.
• 25:26
  The notes have a great phrase. The waiter will get to you when
• 25:28
  he gets to you. Is this just arrogance?
• 25:30
  Is it rude? It's not arrogance.
• 25:33
  I think the best word for it is dignity.
• 25:35
  That's a huge cultural difference in many tourist zones
• 25:37
  around the world. The customer is king.
• 25:40
  The staff have to bow and scrape right?
• 25:42
  The customer is always right. That concept does not exist in
• 25:45
  Corsica. In Corsica, the customer is a
• 25:47
  guest, and a guest waits. There's a strong sense of
• 25:50
  equality. If you snap your fingers or wave
• 25:53
  your menu aggressively or act entitled, you might simply
• 25:56
  become invisible. They just won't serve you.
• 25:58
  They just won't. You have to slow your internal
• 26:00
  clock down to their pace. It's a power dynamic check and
• 26:04
  many tourists fail it. That leads perfectly to trap #2,
• 26:08
  the Sunday Famine. I feel like this is a classic
• 26:10
  mistake for American or British tourists.
• 26:13
  Huge one in our culture's commerce is 204017.
• 26:17
  We are used to constant convenience.
• 26:20
  In rural Corsica, Sunday is still sacred, not necessarily in
• 26:24
  a religious way, but culturally as a day of rest and family.
• 26:27
  So paint me a picture. I roll into a village in the
• 26:29
  interior. It's 2.00 PM on a Sunday.
• 26:32
  I'm hungry. My car is low on gas.
• 26:34
  What happens? You starve and you walk.
• 26:37
  The grocery store is closed. The bakery sold its last
• 26:40
  croissant at noon and is shut. The gas station might be
• 26:42
  unmanned. And if your foreign credit card
• 26:44
  chip doesn't work in the automated machine, which happens
• 26:46
  all the time, you are stranded. We have stories of people
• 26:48
  arriving in their rental village on a Sunday, expecting to find a
• 26:52
  cute cafe for lunch and finding a ghost town.
• 26:55
  Nothing is open. So the fix is just basic
• 26:58
  planning. You must shop on Saturday.
• 27:01
  It's not a suggestion, it's a rule for survival.
• 27:05
  Stock the car with water, snacks, food for Sunday and keep
• 27:08
  your gas tank more than half full at all times.
• 27:11
  In the interior. Gas stations can be 50
• 27:14
  kilometers apart. You do not want to be running on
• 27:16
  fumes on a mountain pass on a Sunday afternoon.
• 27:19
  Let's touch on the political atmosphere.
• 27:20
  We mentioned the graffiti earlier, the FLNC.
• 27:23
  What is that? The Front, the Liberation
• 27:25
  National Course. It's the National Liberation
• 27:28
  Front of Corsica, a militant separatist group that is
• 27:31
  advocated for and fought for independence from France for
• 27:34
  decades. They've been violent in the
• 27:36
  past. Very.
• 27:37
  Though they announced A demilitarization a few years
• 27:39
  ago, the underlying sentiment for more autonomy or full
• 27:43
  independence is still very, very strong.
• 27:45
  And you see this on the road signs.
• 27:47
  It's the most visible manifestation.
• 27:49
  You'll see dual language Rd. signs everywhere, French and the
• 27:52
  local Corsican language. Very often the French name will
• 27:56
  be spray painted over or in some cases literally shot up with
• 27:59
  bullet holes, leaving only the Corsican name visible.
• 28:02
  Bullet holes? That sounds pretty dangerous.
• 28:05
  Does that tension translate to danger for tourists?
• 28:08
  Generally, no. It creates an edgy vibe.
• 28:11
  It's a constant reminder that you are not in a theme park, you
• 28:14
  are in a place with real political tension.
• 28:17
  But the violence has historically been very targeted
• 28:20
  at government buildings, at holiday homes being built in
• 28:22
  protected areas or as part of internal feuds.
• 28:25
  Not a random people. Violent crime against random
• 28:28
  tourists is extremely rare. There is real mafia presence,
• 28:31
  it's a fact of life there. But they are focused on big
• 28:33
  money things like construction contracts, waste management,
• 28:36
  land deals. They are not interested in
• 28:38
  robbing your backpack. And what about safety for women
• 28:41
  or solo travelers? It's considered very safe in
• 28:44
  terms of crime, however, is a traditional patriarchal, macho
• 28:47
  Mediterranean culture. Solo women travelers often
• 28:50
  report intense staring in the villages and small towns.
• 28:54
  Just being watched. Yes, it's not necessarily
• 28:56
  predatory, but it can feel very uncomfortable if you're not used
• 29:00
  to that level of overt scrutiny. It is still a very male
• 29:04
  dominated public sphere in the rural areas.
• 29:06
  And what about the environmental dangers?
• 29:08
  We've talked about the roads, but what about nature itself?
• 29:10
  Heatstroke is a big one, especially when hiking.
• 29:14
  The white limestone and granite reflects the sun, so it's baking
• 29:17
  you from above and below like a rotisserie chicken and
• 29:20
  wildfires. This is critical.
• 29:23
  Right, the mock keys must be like a tinderbox.
• 29:25
  It's full of oil. It explodes in summer.
• 29:28
  The fire risk is extreme. If the gendarmerie, the police
• 29:32
  have closed the road because of fire risk, you do not argue, you
• 29:36
  do not try to sneak past. You turn around immediately.
• 29:39
  These fires move incredibly fast.
• 29:41
  And the pigs again don't feed. Them do not feed the pigs and
• 29:44
  for the love of God do not try to take selfies with the
• 29:46
  piglets. They look cute but the mother's
• 29:48
  nearby and she is a large semi wild animal with powerful jaws.
• 29:53
  Tourists get bitten every single year trying to get a photo for
• 29:55
  Instagram. Respect the animals.
• 29:57
  OK, let's zoom out and get to the verdicts.
• 30:00
  We have the Is it Worth it Matrix.
• 30:04
  I'm going to give you a Traveler type and you give me the
• 30:06
  verdict. Let's do it. 1st the backpacker
• 30:09
  on a tight budget looking to connect with other travelers.
• 30:12
  My verdict is a hard no unless your sole purpose is to hike the
• 30:16
  GR20 with a tent and your own food.
• 30:19
  If you're a general backpacker wanting to hop between towns,
• 30:22
  sit in cafes and meet people, it's a logistical nightmare.
• 30:26
  The public transport is non existent and the costs are way
• 30:28
  too high. You will be frustrated and
• 30:31
  broke. OK, the mid range couple maybe
• 30:33
  on a second honeymoon looking for romance and adventure.
• 30:36
  This is a yes, but with a major, major caveat.
• 30:39
  It is a high effort, high reward trip.
• 30:41
  If you as a couple want an adventure together.
• 30:43
  Navigating tough roads, finding hidden beaches, solving
• 30:46
  problems, it's amazing. But if you want a pampered
• 30:49
  honeymoon where everything is easy and the services doting, go
• 30:51
  to Puglia or the Greek islands, Corsica will test your patience.
• 30:55
  If your relationship is already a bit rocky, the navigation
• 30:59
  arguments might be the end of you.
• 31:00
  OK, the family with young kids, toddlers maybe.
• 31:03
  Proceed with extreme caution. The winding roads are a recipe
• 31:08
  for carsick toddlers. The logistics of moving a family
• 31:12
  around, strollers on ancient cobblestones, finding kid
• 31:15
  friendly food when everything is wild, boar Stew are genuinely
• 31:20
  tough. If you go, my advice is to stick
• 31:22
  to one base like Calvi or Porto Vecchio and minimize the driving
• 31:27
  Treated as a beach holiday, not a road trip.
• 31:29
  And finally, the luxury traveler.
• 31:32
  An absolute, unequivocal yes for them.
• 31:35
  It's perfect if you have the money.
• 31:37
  All the problems we've talked about just disappear.
• 31:40
  You get the private helicopter transfer so you don't have to
• 31:42
  drive. You charter the boat to see the
• 31:44
  coast. You stay in the staffed villas
• 31:46
  with the private chefs. You get all of the beauty with
• 31:48
  none of the friction. What about alternatives?
• 31:50
  If someone is listening to all this and thinking, you know what
• 31:53
  that sounds like way too much work for my vacation, where
• 31:55
  should they go instead? The.
• 31:56
  Most obvious answer is Sardinia. It's right next door.
• 31:59
  You can literally see it from the cliffs of Bonifacia.
• 32:01
  How is it different? Sardinia has straighter roads,
• 32:04
  it's generally cheaper, and the beaches are on the whole sandier
• 32:07
  and more Caribbean like. It's just easier.
• 32:10
  But it lacks the dramatic high mountains of Corsica.
• 32:13
  It's maybe 80% medley, 20% mountain.
• 32:16
  It's a bit flatter and drier. OK.
• 32:18
  And what's the curveball alternative?
• 32:20
  The one people might not think of?
• 32:21
  Slovenia. This is for the person who was
• 32:24
  drawn to Corsica for the mountains and the green wild
• 32:27
  feeling. Slovenia has the limestone peaks
• 32:30
  of the Julian Alps. It has the impossible turquoise
• 32:33
  water in the form of the Sochi River and Lake Bled, and it has
• 32:36
  that rustic, Hardy mountain food.
• 32:38
  It's a similar vibe but cheaper and easier.
• 32:41
  It gives you that mountain vibe for 30% less cost.
• 32:45
  You just miss out on the ocean, but it's a much friendlier,
• 32:47
  easier country to navigate. And there's also the Corsard
• 32:50
  combo strategy mentioned in the notes.
• 32:52
  That's for the ambitious traveler with two weeks to
• 32:53
  spare. It's the best of both worlds.
• 32:56
  You fly into Bastia in northern Corsica.
• 32:58
  You drive South through the mountains, get your adventure
• 33:01
  fix, eat the wild boar, hike to the peaks for a week.
• 33:04
  Then you take the short ferry from Bonifacio to Santa Teresa
• 33:07
  Gallura in Sardinia. And you spend the second week
• 33:09
  just chilling out on the sandy beaches, eating pasta and
• 33:12
  relaxing. Fly out of Olbia in Sardinia.
• 33:15
  You earn the relaxation. I love that you earn your beach
• 33:18
  time. So to wrap up, let's summarize
• 33:21
  the key takeaways, OK? 1st and most important, respect
• 33:24
  the island. It is not a vacation, it is a
• 33:27
  trip. It demands your energy and your
• 33:29
  active participation. Second, respect the planning.
• 33:33
  Offline maps are not optional, they are mandatory.
• 33:36
  Fuel stops are strategic. Booking ferries and cars months
• 33:39
  and months in advance is absolutely necessary.
• 33:42
  And 3rd. 3rd understand the appeal.
• 33:44
  It is raw, and that rawness, that difficulty, it filters out
• 33:48
  the people who don't really want to be.
• 33:49
  There and for a final concrete recommendation on an itinerary,
• 33:53
  if you had to tell our listener exactly what to do for one week.
• 33:56
  Best strategy is a split. Spend 3 days basin Corte.
• 34:00
  That's the historic citadel right in the mountainous heart
• 34:02
  of the island. Immerse yourself in the granite,
• 34:05
  the river gorges, and the history.
• 34:07
  And then head for the coast. Then move to either Calvi in the
• 34:10
  north or Porto Vecchio in the South for the remaining four
• 34:12
  days to hit the beaches and relax.
• 34:15
  Don't try to circle the whole thing, just deep dive into two
• 34:18
  distinct regions. I want to leave our listeners
• 34:20
  with one final provocative thought.
• 34:23
  We talk so much these days about over tourism and how beloved
• 34:26
  places get sanitized and turned into theme parks.
• 34:30
  We complain that Venice feels like Disneyland.
• 34:33
  We complain that Tulum is just a backdrop for influencers.
• 34:36
  Right. And I think that's what makes
• 34:38
  Corsica so fascinating right now.
• 34:40
  In a world where everything is becoming easy and frictionless
• 34:43
  and homogenized for the tourist, is the difficulty of Corsica
• 34:47
  actually it's best and most important feature?
• 34:49
  The idea that the friction is the point.
• 34:52
  Maybe the fact that the roads are hard, the locals are guarded
• 34:55
  and the terrain is tough. Maybe that's the very thing that
• 34:57
  keeps it special. It resists being easily
• 34:59
  consumed. It resists consumption.
• 35:02
  I love that it makes you earn the beauty.
• 35:03
  It's not just handed to you on a plate.
• 35:05
  Exactly. It forces you to be present.
• 35:07
  You cannot be on autopilot in Corsica, and in our modern world
• 35:11
  that is an increasingly rare and valuable thing.
• 35:14
  Well, that is all we have time for on this deep dive.
• 35:17
  If you do go, watch out for the pigs.
• 35:19
  Download your maps and definitely try the wild boar
• 35:22
  Stew. And, as they say in Corsica, to
• 35:24
  say goodbye. A dope you, a dope you.
• 35:27
  Thanks for listening.