The same route, the same stops, a car instead of a van and not a tent in sight. Sleeping in seven bases instead of moving every night turns most days into loops — you unpack once and come back to the same bed. It costs you more money, a little more driving, and a handful of stops the van version reaches.
This is the hotel-only cut of the van version ↗ — same source film, same verified coordinates and real road routing, re-planned around beds instead of pitches. Source: Corsica | An Incredible 10-Day Road Trip ↗.
The route
Notice the shape: six of the sixteen days are closed loops that start and finish at the same hotel. That is the whole point of this version. Pick a day to isolate it, and filter the pins by what you feel like doing. Every line is the actual road, so the distances are honest — Corsica averages about 42 km/h once you are basing rather than pushing on.
Day by day
Seven bases over fifteen nights: Bastia ×3 + a fourth on the buffer night, Calvi ×2, Porto ×2, Ajaccio ×2, Bonifacio ×2, Zonza ×1, Corte ×2. Six of the sixteen days never change hotel, which means six mornings where you get up, get in the car and go. Every day names its bed, its hike and its parking.
The seven beds
Chosen so that every one is walkable to dinner, has parking for the car, and sits inside an hour of that day's stops. All are mid-budget — €80–200 a night in shoulder season — and each is the reason the surrounding days are shaped the way they are.
Prices are shoulder-season doubles (May–June, September) and rise steeply in August, when Bonifacio and Porto in particular need booking months out. Positions are OpenStreetMap-verified; rates and availability are not, so check before you rely on them.
On foot
Where the film gives its own figures — Capo Rosso, Monte Senino, Bavella, Melo, Figarella — those are the numbers used here. Two of the van version's hikes go with the interior: Lac de Nino and Punta Muvrella above Haut-Asco. Three of what's left are hard days out. None need ropes.
| Hike | Distance | Ascent | Time | Grade |
|---|
Doing nothing
Two kinds of swimming on this route: the white-sand postcard beaches of the south and Balagne, and the cold granite plunge pools of the interior, which are free, empty and better on a 35-degree afternoon.
Eating vegan
No point pretending otherwise: this is a cuisine built on charcuterie, brocciu, wild boar and fish, and there are exactly three fully plant-based or all-vegetarian kitchens on the whole island. Every day of the itinerary above names where to eat and, on the days when the honest answer is "carry your own", says so.
1. Pizza marinara. Tomato, garlic, oregano, olive oil, no cheese — vegan by default and on the menu of every pizzeria in Corsica, of which there are hundreds. Order it by name and add sans mozzarella to be certain. This is your floor: you will never go hungry.
2. Self-catering. Village markets, greengrocers and the organic chains (Biocoop, La Vie Claire, Eau Vive) are listed day by day above. In a van this is the backbone; in hotels it is at least lunch.
3. Asking, in the right words. Say végétalien, not végétarien — in rural France the latter is widely read as "fish and lardons are fine". The sentence that works: "Je suis végétalien — sans viande, sans poisson, sans fromage, sans œufs, sans beurre. C'est possible ?" Corsicans are hospitable and will usually improvise something good.
4. Notice. Ring a mountain auberge in the morning and they will cook for you. Walk in at 20:00 and they will apologise. This matters most at Bavella, Zonza and in the Niolu.
Chestnut flour is the island's other staple and it is everywhere: pulenta castagnina, chestnut bread, chestnut beer. Check how the polenta is cooked — it is often finished with cheese or served under charcuterie, but the base is just flour, water and salt.
Produce is superb and cheap: tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, figs, clementines, peaches, olives, olive oil, almonds. The Île-Rousse and Ajaccio markets are the best of them.
Canistrelli, the ubiquitous biscuit, are traditionally made with white wine and oil rather than butter — many are accidentally vegan. Read the packet, as recipes vary.
Watch out for: brocciu, which is in most traditional dishes (and seasonal, roughly November to June); soupe corse, which is built on pork; figatellu, which is liver sausage; and the habit of finishing pasta and salads with cheese unless you say otherwise.
Every place named above and in the daily plans exists in OpenStreetMap or HappyCow at the coordinates given — none are invented. The badges record how strong the evidence is: Fully vegan means a plant-based kitchen, Vegan options means vegan dishes are confirmed, and Veg-friendly — ask means vegetarian food is on the menu and vegan is a conversation. Menus change and small places close, so phone ahead where it matters.
Car logistics
What it costs
Shoulder-season estimate, mid-budget, eating out most evenings.
| Item | Assumption | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Ferry, return | Toulon→Bastia overnight + Bastia→Livorno, car, 2 people, 1 cabin | €300 |
| Hotels | 15 nights across 7 bases, average €125 B&B | €1,875 |
| Fuel | ≈1,700 km with detours, 6.5 L/100 km, €1.95/L | €215 |
| Lunches & groceries | €22/day × 16 — picnics on hiking days | €352 |
| Dinners out | 14 × €60 for two (one half-board night at Zonza) | €840 |
| Boats | Scandola/Girolata, Lavezzi, Saleccia shuttle | €160 |
| Entries, parking, shuttles | Restonica navetta, Filitosa, Aleria, Cucuruzzu, beach and town parking | €165 |
| Total for two | ≈ €122 per person per day | €3,907 |
That is €1,302 more than the van version's €2,605 — about 50% dearer, essentially all of it the difference between €28 pitches and €125 rooms. Flying in and hiring a car instead of bringing your own removes the €300 ferry and adds roughly €450–650, so budget a further €150–350 depending on flight prices.