How much does a family week in Corsica cost?

It’s the question we’re asked most often, on the phone, in February, when it’s raining outside and Corsica still feels very far away: “So, in practical terms, how much should we budget?” Here’s our honest answer, figures and all, with no sugar-coating.

For a family of four, a week’s camping in Corsica generally costs between €1,200 and €3,000, crossing included. That’s a wide range, and it almost never comes down to Corsica itself: it depends on when you travel, the type of accommodation you choose, and how often you eat out in the evenings. In May, June or September, on a pitch or in a mobile home, a family can manage very comfortably on around €1,500. At the height of August, in a lodge, with excursions and dinners out, it climbs towards €3,000. In between, there’s plenty of leeway — and that’s exactly where we can help.

Let’s go through it item by item, in the order you’ll pay for them.

1. The crossing: your first real expense

Coming to Corsica already feels a little like going abroad. For most families, it’s also the heaviest line in the budget. Best to face it head-on straight away.

By ferry, with the car

This is the option the vast majority of our guests choose, and by far the most practical: you arrive with your car, your bikes, the beach tent, the parasol, the children’s car seats and the three boxes of groceries you didn’t have the heart to leave at home.

Prices vary enormously depending on the season. A Marseille–Bastia crossing starts at around €165 to €170 one way for two adults, a cabin and a car under 4.5 m in the off-peak period. In July and August, prices can double or more. For a family of four with a car, reasonably allow:

If you’re travelling with your dog — and many of our families do, since we welcome dogs all season, including in our rental accommodation — allow €15 to €30 per animal depending on the ferry company and the time of year.

By plane

Flying can be cheaper than it looks, especially outside July and August and if you book several months ahead. Allow €400 to €900 return for four people, often, from major French cities to Bastia or Figari.

But you have to add a hire car, which is essential here: €300 to €600 a week in summer, more if you leave it to the last minute. Bastia-Poretta airport is about an hour from our campsite, Figari just under two hours. All things considered, flying is rarely the cheapest option for a family of four — but it saves precious time if you’re only coming for a week.

2. Accommodation: where you have the most leeway

This is the item you have the most control over, because the gap between a tent pitch and a Luxury lodge is considerable — while the sea, 700 metres away, is exactly the same for everyone.

Here at U Casone, you can choose from several ways of sleeping beneath the pines:

• Pitches for tents, caravans or motorhomes — each more than 100 m², with plenty of shade. The gentlest option on the wallet.
• Mobile homes, the families’ safe bet: kitchen, shower room, terrace, and a bed for everyone.
• Chalets and Wooden lodges, built of wood and more spacious, for those who want a real little home from home.
• Luxury lodges, our most comfortable range.
• Safari tents, ochre canvas stretched over a wooden deck and a bamboo frame — the perfect compromise between the camping of your childhood and a bed you really sleep well in.

Prices vary according to the time of year and the type of accommodation; the simplest thing is to run a quote on our booking engine, which shows the exact price for your dates. Above all, remember this: between high season and June or September, the difference on a week’s accommodation often runs to several hundred euros. For exactly the same stay — same sea, same warmth, same pine wood.

3. Food: the item that overflows (or doesn’t)

This is often where budgets gently slip. A week’s holiday means twenty-one meals per person, and let’s be realistic: nobody wants to cook every evening after a day at the beach.

Doing your own shopping

For a family of four who cook most of their meals, allow €200 to €350 of groceries for the week. Our on-site mini-market has you covered for the morning bread, afternoon ice creams and that forgotten packet of pasta; for the big shop, the supermarkets in Ghisonaccia are a few minutes away by car.

Eating on site

Our restaurant is open from mid-June to mid-September, seven days a week. Once a week, we host a themed evening — moules-frites, paella or spit-roast veal, depending on the week. It’s the kind of evening when the tables drift together on their own and the children end up playing together between the chairs.

There’s also the pizzeria, the snack bar for quick lunches, and the bar, which stays open all season. Allow for:

In practice, a family that cooks at lunchtime, eats out three or four evenings and treats itself to a few ice creams at the bar spends around €400 to €550 for the week, all in.

4. Activities: cheaper than you think

This is the pleasant surprise for most of our families. In Corsica, most of what makes a holiday wonderful costs nothing.

Our two swimming pools are included in your stay. So are pétanque, table tennis, volleyball, table football and the playground. The beach is 700 metres away, along a shady path beside the canal — a real luxury in high summer, when the children walk barefoot and the cicadas make a joyful racket in the pines.

What you can add, if you feel like it:

• Kayaking on the canal — €15 for a single, €20 for a double, per half day. The canal flows into the sea: you can literally paddle from the campsite all the way to the waves.
• A boat trip from Solenzara or Bastia — allow €50 to €80 per adult, often less for children.
• A day’s canyoning with a local operator — around €50 to €70 per person.
• Hiking and the inland villages — free, apart from the fuel.
• The coastal beaches, the Étang de Diane, the Pinia forest — also free.

For a week, most families spend €100 to €300 on activities. Some spend nothing at all and go home just as happy.

5. The car, the tourist tax and the small print

Fuel: Corsican roads are winding and you drive slowly, which offsets the distances. For a week with two or three good excursions — Corte, Porto-Vecchio, the Fiumorbo gorges — allow €80 to €150.

Tourist tax: around €0.66 per person per day for a 3-star campsite like ours. Under-18s are exempt. For a family of four with two children, for a week, that comes to less than €10. Best to mention it straight away so you don’t have to think about it.

Extras: bed linen and towels, end-of-stay cleaning, bike hire. These are small sums, but they add up — better to factor them in when you book than to discover them on arrival.

Three budgets, three ways to enjoy the same week

Here’s what it looks like in practice, for a family of four, for one week, ferry crossing included.

You’ll notice that the difference between the first and last columns isn’t about the quality of the holiday. It mainly comes down to two decisions: when you go and where you sleep.

Our six tips for lightening the bill

• Shift by a week. Going in the last week of June rather than the first week of July, or the second week of September rather than the last week of August, can cut your total budget by 20 to 30%. The sea won’t change its mind.
• Book the ferry very early. It’s the most volatile item of all. The cheaper summer fares often go as early as the winter.
• Cook at lunchtime, eat out in the evening. Lunches at a restaurant cost almost as much as dinners, but you remember them far less.
• Fill the boot. Coffee, olive oil, cleaning products, nappies, sun cream: whatever comes over on the ferry with you doesn’t need buying again here.
• Group your excursions together. One well-organised day is worth three half-days, and you’ll save fuel without missing any of the scenery.
• Don’t overload the programme. It’s the advice we give most often, and the least heeded. The best holiday days in Corsica are often the ones when you do nothing in particular — the pool in the morning, a siesta beneath the pines, the beach in the late afternoon once the sand has cooled.

So, how much exactly?

If you remember just one figure: around €1,800 for a family of four, for a week, all in, in June or September. That’s the budget most of the families who come back to us year after year recognise.

And if that figure still seems high, remember what it includes: a boat crossing the children will be talking about when they go back to school, seven days of sea 700 metres from your bed, the smell of sun-warmed pines that lingers in your towels for weeks, and the sound of the cicadas stopping all at once, all together, as night falls.

That’s U Casone in a nutshell. “The big house”, in Corsican. We’ve always seen it as a place where families can come and feel good without having to count every euro.

You might also enjoy: Family camping in Corsica: why the east coast is the savvy parent’s secret · Mobile homes in Corsica: everything to know before you book · Tent camping in Corsica: our best pitches. You’ll find all our tips on the campsite blog, and for your stay, discover our campsite in Ghisonaccia, 700 m from the sea.