I have cruised Corsica four summers running, and the question I get asked most by friends back in the Solent is always the same: where can you still drop the hook somewhere genuinely wild, with no marina lights and no charter flotilla rafted up beside you? The honest answer is that the island has fewer of those spots every year, because the protection rules tighten and the buoy fields spread. But they exist, and the ranking below is mine, earned the hard way with a torch and a leadline.
A word before the list. The best wild anchorages in France are not the easiest ones. Several of the bays I rate highest demand a settled forecast, a decent anchor and the patience to set it in sand rather than weed. If you want pontoon water and a baguette delivered to your transom, this is not your article. Try my notes on the best ports for a non-sailing partner instead.
1. Cala di Tuara, near Girolata
Top of my list, and it is not close. Tuara sits just north of Girolata on the west coast, a curve of sand and maquis reachable only by sea or a two-hour coast path. I anchored in 4 metres over clean sand the first time, swung all night to a light land breeze, and woke to goats on the beach and not another boat in sight until ten. Holding is excellent in the sand patches; avoid the darker weed, which is posidonia and protected. Girolata village itself, ten minutes round the headland, has a couple of restaurants and ecological mooring buoys laid to spare the seabed, but Tuara is where you sleep.
The catch is swell. Anything with west in it rolls straight in, and the gulf of Porto funnels afternoon sea breeze hard by two o'clock. Get there early.
2. Lazarina, in the Lavezzi
The Lavezzi archipelago sits in the extreme south, scattered across the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia. Cala Lazarina is the headline anchorage, a granite-rimmed pool that looks like a film set and shelters from almost every wind direction thanks to the surrounding islets. I have lain there in 3 to 5 metres over white sand so clear you can read your chain link by link.
This is a nature reserve, so the rules are not optional. Anchoring is steered into designated sand zones, mooring buoys take priority where laid, and the whole archipelago empties of overnighters in high summer when the day fleet from Bonifacio thins out at dusk. The Strait of Bonifacio is no place to be casual: tide, swell and the funnelling wind between two big islands can build a short steep sea fast. Plan your approach from the bouches de Bonifacio strait properly, and time it for the morning.
3. Rondinara
Rondinara, on the south-east coast between Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio, is the postcard everyone has seen: a near-circular lagoon entered through a narrow neck, sand the colour of bone, water that shades from turquoise to deep blue. Two headlands hold off both the easterly and westerly winds, which is why it earns a place this high despite being far from secret.
I dropped in 4 metres over sand and held first time. The bay is big enough that even with thirty boats in August you can find a corner. It is the one anchorage on this list I would happily take a nervous crew to, because the entry is forgiving and the holding is reliable. Go in June or September and you may get the dawn to yourself.
4. Saint-Florent's outlying bays, Cap Corse
People stop at Saint-Florent for the town and miss the wild water just beyond it. Work north up the desert des Agriates and you find Plage du Loto and Saladu, sand beaches with no road access, reachable only by boat or a long hot walk. I anchored off Loto in 5 metres, swam ashore, and had a deserted Caribbean-looking beach to myself before the shuttle boats arrived mid-morning.
Holding here is good sand, but the bays are open to the north, so this is a fine-weather-only plan. The harbour at Saint-Florent itself charges from around 35 to 60 euros a night for a 10 to 12 metre boat in season, useful to know when the wind backs and you need a bolthole. If you are working up Saint-Florent and Cap Corse, build a day around these beaches.
5. The water off Scandola (and why you cannot anchor in it)
I have to include Scandola, because every visitor asks, and the answer matters. The Scandola reserve on the west coast is a UNESCO site with the strictest rules in Corsican waters: a 5-knot speed limit throughout, no fishing, no diving, and anchoring prohibited inside the reserve. Boats are kept within set zones and away from the cliffs.
So you do not anchor in Scandola. You motor through slowly at first light to see the red porphyry organ pipes and the ospreys, then carry on to anchor legally just outside, near Girolata. Treat it as a passage, not a stop. The fines are real and the wardens are not sentimental.
6. Campomoro, in the gulf of Valinco
Most cruisers funnel between Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio in the south, which leaves the Gulf of Valinco on the south-west coast pleasantly underused. Anchor off Campomoro, beneath its Genoese watchtower, in 4 to 6 metres of sand, and you get a wide bay with room to swing, a small village ashore for an evening meal and far fewer boats than the headline spots. The gulf is open to the west, so it is a fair-weather and morning-calm anchorage rather than an all-nighter in a blow, but in settled conditions it is one of the most relaxed wild stops on the island. Propriano at the head of the gulf gives you a bolthole and a fuel berth if the wind backs.
I rank it sixth because it lacks the drama of Lazarina or the lagoon perfection of Rondinara, but for a quiet night with the hook down and nobody rafting up beside you, it earns its place. It also splits the long west-coast passage neatly, which matters when you are working the whole island as I describe in the wider Corsican planning notes.
How I judge a wild anchorage
Four things, in order:
- Shelter. Can it hold me through a night, or only a calm lunch hour? Rondinara and Lazarina sleep you; Loto does not.
- Holding. Sand over weed, every time. If the leadline brings up posidonia fibres, I move.
- Crowd clock. Most of these empty after dark when the day fleet runs home. Arrive late, leave early, and you get the wild version.
- Escape route. A wild bay with no downwind exit is a trap. Know where you run to if it pipes up.
Corsica's weather catches a lot of visitors out, and the gap between a glassy morning and a 25-knot afternoon sea breeze is real. Read up on Corsica weather for visitors before you commit to a night on the hook, and keep water topped up, because the wild bays have none. My notes on Corsica provisioning and water harbours cover where to fill before you vanish for a few days.
The one rule that keeps these places wild
Anchor in sand, never weed. Posidonia seagrass is what makes this water clear, and a careless plough through a meadow does damage that takes a human lifetime to recover. Use the ecological buoys where they are laid, even when the marina-style fee stings a little, and steer your chain into the bright sand patches you can plainly see from the bow. Do that, and the bay you loved this summer will still be worth the trip in ten years. Ignore it, and the reserve managers will simply close it, as they have already closed stretches of coast to overnight anchoring from June to September.
A few hard-won practicalities
Ground tackle first. Corsican sand is mostly excellent holding, but it lies in patches between weed, and the wind shifts hard with the diurnal sea breeze. I carry at least 5 to 1 scope on chain in these bays and I dive the anchor whenever the water is clear enough, which is most of the time. An anchor that looks dug in from the bow can be sitting on a weed mat, and you only find out at three in the morning when the breeze pipes up offshore.
Water and stores are the other constraint. None of these wild bays have a tap, a shop or a fuel berth, so you provision and fill before you disappear. I plan in three-night blocks: three nights wild, then a run into Bonifacio, Propriano or Saint-Florent to fill water, take on diesel and buy fresh. Marina berths in high season run from roughly 35 euros a night for a small boat up to well over 100 euros for a larger one in the popular ports, so the wild nights also keep the cruising budget honest.
Last, respect the no-anchor seasons. Stretches of the Corsican coast close to overnight anchoring from June to September to protect spawning fish and the seagrass meadows, and the wardens patrol. Check the local arrete before you settle in, because the rules tighten most summers and the spot that was legal last year may not be this one.
That is the deal with wild Corsica. The reward is real, but you pay for it in seamanship and care, not in marina euros.
