Corsica is the anchorage cruising ground in France that ruins you for everywhere else. The water is clear enough to see your anchor set in 8 metres, the bays are steep-sided so the lees are deep and reliable, and the mountains rise straight out of the sea so the scenery from the cockpit is absurd. I have cruised the island twice, once clockwise and once anti-clockwise, and the bays below are the ones I would sail back for. A word of warning runs through all of them: Corsica is exposed and the weather turns fast, so shelter direction is everything and a settled forecast is not optional.
If you are planning the whole island rather than picking off a few bays, my Corsica circumnavigation in two weeks itinerary strings these anchorages into a route. This piece is the close-up on the individual spots.
A practical note on the rules. Much of the Corsican coast falls under marine reserves or anchoring restrictions designed to protect Posidonia seagrass meadows and sensitive seabeds, and the regime here is part of the same France-wide tightening that has reshaped Mediterranean anchoring. Drop on clean sand, avoid the dark seagrass patches, and check the local zoning before you arrive in a reserve. The same Posidonia rules that govern the mainland Riviera apply, and I cover the legal side of that in my Cote d'Azur anchoring rules 2026 guide, which is worth reading before any Mediterranean season.
Rondinara, the south-east
Rondinara is the bay everyone photographs, a near-circular sandy lagoon halfway between Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio, around 15 miles from each. It gives excellent shelter in all but easterly winds, and when the wind does go east the most protected corner is the northern part of the inlet. Holding is sand, the water turns a colour you will not believe, and the depths shelve gently so you can pick your spot. It is busy in August because it is famous, so I aim for early or late season, or simply arrive at dusk when the day boats have gone. Of all the anchorages on the island this is the one I would not miss. Land the dinghy on the beach, walk to the headland for the view back over the lagoon, and you will understand why people sail a long way for this single bay.
The Lavezzi islands
Off the southern tip, scattered across the Bouches de Bonifacio, the Lavezzi are a low granite archipelago and a marine reserve created in 1982. Cala Lazarina, the main anchorage, is exceptionally well protected from every cardinal direction, with a sandy bottom in shallow water and comfortable holding, which is rare in an offshore island group. Because it is a reserve, anchoring is limited and landing is forbidden on certain islets, so check the current rules and the buoyed zones before you drop. The reward is snorkelling over clean granite and sand with nobody around once the trip boats leave. The strait here is tidal and wind-funnelled, so pick your weather to cross it.
Girolata, the west coast
On the wild west coast, reachable only by sea or on foot, Girolata sits in a sheltered gulf next to the Scandola nature reserve. The bay is well protected from western through eastern winds by the land to the north, and you anchor with ease in a shallow sandy seabed, with depths of roughly 5 to 10 metres. The little hamlet has a couple of restaurants and a Genoese tower on the headland, and arriving here under the red cliffs of Scandola at golden hour is the kind of moment that justifies the whole trip. There is no road in, so it stays quiet in a way coast-accessible bays never do.
Saleccia, the north
Up in the north near Saint-Florent, the beach at Saleccia is a famous arc of white sand with a seabed of sand about 5 metres deep that gives good, comfortable holding. The catch is in the shelter: Saleccia is protected from east through south-west but is open and not strongly sheltered, so it can only be entered in genuinely good weather and calm seas, and it can turn dangerous quickly when the wind gets up. I treat it as a settled-day anchorage and a swimming stop rather than a guaranteed overnight, and I keep one eye on the forecast and an exit plan towards Saint-Florent.
Saint-Florent and the Agriates coast
The gulf of Saint-Florent, at the base of Cap Corse, is the launch pad for the wild Agriates desert coast, of which Saleccia is the famous beach. Saint-Florent itself has a marina and a sheltered roadstead where you can anchor in sand off the town in settled weather, and it makes the obvious base for day-tripping out to the Agriates beaches and retreating when the breeze fills in. The coast between Saint-Florent and the beaches is a string of sandy coves with no road access, which keeps them quiet, but they share Saleccia's exposure, so the routine is the same: go in the morning calm, swim, watch the sky, and be back in the gulf before the afternoon wind. The gulf can itself become uncomfortable in a strong westerly funnelling down off the cape, so it is not a guaranteed all-weather hole, but it is the most sheltered base for this corner of the island.
Porto and the west-coast gulfs
South of Girolata, the gulf of Porto bites deep into the red-rock coast beneath the Calanche, a landscape of weathered crimson pinnacles that is a UNESCO site. Anchoring off the small town of Porto is settled-weather only, because the gulf is open to the west and the afternoon swell rolls in, but the scenery from the cockpit at sunset, with the cliffs glowing, is among the finest in the Mediterranean. I treat the whole west coast, Girolata and Porto especially, as morning-and-evening cruising: you move and anchor in the calm, and you do not linger in an open west-facing bay when the libeccio is forecast.
A few that did not make the headline
Corsica is full of bays that would be the star anchorage anywhere else. Roccapina, down the south-west coast near 41 degrees 29 minutes north, has a sandy bottom under the lion-shaped rock. The southern gulfs around Porto-Vecchio give sheltered overnight options when the famous bays are crowded. And up at the very top, the marina at Macinaggio on Cap Corse is the all-weather refuge for the exposed northern cape. The pattern, again, is to carry a sheltered fallback near every glamorous anchorage, because on this island the glamour and the exposure tend to go together.
Reading the Corsican weather
The single most important habit here is watching the wind. Corsica generates its own breezes, with a sea breeze building most afternoons and the libeccio from the south-west or a mistral spilling round from the mainland able to make the west coast untenable in hours. Bays that are flat and gorgeous at breakfast can be a lee shore by tea. So I plan moves for the morning calm, anchor with the afternoon breeze and any forecast shift in mind, and always know which way I would run if it came in hard.
The good news is that the island is small enough that a fallback is rarely far, and the bays are deep-sided enough that the shelter, when you get the direction right, is total. The same swell-and-lee thinking I use on the mainland Riviera applies double here; my notes on the calmest Riviera anchorages in a swell explain the method, and Corsica is where it pays off most.
Two weeks is enough to round the island and see most of these. A month is better. However long you have, anchor early, leave early, respect the reserves, and Corsica will give you the best anchoring of your sailing life.
