Visit Corsica: when to go, what to see and what it costs

From Figari airport, the far south lines up the best-known beaches: Palombaggia, Santa Giulia, Rondinara. Bonifacio, with its citadel on limestone cliffs and the King of Aragon staircase cut into the rock, is the launch point for trips to the Lavezzi islands, a nature reserve where landings are capped. Behind the coast, the Ospedale plateau and its forests offer a cooler escape. Allow three full days for the area.

Ajaccio, Napoleon's city, keeps the Maison Bonaparte and the Fesch museum, France's second collection of Italian primitives. To the north, a winding road leads to the Piana calanches, red rocks listed by UNESCO, best walked at sunrise or sunset once the coaches have gone. The neighbouring Scandola reserve can only be seen from the sea, with no landing, on a half-day boat trip from Porto or Cargese.

Bastia, the northern gateway, has an old port and two citadels. Cap Corse, a 40-kilometre peninsula, is toured as a loop on the D80 corniche: fishing hamlets, Genoese towers, the Mattei windmill, the Patrimonio vineyard and the port of Centuri, known for spiny lobster. Further west, the Balagne combines beaches, the Genoese citadel of Calvi and hilltop villages linked by a craftspeople's road, Sant'Antonino, Pigna, Corbara. The little Balagne train runs along the coast between Calvi and Ile-Rousse, with request stops at the coves.

The interior is an alpine massif: Corte, the former capital, and its citadel, the Restonica valley and its pools, the Bavella needles, the Vizzavona forest. The GR20, which crosses the island north to south over 180 kilometres and 12,000 metres of ascent, is rated one of Europe's toughest trails and is walked from mid-June to mid-October. Gentler variants, Mare a Mare and Mare e Monti, link two coasts in three to ten days.