Bonifacio is an amazing village to visit in Southern Corsica. It is a city like no other, it truly looks and feels like a fairytale or fantasy novel. I have never seen a village built into a cliff like this anywhere else, and I was mesmerized. The charm doesn’t stop with the cliffside views, the Old Town and Port area are equally as wonderful in different ways, and I know you’ll love visiting here as much as we did. This post will contain some info to help you plan before you head to Bonifacio.
A Tale of Two Vibes: The Old Town Vs The Port
When planning to visit Bonifacio you have two major locations to choose from for where to stay. You can stay in the charming old town or in the lively, slightly more modern port. In my opinion you truly can’t go wrong, both are absolutely awesome. But I’m going to provide some more info to help you make your choice.
The Old Town of Bonifacio
First of all when you’re looking into Bonifacio you need to know that the Old Town of Bonifacio is up a very steep hill. There are a few ways to get up, but without driving it’s going to take some effort. If you do drive, you’d have to park up behind the Old Town and this will still require some walking. You also must know, it is WORTH it. The Old Town is magical, it looks like a scene from a movie, and probably has been in a few. It is hard to describe what a charming place this is. It looks like a traditional French village, but the fact that it is built right along the edges of the cliffs makes it feel magical. There are a number of beautiful viewpoints where you can look out onto the ocean, there are tons of restaurants, shops, and bars for you to spend your time in, there are countless alleys to get lost in and just enjoy the scene. We stayed down in the Port but we found ourselves wandering up to the Old Town multiple times a day to enjoy all it had to offer.
The Port of Bonifacio
We stayed in the port area for our base. The port area is so lively and is full of fun spots to eat and drink. It has a bit more of a modern feel than the Old Town, but in a really nice way. People are coming on and off of boats all day long and it feels so fun and jovial. You feel like you’re watching an episode of “Below Deck” as all the fancy boats come by. It’s also nice to watch and dream of being a rich yacht owner someday. There are some more upscale spots in this area as well. It also requires no hill walking!
Where to Stay in Bonifacio
We chose to stay in the port area and we loved our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Solemare First of all our hotel was lovely, it was right on the port and we had a room on the water. It was so much fun to stare out the window and watch the boats come in and out of the port, especially the giant yachts. It had parking, which was important to us as we wanted to adventure a lot on Corsica. It also had a beautiful pool area overlooking the port which was important as the mid day heat can get REAL here! It was so nice to be able to lounge and relax at the pool in the middle of the day when we needed a break. The staff were so lovely and kind and helped us with anything we needed. Overall this hotel was a great value and I’m glad we stayed here.
A car is the best way to get around Corsica
Unless you want a really slow and relaxing time, you should probably rent a car here. You could spend day or two in this area without a car and have enough to do. But Bonifacio is actually quite small, and there is so much to do in the surrounding area, that having a car really opens up a lot more options to you. We loved the freedom of adventuring out during the day and then returning in the evenings for apertif and dinner time. This gave us more than enough time to see all that the old town and the port had to offer, and kept us from getting bored.
It is important to note that if you’re hoping to be renting an automatic car on the island of Corsica it is highly likely that you’ll be given an electric car. We were very worried about this leading up to the trip, but do not despair, it actually went great! Corsica is very friendly to electric vehicles, has a lot of charging stations, and one of our hotels even had one so we could charge right there.
People speak both French & Italian
Although this is a French island, there are a lot of Italians living and visiting Corsica and there is much Italian influence. There is a lot of discussion about Corsica kind of being its own entity and not really feeling like it belongs to France. I understand that feeling and we found the culture here to be such a beautiful mix of two fo our favorite places in the world.
You Must Eat Eggplant
This might sound silly, but honestly Bonifacio does eggplant dishes like nowhere else we’ve been in our travels. They are so creative, they have so many different types, and it tastes SO GOOD. We got to the point where at any meal we were having we ordered at least one eggplant dish and then ordered anything else we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss out on it. They did eggplant lasagna, stuffed eggplant, eggplant with tomato sauce and cheese, eggplant with lamb, the list is endless. So do yourself a favor and make sure to get some eggplant when you’re in this area.
Get out on a boat and see the Lavezzi Islands
A boat day is an excellent way to see the cliffs of Bonifacio and the Stairs of Aragon on your way to the Lavezzi islands. The Lavezzi islands are such a unique place. I highly recommend going on a smaller boat tour if you have the budget, however, you can also visit by ferry for a more affordable excursion. We did a full day tour of the islands on a catamaran and I”ll detail why we found that to be the best way to do this in a separate post. The islands are full of insanely beautiful beaches and rock formations, you can walk from beach to beach on some trails though the dry, dusty land. There are no facilities here and no shops, bars, or refreshments. You must bring your own and also leave with what you bring. Regardless of how you choose to get there, the islands are worth a visit and make for a very enjoyable day or half day of exploring.
If you’d like more details about how to do this boat tour and what I think is best, read here ——> A Boat Day to the Lavezzi Islands
If you don’t care about the details and you just want to browse tours and book…
Wine Tasting
You may not know, though you shouldn’t be surprised, that Corsica makes its own wines! They are wonderful and we really enjoyed many of them. We went wine tasting at Domaine Zuria which was about a 10 minute drive outside of town. It was so beautiful, it’s right off the side of the road but once you’re there it feels so peaceful. We tasted some great wines and if you purchase bottles it offsets the cost of the tasting so we got a few. We really enjoyed their rosé in particular. There are other wine tasting spots near Bonifacio as well but we didn’t visit any on this trip.
Bonifacio is close to other lovely villages
There are quite a number of villages on Corsica that you can visit and if you’re basing in Bonifacio, you are quite lucky to be within short distance of some of them. We visited Sartene which was a village in the hills and it was such a charming experience. We walked the streets and got some charcuterie and cheese alongside the locals. I highly recommend charcuterie in Corsica as well, they are known for it.
We also visited the village of Porto Vecchio and I was absolutely delighted by it. I wish we’d had more time in Corsica to stay in some of these smaller villages as they were all so lovely! We spent some time strolling the streets and had lunch here before heading to some nearby beaches. It was a perfect way to spend an afternoon.
Beaches
There are so many beautiful beaches that can be reached from Bonifacio. One thing to note however, is that there aren’t really any within close walking distance. This is why we chose the hotel with the pool, and why renting a car on Corsica is the best way to get around in my opinion. Our favorite beach in this area was Plage de Santa Giulia, it had some really stunning rock formations, electric blue water, lots of facilities or places to go if you wanted a more quiet experience. You could easily spend a week in this area of Corsica beach hopping, village hopping, and relaxing. You should note that parking will be charged at many beaches. One way to offset this cost is to park at a restaurant or bars parking lot and spend money there, at least you get some food and drink alongside your parking!
How Long to Stay in Bonifacio
You could easily spend 2 days and get it all in. We stayed for 3 days and that felt like the sweet spot. Day 1 we got there and explored the hotel, town, and port. Day 2 we went to the beaches and visited Porto Vecchio. Day 3 we went out on the boat all day and then had dinner in the old town. If we were to stay any longer we’d likely be doing repeat things or other excursions. I felt 3 days was enough to get a real feel for it, and spend some quality time without overstaying.
The food is excellent
We had a lot of fantastic meals throughout our time in Bonifacio. I don’t think I ate anything I didn’t like. The great thing about Corsica is that they are known for having amazing meat, but they are also on the sea and have excellent seafood. So you truly can’t go wrong. As I mentioned previously the eggplant is always the right order and they do tons of other things well too. You can eat upscale or very casual here and they had something for every budget. Never skip the charcuterie if they have it, it is also exceptional here.
If you’re looking for more ideas for things to do in Bonifacio, check out my post here —-> Things to Do in Bonifacio
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