Calvi Corsica, 20th October

henryf

henryf

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 May 2007
Messages
4,752
Location
Uxbridge
www.911virgin.com
We are popping into Calvi for the day as part of a Med cruise (35,000 tonne Seabourn Sojourn).

I know there is local knowledge here. What would you suggest we do ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Henry :)
 
Tricky one Henry
I like Calvi and like entering the port, but if stuck there for a day without your own boat in the port you might sort of run out of stuff to do. For sure the town is pretty to walk around, and the citadel is certainly worth a look/walk around, and there are nice restuarnats for lunch, but that isn't a whole day. In summer you can go to the very nice beach, and there is a restaurant on there too, but I expect it wont be warm enough for that.

BTW, I think it will be a tender-ashore job for a ship as big as SS.

You can rent a rib and visit the beaches/little bays close to Calvi. Or you could take a day trip boat to Scandola nature reserve/Girolata, which is stunning. That would take you 2 miles of so (@20kts) south to the "red rocks" bit of coast, Gargalu passage, several caves, Girolata village, etc. So long as you had some sun that would be a grand day out and about 4 hours I guess. The trip boats are pretty good - see blue hulled boat in 3rd pic below

Finally, if there is a trip boat headed NE from Calvi, to St Florent and the bays+beaches in between that would be good but I doubt there is one in October (I can give more info if there is)

Calvi assorted pics...
calvi%202015%20a.jpg

calvi2015%20b.jpg

IMG_1276.jpg

IMG_2263.jpg



Golfe de Porto/Red rocks/Scandola/Girolata...
IMG_1487.jpg

IMG_1632.jpg

GolfeofPorto.jpg

dgirolatafirst1.jpg

oportoharbour3.jpg

pportocaves4.jpg

oportoharbour1.jpg

nportorocks4.jpg

41D14FDA-CB17-4A57-815C-918AF1EC68B1.jpg

nportorocks8.jpg

nportorocks11.jpg

pportocaves5.jpg
 
Last edited:
The tender whizzes thru there BJB but there is no way mother ship will go thru. It's 4m wide and sort of leans to the eft so you'd have to ballast port side to create a lean!

I have been in this one though - you can go deep inside and there is plenty of headroom. North end of Scandola nature reserve, just N of Gargalu passage. That's a 45-50 footer about to go in
1F86011D-7393-4E79-A1B8-E75F836530F0.jpg



And as we are discussing cajones, here is the blue lagoon cave at Cabrera, Mallorca. Very limited on height so no use for hard topped/satdomed bateaux
4700161E-354B-4FA7-BF3C-023FFA23256C.jpg



Finally, back OT, here is Calvi bay shot from the fuel dock looking east-ish across the beach
1303E988-4753-4675-B96D-277E13830D45.jpg


and here is a drone vid, extremely dull edit and taken in winter requiring much use of fast forwarding, but shows you the shape of the place
 
Last edited:
I agree that if the weather is settled then a tourist boat trip along the coast to the south of Calvi is the best option. Jimmy the Builder has posted a couple of good threads covering the area with some great photos, just put "Girolata" in the search box and they're easy to find.
 
petem said:
What are your plans for Xlendi Henry?

I know Gozo like the back of my hand if you want any ideas.

Pete
Click to expand...

I did notice there was a place which rented out open speed boats. If the weather was playing ball and they were available I though we might have a couple of hours in one but open to suggestions.

Many thanks for all the other input. I had earmarked the Citadel in Calvi to work off a bit of food. We don't necessarily need a whole day packed full and won't be getting off the ship at the crack of dawn.

We do indeed tender into Calvi.

Valletta in Malta is Segway as might be Syracuse in Italy.

Mykonos looks nice just to wander round.

Kusadasi Turkey has Adaland water park and I think we get an evening music and nibbles event at Ephesus.

Santa Margherita in Italy I thought we might rent bikes and cycle to Portofino.

Henry :)
 
henryf said:
I did notice there was a place which rented out open speed boats. If the weather was playing ball and they were available I though we might have a couple of hours in one but open to suggestions.
Click to expand...

I've known the guy who rents out the speed boats for about 20 years, he's called Louis Attard. You don't need an ICC for the little boats but he's got a larger 20ft one that you will need your ICC for. If it's a calm day you could take one of his boats over to Comino / Blue Lagoon. Not sure if they'll still be running them at that time of year, best to email him and make a provisional booking http://www.xlendicruises.com/. He's got a couple of jet skis too if you want to have a doss around in the bay.

There are a couple of nice restaurants on the front at Xlendi - "Ta Karolina" (right hand corner of the home page pic) http://karolinarestaurant.com/ or "The Boat House" http://gozo-restaurant.com.mt/. An alternative, if you want to see the island, is to get a taxi to Victoria then on to Mgarr and have lunch at "Tmun" http://www.tmunmgarr.com/. There are very few taxis on the island so book beforehand (I can give you a number if required).

Alternatively, just sit outside Moby Dicks, on the front, and drink too much Cisk.

Azure Window / Inland Sea is a bit too touristy for my liking.

Pete
 
Thanks for that Pete, much appreciated.

I was going to pop my YM cert in the suitcase just in case.....

We are happy to just chill out and see the world drift past. One of the great things about cruising is someone else does all the hard work and Seabourn Sojourn is extremely relaxing with no crowds to deal with.

It also helps that drinks are all found throughout the ship but as you well know I'll probably just have a small sherry before dinner then an early night. I did have to chuckle to myself las time I was on board, walked into the observation bar for for a pre-dinner appetiser and the bar man promptly handed me my favourite tipple without asking. How many must I have drunk last time for him to remember !

Either that or not many blokes drink Babycham these days ;)


Henry :)
 
jfm said:
Golfe de Porto/Red rocks/Scandola/Girolata...

oportoharbour1.jpg
Click to expand...

http://www.scandola-girolata-piana.com/site/

Hello Henry,

Dont know if your plans are finalized yet, if you think about a seatrip, then please have a look at website as above.

The website is for a company called Alpana Excursions en Mer, run out of Porto by a good friend and client, Francois Rene Castellane.

His cell is +33.671.61.97.25 and he runs his boat out of Porto. The port of Porto is in the pic as copied above. His boat is an ice blue Sailfish center console 32 ft with 2 x 300 Verados.
He bought the boat from me in 2011, I am the Sailfish importer for Europe. You board a few steps further down - towards the larger ferry boats in the back of the picture

The 266 client reviews on their day trips from TripAdvisor are pretty impressive - guess he must be doing something right !

Hope this helps...
 
Mark, it would be handy to know whether he will collect Henry's party in Calvi, take them to Scandola/Porto, then take them back to Calvi. I'm guessing that is the reverse of his normal schedule if he is based in Porto. Do you know?
 
Hi,

I just called him but the trip to Calvi by boat is a bit too long and winds are not favorable.

He has free spots at 9.30 AM, at noon and at 5.30 PM tomorrow - but not at 2 PM. The drive (by road) Calvi to Porto will take around 2 hours.

I know the boat trip is magical, just don't know if 2 x 2 hours car drive for a 2 hour boat trip feels like a good deal.

He speaks english and is happy to give more detail. Maybe the 5PM trip can be extended a bit - as he does night trips too but (mostly with fishermen) but can supply rods etc. It's up to you...
 
Sorry for the delay in responding. Satellite internet is a bit slow so try to time access around less busy times of the day.

Having walked, train, bus into Pisa today I don't think we fancy 4 hours in the car and we need to be mindful of the fact that cruise ships, even Seabourn cruise ships wait for no man. As they always say, if you're going to be late back to the ship make sure you take your camera so you can film it sailing away !

Have started to make a video, will post up as and when it takes shape.

Henry :)
 
vas said:
all that hassle to get to see Pisa?
I only had to drive from Florence and it was still the biggest disappointment of all the places I've ever visited
Click to expand...

Hey, it's an adventure.

We got to enjoy 2 free bus rides because I couldn't find anyone to give money to and at €2.50 each way the train was an experience.

We've done Pisa before in a limo taxi dropped off door to door. This way we saw something of the city and it was a nice day with sunshine.

Calvi was quiet. Enjoyed a couple of hours wandering the citadel. Sadly too rough to operate the on board marina as planned.

Henry :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top