Balagne Holidays - Cheap Package Holiday Deals to Balagne

Corsican villages cling to cliffs above a string of white sandy beaches

Many of the settlements along the Balagne coast have been developed into busy holiday villages. However, the area’s stunning scenery and perfect beaches more than compensate for the crowds in this idyllic holiday destination.

The inland area of Balagne lying adjacent to the north-west coast of Corsica has been renowned since Roman times for its orchards of olive, fig and orange trees. The breadbasket of the island, it is criss-crossed by a network of narrow, winding roads. Tiny villages such as Sant'Antonino and Speloncato, perched high above the countryside, are built around rocky outcrops, while Pigna and other villages along the Artisan's Route proudly display traditional crafts such as pottery and stringed instruments.

Set beneath a wall of imposing jagged mountains that remain snow-capped until July, the rocky coastline of Balagne shelters a string of stunning white sand beaches and the old fishing settlement of Calvi, which has been developed into one of the island's most popular holiday resort towns. Beneath its Genoese citadel, Calvi bathes in the legend of Christopher Columbus whose birthplace it is said to be, and the resort’s other connection with a famous mariner is that it is where Lord Nelson lost his eye. Not far away from this historic and compact gem is Ile Rousse, a port town founded by Pascal Paoli, who considered that Calvi was “too Genoese”.

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