Hi

Recently returned from this hotel and here is our review.

Had an short 2 hour flight from Manchester to Corsica which passed by really quickly, arrived in blazing hot weather and it was a short transfer time to our hotel.

When we arrived at our hotel it was about 10.30am and we could not get into our rooms until 2pm so we left our suitcases in a locked room and looked around the hotel and local area.

The location of this hotel, in our opinion, is fantastic. On one side you look over a cliff out to sea and on the other side you look onto the local town square with the citadel in the background.

After looking round a bit, we went back and enquired whether our room was ready and it was - the time was 12.30pm.

We paid extra for a sea view and it was well worth it. The view from our hotel was wonderful, very quiet and very relaxing. On two occassions we saw a dolphin swim passed as we sat out on the balcony.

One slight critism was that our room could have done with being refurbished. It was very clean, the sheets were clean and so were the towels, but the room needs re-decorating and updating and the bathroom and toilet could be replaced with a modern bathroom suite, with new tiles on the wall - don't get me wrong it was not dirty or mouldy - it was just a bit dated. Infact our early morning call was the plumbing - you knew when your neighbours were up and about.

We stayed at the hotel on a Bon Appetit bases, which means you have your breakfast everyday in the hotel and four evening meals, the other three evening meals inbetween you had out in restaurants in the town. It's the first time we have done this and we found it excellent.

The food in the hotel was of a high standard and the food in the restaurants in Calvi were also very good.

Breakfasts was continental style, with this wonderful fresh orange juice machine, which you put fresh oranges into and saw then being squeezed and the juice coming out of the bottom.

The menu for the evening meals was very large, with lots of choices of hot and cold starters, different meat, fish and pasta dishes for the main course and then a large choice of deserts. You obviously had to pay for any drinks, wine etc, but one thing to mention is that you also have to pay for any tea or coffee with your evening meal.

The three meals we had out in the evening were also very good, Calvi has a lot of different restaurants to choose from with various prices, all put outside so you can see what is on offer and how much it will cost.

Calvi is a beautiful place, our hotel like I said, is overlooking the town square and each evening the local people play boules and it was lovely just having a drink in the sunshine watching them.

We had a look around the Citadel which was interesting, it's free but we paid 7 euros for a audio cassette which talked you round and pointed out different places of interest.

We also had a trip on the Little Train, which is a ten minute walk away, this was an experience. We decided to go to Ille Rouse which is about 40 minutes away. The French are not as safety concerned as the British, the train was very old and travelled at quite a speed with the windows and doors open, but we survive the experience. Ille Rouse is very nice, smaller than Calvi, and a little cheaper, but it is somewhere we would stay when we go back to Corscia.

The last trip we went on was an organised half day trip up in the mountains, visiting a few villages. It was lovely, but very hot.

We loved our holiday to Corscia and we would certainly go back again.

One word of warning though, everthing is very expensive, this is not a holiday to do on a budget. A pint and a half of local beer is 9 and a half euros, a nice bottle of wine is anything from 12 and 18 Euros, eating out is not cheap either, but the food, wherever you eat is first class.

Also if anyone is thinking about going to Corsica, take Euro travellers cheques, not Sterling Cheques or money, because no bank or post office will change sterling in any form and not many hotels have money changing facilities.

Sue