Corsica is the trip where the park-where-you-like plan does not survive contact with the law. The French Code de l’urbanisme bans isolated camping on the seashore, and both prefectures ban fire outright from June 15 to September 30. What is left is the aire and the campsite, and the rest of the trip gets decided before you board.

The ferry prices you by your dimensions

Corsica Ferries requires that any vehicle over 5 meters long and/or 1.90 meters high and/or 2 meters wide be declared when you book, and charges a fare supplement for it. Every motorhome clears the 1.90 meter line, and most clear all three. Checked September 23, 2026.

Declare the real numbers, roof box and bike rack included. The figure that counts is the one measured at the gantry, not the one on the brochure. Same company, same page: arrive at least 1 hour before departure if you are in a vehicle, 30 minutes if you are on foot.

Gas is the other declaration. La Méridionale allows at most 3 butane or propane bottles for lighting, heating and cooking equipment, and caps the total weight at 47 kg. Checked September 23, 2026. If your van runs on LPG, call the line before booking rather than explaining it at the barrier. The general pattern of length-based ferry pricing is covered on our ferries page.

The shoreline is closed to isolated camping

Article R111-33 of the Code de l’urbanisme prohibits camping practiced in isolation on the seashore, in listed sites, in classified sites or sites awaiting classification, within the perimeter of remarkable heritage sites and the surroundings of historic monuments, and within 200 meters of a water catchment used for drinking supply. Each of those leaves a derogation route through the competent authority, granted case by case, which is not something you arrange at 9pm. Checked September 23, 2026.

That is national law, not a Corsican mood. The cove you were picturing is not a legal option, and this is the single fact that shapes the whole itinerary.

Article R111-34 adds the local layer. A mayor can ban camping outside equipped sites by decree where it threatens public health, safety or quiet, landscapes, natural environments or farming and forestry. That ban only binds you once it has been posted at the mairie and signed with panels at the usual access points. Which is exactly why the sign at the entrance beats any website, this one included. The full French picture is on our page about camping sauvage in France.

June 15 to September 30: no fire, anywhere

The Corse-du-Sud prefecture states that fire use is strictly prohibited across the whole of the department from June 15 to September 30 each year, under prefectural decree 2A-2025-06-19-00002 of June 19, 2025. Named in the ban: using camp stoves in the natural environment or making campfires, using barbecues once the wind reaches moderate strength, and smoking in woods, forests, heath and maquis and up to 200 meters from them. The announced penalties run to fines of up to 100,000 euros and imprisonment. Checked September 23, 2026.

Haute-Corse sets the same window, June 15 to September 30, and adds that fire use is prohibited whenever wind exceeds 25 km/h. Checked September 23, 2026.

In practice: the stove comes out on the aire or at the campsite, not on a rock above a beach, and the barbecue stays in the garage for the summer. Those dates are a floor rather than a ceiling, so if you are traveling in late September, open the prefecture page for the department you are in before you light anything.

Read the passes before you commit to them

The Collectivité de Corse publishes an accessibility level for the island’s main passes. On September 23, 2026, all 18 it tracks were green, “voie ouverte pour tous les véhicules”, road open to all vehicles, including Bocca à Verghju on the RD 84 at 1,477 m and Bucca di Bavedda, the Col de Bavella, on the RD 268 at 1,218 m. Checked September 23, 2026.

Green means open, not wide. Plan low average speeds, and check the levels before you start a climb, not from halfway up it.

So where do you sleep

On an aire or at a campsite, because that is what the rules leave you. Book the campsite before you board if you are traveling in summer: a ferry is not an exit, and if everything is full the night you land, there is no neighboring department to drive to. French aires work the same way here as on the mainland, jeton machine included, and our France page explains the system.

One rule outranks everything above: the sign on the ground and the current word from the mairie or the prefecture come before anything written here.

Sources

  1. Article R111-33, Code de l'urbanisme, Légifrance
  2. Article R111-34, Code de l'urbanisme, Légifrance
  3. Interdiction d'emploi du feu, Préfecture de la Corse-du-Sud
  4. Règlementation de l'emploi du feu, Préfecture de la Haute-Corse
  5. Embarkation and formalities, Corsica Ferries
  6. Voyager avec un véhicule, La Méridionale
  7. Niveaux d'accessibilité des principaux cols, Collectivité de Corse

When a source is not in English, follow the link for the official wording.