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ACCOMMODATION

One important decision to make before leaving home is how you intend to sleep along the GR20. There are several options.

Refuges
The first is to bed down in a refuge. Corsica has a total of 16 mountain huts, established in the 1980s by the PNRC to service the island's famous haute route, since when a handful of additional privately run huts have sprung up to soak up the overspill.

Whether humble converted shepherds’ shelters or spacious, state-of-the-art glass and aluminium structures, refuges offer very basic bunk-bed accommodation, along with simple self-catering facilities, cold-water showers and water sources.

The dorms tend to be dingy, cramped and stuffy when packed with people and gear, which they are most of the time in the summer while the GR20 is fully open. How well you sleep will depend on the extent to which you can block out the smell of sweaty boots, snoring, the rustle of rip-stop Pertex and pre-dawn head-torch eruptions.

If this sounds like your idea of hell consider bringing a tent or a thick-enough sleeping bag to bivouac in the specially demarcated areas outside, which often have a few dry-stone wind shelters to sleep beside.

The real appeal of refuges lies less in their dubious comforts than their locations, which are invariably superb. Hours away from the nearest road and at altitudes above 1300m, most enjoy wonderful views.

If you trek the GR20 you'll doubtless while away lazy afternoons on the deep wooden decks that front the huts, or sprawled on the grass slopes surrounding them.

During the summer Corsican refuges are staffed by gardiens who collect the nuit�e fees from trekkers on behalf of the PNRC and generally keep the huts clean and tidy. They don't receive wages but instead are allowed to sell provisions and cooked food with stocks replenished by regular mule trips down to road level.

These little (but extremely lucrative) businesses mean it's possible nowadays to trek the GR20 without having to make time-consuming re-provisioning detours to villages, although you'll pay for the privilege as the prices of supplies in most refuges are extraordinarily high.

From October until late May Corsican refuges are not staffed but their dormitories, kitchens and dining areas remain unlocked for use by winter trekkers. don't, however, count on there being supplies of gas if you turn up off season. it's more common to find a fire's worth of wood, which you can burn in the fireplace or wood-burner and then replace for the next visitors.

A night inside a hut typically costs around €9.50 per head. The money raised from the nightly charge goes towards the maintenance of the refuges and the PNRC helicopter which is used to remove rubbish as well as provide a valuable search and rescue service. Beds are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Camping and bivouacking
Both camping wild (camping sauvage) and bivouacking (le bivouac) are strictly forbidden throughout the Parc Naturel, which means across the entire GR20.

You can, however, pitch a tent or bivvy next to the refuges along the route, in areas set aside expressly for the purpose (marked as ‘Aire de Bivouac'). you'll be charged around 4�, but this doesn't buy you the right to use the interior facilities of the refuge itself (namely the kitchen utensils and cookers), although in bad weather the gardien usually allows anyone sleeping outside to bed down in the dining room.

Advice on equipment for camping and bivouacking along the GR20 appears on pp26-7.

G�tes d��tape
G�te d��tape accommodation is available at five points along the GR20. G�tes are the French equivalent of hiker hostels, providing simple, good value for money bunk beds for walkers.

Those punctuating the GR20 tend, alas, to lag well behind others on the island when it comes to standards of cleanliness and comfort, but they're luxurious compared with the refuges. The more modest of them (at Col de Verge, for example) hold a dozen or so bunks; others, such as the station at Asco Stagnu (Haut'Asco), have four or five times that number, along with a choice of larger and more private double and family rooms.

The nuit�e (nightly) rate charged by g�tes d��tape, typically around 13�, includes a dormitory bed and the use of self-catering facilities if there are any. Increasingly, however, the owners are imposing obligatory half-board rates of around 30�, meaning you can't stay at their g�te unless you opt for breakfast and evening meal.

For those who can afford it this is invariably a much better deal than you could expect by eating elsewhere. The food is generally copious and efforts are made to provide local specialities (although rarely vegetarian alternatives).

Mealtimes tend also to be enjoyable occasions, fuelled by unlimited jugs of (rough) wine. A lot, of course, depends on the personality of the people who run the establishment and how much of a sense of vocation they bring to their work.

Their one real catch is the communal dormitories, or more specifically the attendant risk of nocturnal noise; if you think you may be kept awake by snoring, come armed with a supply of ear plugs.

If you do decide you want to stay in a g�te d��tape, try to book as far ahead as possible, especially in peak season, when demand far outstrips the number of available beds.

Hotels
There are only a few bona fide hotels along the GR20 (at Calenzana, Asco Stagnu/Haut'Asco, Col de Verghio, Vizzavona and Conca), but they're understandably popular and should, like g�tes d��tape, be reserved in advance. Reviews and contact details for all of them appear in the relevant section of the route guide.

Advance booking is particularly recommended if you intend to spend a night in one of the gateway towns, where beds of all description – especially at the bottom of the market – are in very short supply; on weekends in summer, you'll be hard pushed to find anything at all on spec.

When making a reservation, at least in more modest hotels, you'll probably be offered the choice of a room with or without a wash basin (lavabo), shower (douches) and toilet (WC, pronounced ‘dooble-vay-say').

Rooms without a bathroom are generally described as ‘chambres avec douche-WC – l��tage’ (i.e. ‘rooms with shower and toilet on the landing'). More hotel terminology appears in the list of useful words and phrases on p203.

An extra that can bump up your bill is breakfast as it may not be included in the room rate: if it isn't, count on anything between €6 and €11.50, or else head for a café (where it will cost around the same).

it's nearly always possible these days to settle up with a credit card but if this is your only means of paying make sure the hotel will accept your card when you check in.

Finally, bear in mind that most places in Corsica, particularly those in the resorts and hills, open only during the summer. Wherever possible we've listed the opening period but it's always advisable to phone ahead, especially if you're around at the start or end of the season, as precise dates can fluctuate with demand.

LOCAL TRANSPORT

Except for trains, public transport in Corsica is privately operated, which means few skeleton services, few routes to really out-of-the-way places and a sharp drop in departure frequencies outside the tourist season.

Getting to and from the trailheads of the GR20 is feasible throughout the year with a little advance planning although on Sundays (when most of the flights from the UK arrive) it can be trickier than you might expect.

Specific information on reaching Calenzana appears on p98.

Trains
Crossing the watershed between Ajaccio and Bastia via Corte, with a branch line peeling north-west to Calvi, Corsica's heavily subsidized train line – the Chemin de Fer de la Corse, or CFC – provides a year-round link between the island's major towns.

Although somewhat slower and more rattly than the buses, the Micheline diesels offer a memorable way to travel. In fact, during the summer the line becomes a tourist attraction in its own right; of the 800,000 or so people who use it each year, more than half are visitors.

Unlike in mainland France, fares do not vary according to the day of the week or time of year. You pay for your ticket in advance at the station and present it to the conductor (controleur) during the journey.

Special luggage areas provide ample space for rucksacks. it's also possible to store gear at the stations (ask at the ticket hatch for the consigne) but you have to pay between 5 € and 6 € (per working day or part thereof) for the privilege, and are pinned to the opening and closing hours of the station (which should always be checked before leaving your luggage).

The line has two separate timetables (horaires) for summer and winter, changing in late September and late June; the exact dates vary from year to year.

The main difference is an increased number of services on Sundays and public holidays during the summer. On the Bastia–Corte–Vizzavona–Ajaccio line at least four trains operate Monday to Saturday, with two on Sundays. Only one or two, however, run daily from the junction at Ponte-Leccia to Calvi.

To check departure times you can phone the tourist office in Ajaccio, Bastia or Calvi; the staff all speak English. Better still, if your French is up to it, ring the CFC direct on tel 04.95.23.11.03 or visit www.corsicabus.com.

Background information on Corsica's quirky narrow-gauge train line appears in the box on p160.

Buses
Getting hold of dependable information can be complicated when it comes to buses. With the exception of Ajaccio, no town has a dedicated bus station, while each route is served by a different company with its own seasons and headquarters.

To compound the problem, tourist offices rarely have up-to-date timetables and when they do they often misread them. The only sure-fire way to check timings is to contact the bus company yourself.

In Ajaccio you can do this in person at the terminal routi�re (bus station), where each company has its own counter. If these aren't staffed, ask at the information desk, which keeps a folder with the full set of current timetables.

Online the most reliable summary of public bus timetables is at www.corsicabus.com.

The buses vary enormously, ranging from huge luxury coaches (as on the Ajaccio-Bastia route) to small 12-seater minibuses. While some are laid on with visitors in mind, others form essential lifelines to remote villages, carrying post and provisions as well as people.

Tickets are sold in advance at the bus station in the capital but elsewhere you have to pay the driver when you get on the bus.

Note, too, that in larger towns where the company may operate through a travel agency (as is the case with the bigger firms) you can sometimes leave your rucksack at the agency free of charge until the bus departs.

Taxis
One reason why key tourist destinations such as Calvi Airport and Calenzana (starting point of the GR20) are so poorly served by buses is the influence of the local taxi drivers.

Their powerful lobby also keeps fares comparatively high, and once outside the large towns you can expect some hefty meter charges if you catch a cab to or from the trailhead.

Unfortunately, taxis are in many instances the only way (apart from hitching) to reach some villages or stations de ski, which is why this guide lists the contact details of registered drivers who serve places on or within reach of the GR20.

If you do call out a cab, especially for a long drive, make sure you get a quoted fare over the phone in advance.

Hitching
No self-respecting Corsican would be seen dead hitching, but with a rucksack – and even better, a set of trekking poles – your chances of getting a lift are pretty good.

As in most parts of the world, success rates seem to improve as you penetrate the mountains. From late June onwards a steady flow of tourist traffic ensures a dependable supply of potential lifts in all but the remotest areas.

you'll find cars much more likely to stop if you pick your spot well: stand on straight stretches of road with plenty of space to pull over on the hard shoulder (roadsides just past roundabouts are usually safe bets).

And avoid busy highways and intersections; it's obviously harder for drivers to stop when they're in fast moving, bunched traffic.

Attacks on hitchers are unheard of in Corsica, but getting into a stranger's car inevitably brings with it a degree of risk, and it's always worth checking the driver out first. Never be afraid to refuse a lift if you feel unsure about it for any reason.

EATING AND DRINKING

Time was when everything you ate or drank on the GR (other than spring or stream water) had to be carried in your backpack, and when re-provisioning meant carefully planned food drops or long detours off the trail to villages.

These days, however, the gardiens of most refuges offer trekkers a selection of essential supplies: typically charcuterie, local cheese, tinned fish, p�t�, pasta, noodles, condensed milk, chocolate and biscuits.

Nearly all of them also do a roaring trade in luxuries such as fresh bread, wine, beer and soft drinks, and some cook up hot soup, omelettes or coffee.

Keeping these little businesses stocked at peak season means near-daily trips down to road level with a mule or two, which explains the sky-high prices of food in refuges. Rely on the gardiens’ supplies and you'll rip through your money very quickly indeed.

You can re-stock more cheaply at Asco, Castel di Verghio, Vizzavona and Bavella, where the trail crosses tarmac. These hamlets, and stations de ski, also have small restaurants, which we review in the relevant sections.

In addition to the usual selection of packaged food, vegetables and staples, local épiceries stock a good choice of regional specialities that make ideal trekking fodder.

Look out for canastrelli, thick calorific biscuits traditionally made from chestnut flour and olive oil. They come in a range of flavours – anis (aniseed), noix (walnut), raisin and miel (honey) – but our vote goes to vin blanc (white wine), which is the most consistently delicious.

Corsica is also deservedly renowned for its cured meats, or charcuterie, whose intense flavours derive from the fact that most pigs on the island roam free, feeding on windfall chestnuts and forest roots.

As well as familiar, Parma-style smoked ham (prisuttu) you'll come across three main kinds of hard saucisson (sausage) hanging in Corsican grocery shops: coppa (shoulder), figatellu (liver) and, the most prized of all, lonzu (lean fillet).

Quality charcuterie doesn't come cheap – expect to pay anything from 10€ to 15€ for saucisson from a reputed source – but its strong taste means you have to slice it thinly, which makes it last a long time. Above all, charcuterie provides an excellent, easily portable source of protein.

The same is true of Corsica's notoriously strong cheese, the most pungent and expensive of which is make from full-fat ewe's milk collected at altitude.

A range of different strength fromages corses is offered at village épiceries and supermarkets, but for the real McCoy you'll have to shop at bergeries up in the hills, where shepherds sell direct from their cool stone cellars.

Restaurants
Once away from the few points where the route dips down to road level, bubbling lasagnas and chestnut-flour flans steeped in maquis-scented honey become the stuff of dreams on the GR20. don't be surprised, then, if you're tempted to splurge on a proper meal when you touch civilization again.

In common with mainland France, la restauration is regarded as a true m�tier – a vocation – and it's rare to be served duff food in Corsica, especially in the hills where most restaurants are well-established, family-run places with an exigent local clientele as well as passing tourist trade to cater for.

All but the very poshest restaurants generally offer a range of menus fixes. With these, you select one dish from the limited choice listed for each course, among which is invariably a plat du jour (chef's special or dish of the day).

There's usually a cheap and cheerful budget menu for around 16€ and a menu corse offering a spread of local specialities for upwards of 20�.

The most expensive menus will probably include especially good charcuterie and cheese, fresh fish such as river trout, game or wild boar delicacies, and a home-made dessert.

It generally works out more expensive to eat – la carte (where you select individual dishes from a full-length menu) but in principle you get what you pay for, with access to the full range of house specialities.

Note that the French word for menu is ‘carte'; ask for ‘le menu’ and you'll be shown or told about the menu fixe.

Pizzas are enormously popular in Corsica and generally the most affordable way to eat out. Baked in wood-fired ovens (look for a sign outside the pizzeria saying ‘Au Feu de Bois'), a pizza typically costs between 8€ and 12€, depending on the toppings, which allows you to order a side salad or maybe a dessert and coffee, with a small pichet of wine, for less than 15�.

A lighter budget option would be to order from the long list of salads offered by most places, which cost around the same as pizzas and are usually large enough to make a meal in themselves.

However, they tend to be unexciting: fresh vegetables on the island are mostly imported and tasteless, bulked out in salads with tinned sweetcorn or tuna, and smothered in mass-produced mayonnaise.

Only in quality restaurants and at family places in the mountains are you likely to be served fresh, organically grown leaves and vegetables from kitchen gardens.

Drink
Nothing will sap your trekking legs quite so thoroughly as alcohol but it's all too easy to ignore the consequences at the end of a day's walking when pichets of wine and cold bottles of chestnut beer start to flow from the refuge stores.

Down at sea level drinking is a major pastime. Alcoholic drinks are routinely consumed in Corsica before eating (as ap�ritifs), to accompany the different courses and to finish off meals (as digestifs).

they're also served without food at cafés, where a significant proportion of the island's middle-aged male population pass their lives sipping pastis (also known by its various brand names such as Pernod and Ricard) – a dry, clear spirit heavily flavoured with aniseed that turns milky yellow when mixed with water or ice.

The other classic Corsican appetizer is a fortified wine called Cap Corse (its brand name), whose distinctive bitter-sweet taste derives from a blend of sugar-rich muscatelle grapes and quinine. Now produced in a range of flavours, it was originally drunk as an anti-malaria prophylactic – the Corsican equivalent of British-India's gin and tonic. Ask for ‘un Cap’ and you'll be well in with the locals.

More palatable to the uninitiated are the lager-style beers sold even in remote refuges up on the GR20.

Arguably the most distinguished of them is Corsica's own brew, Pietra, made from chestnut flour. Although a notch pricier than 1664 and Stella Artois, it's darker, crisper and stronger than the competition.

The same company has also brought out a delicious (and even more expensive) weissbier called Colomba, sold in bottles in most village bars.

The reputation of Corsican wine, which you'll see on sale everywhere, took a knock in the 1970s after it was revealed that some of the large-scale pieds-noirs producers on the east coast were illegally adulterating their cheap vins de pays to bump up alcohol content (a scandal that eventually provoked an armed siege, see pp51-2).

Over the past decade or so, however, the industry has recovered and now turns out some outstandingly good reds (rouges), whites (blancs) and rosés.

The chalky-soil region of Patrimonio, in the north near Bastia, and the sea-facing slopes below Sart�ne in the far south-west, harbour the most celebrated domaines, but vineyards around Ajaccio, Calvi and Porto-Vecchio also enjoy Appellation d'Origine Contr�l�e (AOC) status.

In addition, Cap Corse, the 40km-long finger-thin promontory extending northwards from Bastia, is famous for its pale-amber muscat, a sweet dessert wine with a delicate floral aroma which Corsicans serve as an ap�ritif or with strong ewe's cheese.

Resembling quality Tuscan chiantis, the best Corsican reds are robust and dark. With the exception of muscat, the whites are far more delicate, with hints of apple and hazelnut that make the perfect accompaniment for the oysters gathered on the lagoons of the east coast (which Napoleon famously had shipped to him while in exile on nearby Elba).

Names to look out for in the supermarket or on wine lists include: Domaine Torraccia, Domaine Antoine Arena, Domaine Venturi-Pierreti and Clos Columbu.

In restaurants you'll be offered a selection of bottled AOC wine from around the island, as well as less pricey house wines. These usually come in small jugs, or pichets – ask for ‘un quart’ (a quarter litre) or ‘un demi’ (a half litre) – and tend to be undistinguished vins de pays.

In reputable auberges and some g�tes d��tape, however, the patron or patronne may pride themselves on their own local supply of AOC-standard wine which they'll serve at house rates.

No full-scale Corsican meal is considered complete without a small glass of spirit to round things off. The one you're most likely to be offered on the house is eau de vie, a clear rocket-fuel liquid distilled from grape skins.

For obvious reasons it's served in tiny quantities, and also used to flamb� desserts, to which it imparts a delicate liquorice flavour.

Liqueurs are also very popular on the island, especially vin de myrte, whose taste comes from aromatic myrtle berries gathered from the maquis. The best of it seems to be made at home by people's grandmothers, but you can buy inferior stuff in fancy bottles at souvenir shops.

Bills and tipping
Bills will all include sales tax (IVA) but not necessarily service charges unless you see ‘service compris’ (or just ‘s.c.’ ) printed at the bottom. ‘Service non compris’ means you're expected to add the discretionary 15% yourself.

OPENING HOURS

For most businesses standard opening hours are 8am-noon and 2-6pm, Monday to Friday.

Village épiceries tend to stay closed for most of the afternoon but open 4.30-7.30pm (or later in summer); bakeries open at the crack of dawn and keep working through the lunch hour until around 2.30pm, but generally close soon after that.

Nearly everywhere closes on Sunday and most shops open for only half a day on Saturday.

MONEY

France's currency is the Euro: coins come in eight denominations – 2€, 1€, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c, 2c, 1c – and there are a total of seven notes, all in different colours and sizes, denominated in 500€, 200€, 100€, 50€, 20€, 10€ and 5€.

POST, TELEPHONES AND EMAIL

Post
Distinguished by their yellow-and-blue livery, Corsica's post offices are smart and reliable, despite being the repeated target of nationalist bomb and machine-gun attacks.

Stamps (timbres) can be bought at all branches, as well as over the counter at tobacconists (look for the red ‘tabac’ signs on most high streets) and at postcard shops. Letters up to 20g cost 55 cents for countries within the EU, or 90 cents for North America and Australasia.

Parcels of up to 1.5kg cost 11€, depending on the rate, or 18.10€ for countries out of the EU.

Telephones
Just about everywhere that sells stamps also sells cards (t�l�cartes) for public telephone booths (cabines). These come in two sizes, costing around 7.50/15€ for 50/120 units respectively.

To make a call using one, insert it chip-end first into the phone and wait a few seconds until the LCD display registers the number of unused units remaining. You can then dial.

For telephone numbers in Corsica or anywhere in mainland France the ringing tones are long beeps. If the line's engaged you'll hear short beeps instead.

Should your card run out midway through a call you can replace it by pressing the green button on the console. When the message ‘retirez votre carte’ comes up, pull out the used card and wait until you see the words ‘nouvelle t�l�carte’ before inserting the new one.

Coin-operated phone boxes are these days few and far between, although you do occasionally come across them in bars. it's therefore a good idea to buy as many t�l�cartes as you think you'll need at the start of your trek as they can be hard to get hold of in more remote villages.

Public phone boxes should all receive incoming calls. Look for the cabine's number printed at the head of the instruction panel on the wall in front of you.

Tell the person who is to ring you back all ten digits (or only nine, minus the first zero from +04, if they're abroad) and remind them to add the international code plus the code for France (+33).

Mobile phones (portables) are of limited use in the mountains, where coverage is very patchy, but function reliably enough in the towns and most villages.

Email
Email and Internet access is hard to come by. The few real Internet cafés we unearthed on the island are listed in the relevant accounts. If you're desperate to get online, you could always ask the manager of any hotel you happen to be staying in to help you out.

THINGS TO BUY

Food and drink are the obvious things to take home from Corsica as presents. In the main towns you'll find little boutiques selling artisanally made charcuterie, cheese, honey, maquis herbs and biscuits (canastrelli).

They also stock a range of quality wines – including muscat, which makes a great souvenir as it's unique to the island – and will package anything you buy in fancy paper and ribbons if you explain it's ‘un cadeau’ (a present). The same applies to bakeries, which all prepare their own Corsican speciality cakes and tarts.

Supermarkets may feel like less authentic places to shop but the larger ones have substantial Corsican produce sections and much lower prices than the ‘Produits Corses’ boutiques. Most also have racks of Corsican polyphony CDs, which can make good presents (see the box on p133 for some suggestions).

SECURITY

Corsica may suffer one of the worst rates of violent crime in Europe but the island remains an extremely safe place for tourists.

Nationalist attacks are always tightly targeted and never affect visitors; aside from the ubiquitous political graffiti and occasional bombed-out building you'll be completely unaware that ‘le probl�me corse’ even exists.

Theft is very rare indeed. Up in the closely knit communities of the interior it's virtually non-existent.

Trekkers routinely leave their packs outside bars, shops and g�tes without so much as a second thought. If anyone did steal from a visitor they'd probably soon find themselves staring down the barrel of a hunting rifle.

Muggings and sexually motivated violence against tourists are also unheard of, even in the two main towns, although you should take the same precautions you would anywhere when walking around late at night.

The one way you might be drawn into a violent encounter with a local person is if you insult someone. Corsicans are quick to react when they perceive they, their family or their political opinions have been slighted. For advice on conduct and possible gaffes see pp67-9.

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