The best beaches in the Agriates

The closest to Saint-Florent: about 400 m of white sand, facing the mountains of Cap Corse. Most visitors arrive on the shuttle boats that leave the harbour in season; according to the tourist office, the crossing takes about twenty minutes, and the jetty is five minutes from the sand. You cannot get there in an ordinary car: the track from the D81 is restricted to 4x4s and trial motorbikes. There is no drinking water, no shade provided and no lifeguard station listed. Free-roaming cows often come and lie on the sand.

The desert’s big beach: a little over a kilometre of fine white sand, with no buildings, between the juniper dunes and the pine wood. You get there by 4x4, on a track about a dozen kilometres long that leaves the D81 near Casta and on which access is regulated in season, or on foot from the Lotu, in about an hour along the coastal path. The pines give shade. A beach hut and the neighbouring campsite, where the tourist office places the only drinking water on the path, are the only facilities. No lifeguard station is listed.

At the western entrance to the Agriate, about 800 m of fine sand between the river mouth, the Foce pond and large white dunes. It is the only one of the three with no track or boat: a quarter of an hour’s drive from L’Île-Rousse on the T30, parking along the old road, near the campsite, then 15 to 20 minutes on foot, sometimes with a ford to cross. The beach has lifeguards in summer. It is open to the west wind: according to the tourist office, on very windy days the waves can be dangerous, for children too.