San Lucianu Beach Resort:  Review of our Mark Warner holiday in Corsica - Sept 2018.

We have been on so many Mark Warner holidays at Lemnos we thought we would try something different this year. We have been to several other types of resort on the east coast of Corsica including the old Club Med location at Santa Giulia with straw huts in the 1970's.

Water-sports sailing, cycling and walking were our interests this year in choosing Mark Warner.

The welcome on arrival, friendliness and helpfulness of the staff and quality of the hotel accommodation and food was excellent.

We stayed in one of the 95 rooms in the hotel block accommodation. We paid a bit extra for a sea view.  Between us and the beach were two pools, lawns, trees and a wooden roofed beach bar. WiFi worked well.

Our room had air-conditioning and refrigerator.  We drank the tap water with no ill effect.  Dining was full board at restaurant, which had a terrace offering outside dining. Most evenings were a la carte at no extra price. Individual family and communal social tables were available. Booking of meal start times meant that there was no rush at 7:30pm. The chef was brilliant and the quality of meals excellent although the choice was perhaps limited as the particular week we stayed the number of guests was well down.  Free wine was included.

Sports offered, in addition to sailing and windsurfing, were tennis and cycling. Cycling was popular with a range of rather good bikes. Routes varied from flat and easy to challenging mountain and the weekly many km Corsica grand tour route.

We went off cycling and walking, doing our own thing, visiting Moriani to the north and the harbour/ marina to the south.

RYA Sailing:

The Mark Warner resort is a RYA certified training school with guests encouraged to learn to sail and go away with qualifications. There were "Sunset Challenge" races every afternoon at 4:40pm with a "Big race" all Friday afternoon,  starting at 2:30pm. The water-sports staff were great, doing all the boat rigging and heavy lifting of the boats into and out of the sea.  The three catamarans were new, type RS CAT16 and great fun. Winds were generally light but we had two days with more exciting winds. The last day with the Big Race was the best weather with strongest winds.

Except for offshore winds the sea state tended to build up a bit of a choppy swell at times.

Cycling:

A variety of easy and strenuous cycling tours were offered.  The kit included some lightweight and expensive looking 'road' bikes for the serious km people.  They looked like race bikes to us.

It was possible to completely avoid the busy north-south road and ride on a quiet walking and cycling trail that followed the route of an old railway line. We did not waste any time and did something every morning and afternoon.

We stopped in Moriani centre for a juice. Out longest trip was inland to the waterfall and thence via the marina to the south - maybe 10km !.

Walking:

We adventured several miles along the beaches to the south and north.  To the south, the local beach ended at large deserted harbour with an astonishing number (approx 295) of not-in-use yachts. Strange. Some reddish vertical slate like bedrock near the harbour is worth investigating on a future visit.

The beach to the north led to Moriani town with its supermarket and outdoor bars, good for a nice cool orange drink, coffee or whatever.

A walk was organised for one afternoon and we all went inland to a waterfall. The final ascent, shown with the pink dotted line) was a little tricky in the woods, stepping up over the rocks. Trainers or boots  are recommended rather than flip-flops or high heels !. Anyway it is a good waterfall into a deep pool with the option to swim or leap in with a splash via the cliff face, strictly for the adventurous.

Map of the resort area.

Red walking route is to the north leading to Moriani town and beach return. Blue cycle route goes past the walk up to the waterfall, marked with pink dotted line. Green walking route to the south leads to the harbour, return along the beach.  Important: Use the wide path along the old railway track for walking and cycling, not the busy main road.