Love the idea of doing a holiday where I do fuck all. I’m in Marseille atm (interesting city…) but off to Corsica for a week doing nothing but sitting on a beach.
Marseille is class, love it there.
My brother had an interesting trip to Corsica around 15 years ago. He was living In Aix-en-Provence at the time and travelled over with with 2 Americans and 3 Parisians (2 blokes, 4 females).
It was around Bastia area, they were just having a quiet beer in a bar on their first night and these locals come up to them and tell them Americans and Parisians are not welcome on their island and to not show their faces again. It was late in the night anyway, so they went back to the apartment they had rented and just put it down to a dodgy bar.
The following day they went about their day fine, going to the beach etc. My brother hurt his back badly though, so that night he stayed in while the others went out on the other side of the city as they thought they were maybe just in a bad neighbourhood the previous night.
In this bar a guy comes up to them (a different guy to the night before) and pulled a knife out and said to them ‘you were told you weren’t welcome here’. The shit themselves and hurriedly left and went back to the apartment where my brother was in bed with his bad back.
When they opened the door to the flat, one of them went into the kitchen and there was photos of them on the beach earlier that day. Someone had been watching them, took and printed photos, broke into the apartment while my brother was in bed and left them there with a note telling them to leave. They rang the police but they didn’t give a shit. They very quickly cut their trip short!
Woah, crazy story.
Hopefully the locals are more accepting of an Australian and Italian haha.
Any reason for the broad spectrum hostility?
Mafia shit in Corsica?
My particularly relaxing trip there was a week in an all inclusive (meals, booze etc) catamaran trip around the spectacular coast. Jump straight in wherever you dropped anchor. Done the same in turkey/greek islands. Highly recommended if a bit exxy
Afterwards did a hike through the corisican mountains. Forgot the ring on the hike for proposing to my now-wife /facepalm
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Funnily enough we had bad experiences in Marseille… We were sitting in a restaurant on one of the main strips, then there’s a shout and next thing we see is a 15 year old kid walking past holding his stomach with blood dripping out. We asked the waiter and they said it was a normal enough occurrence and most likely a drug deal gone wrong.
That same night, we had two vans, both were broken into and a whole bunch of food was stolen.
Not totally convinced by Marseille yet. Day two today so we’ll see.
They have a really strong independence/Corsican nationalist movement which is pretty hostile to the rest of France. Even quite recently there was unrest - 2022 Corsica unrest - Wikipedia
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Marseille is really dodgy, but it does have really nice spots and amazing history. I got attacked there when I around 18 at around 6am when leaving a bar. The guy I was with was a bit of a dick to a local who went and rung his friends and waited for us to leave. Strange situation as they just surrounded us and tried kicking us rather than throwing punches. We ended up just walking away and getting into a cab with some bruised shins.
That same guy I was with was kidnapped there in the late 90s, he’s from Manchester and was studying in Marseille at the time. Some guy in a bar started talking to him about Eric Cantona and convinced him that he knew a good bar with lots of girls and had people waiting around the corner with a van. They took him to a squat, tied him up and had him contact his parents for money. He was able to escape the next day when they left him. Police were too scared to go into that neighbourhood to investigate 
Some of the neighbourhood estates are proper third world like Felix Pyat and Les Rosiers, they are completely controlled by gangs.
We enjoyed Marseille but we were there during the rugby world cup last year so everything had a carnival atmosphere. That being said, I think our favourite city in the south is Nimes, and Puy-en-Velay a close second, so definitely a couple who are more into French history and reading a book while occasionally people watching rather than French beaches, which are shit and crowded even in the shoulder season.
If you’re after a good beach, our fav was Plage des Catalans.
Did you manage to got to Arles? Similar in ways to Nimes, but I preferred, love it’s position on the river. The Roman Arena’s in both are amazing.
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I know you mean well but I’ve been to a lot of third world countries and never felt in the slightest bit of personal danger in the gangland sense. Travel to Egypt at this time of year, lie on the beach in Alexandria, and the worst that will happen to you is someone trying to scam you in an extremely obvious way.
No, sadly! Not even as far as the Pont du Gard. Definitely on the bucket list to go back.
I more meant 3rd world in terms of the infrastructure (or lack of), disrepair etc rather than crime. The reason they have fallen into such a state is due to the gangs and the State being too scared to go in and fix any of the issues.
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We’re actually heading there tomorrow for day trip, last full day before Corsica.
Was hoping to go to Cezzane’s studio, but closed atm unfortunately
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We had friends who had a very similar experience on the heart of Warsaw. One was there to get married and for some very very very stupid reason, he had like $10k worth of cash on him, that he was going to give to his future wife as a spending present before the wedding (he was informed how stupid he was and even agreed). They went out with a group to a bar. Girls got in for free, he had to pay a cover charge with his mate, basically girls speaking Polish and they were speaking English. Everything was fine till they went out for a smoke. Van drives up, both get shoved in the back. They get the crap kicked out of them, all their money stolen and then thrown back outside. Considering they thought they were going to die, it was a decent enough conclusion.
They went to the cops the next day and pretty much got told that, if they investigate, the two of them would probably be killed on the street… That was maybe 10 years ago
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Took the ‘Little Train’ from Ajaccio to Bastia. Fantastic scenery. Really nice way to travel between the two towns.
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Looking for boutique hotel recommendations for a NSW getaway with an 18mth old. Something within 3hr drive of Sydney with a good restaurant and pool on site so we can enjoy the property while the little one naps and sleeps. We don’t need any activities for the baby as he’s too young so looking for something premium and relaxing. For reference, we did Bannisters last year which worked out great.
Fairmont in the blue mountains
Spicers vineyard in the hunter valley
Armana at Nelson bay
Magenta Shores just north of The Entrance, Crowne Plaza Terrigal, Mantra Ettalong
Anyone got recommendations for the opposite (child free) anywhere between Coffs and the Gold Coast?
Been struggling to find somewhere that isn’t $1000/night - doesn’t help that my wife refuses to look at the prices of anything and just goes on how it looks on the website (had a few 3k/night suggestions come through cos it looks “pretty”). Ahh so we are staying a single night are we?
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