Lavezzi Islands

The Lavezzi Islands are a scatter of granite islets in the Strait of Bonifacio, a short boat ride south of Bonifacio at the southern tip of Corsica, the French Mediterranean island of 8,722 km2 with more than 1,000 km of coastline. The islands sit inside the Bouches de Bonifacio nature reserve, a protected marine area managed, as reported by the prefecture of Corse-du-Sud, by the Office de l'Environnement de la Corse (OEC). There is no bridge, no road and no ferry terminal on the islands themselves: every visit is a sea visit, on a tour boat, a catamaran, a charter or a private vessel from Bonifacio, or on the short international ferry that threads the strait between Corsica and Sardinia.

This page sets out what the sources actually say: where the islands are, how the crossings work, what you can legally do there, which boat products serve them from Bonifacio and Porto-Vecchio, and how the reserve's rules shape a visit. For the wider southern Corsica picture, the Bonifacio and Lavezzi day trip guide covers the combined itinerary, and the Corsica Travel Guide homepage is the hub for the rest of the island.

Where Are The Lavezzi Islands In Corsica?

The Lavezzi Islands lie in the Strait of Bonifacio, between the southern tip of Corsica and the north coast of Sardinia, administratively attached to the commune of Bonifacio in Corse-du-Sud. The strait is the body of water that separates Corsica from Sardinia, and the islands sit in the middle of it, closer to Bonifacio's harbour than to any other Corsican port. The whole group falls inside the Bouches de Bonifacio nature reserve.

Corsica itself is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean, with a mountainous interior rising to Monte Cinto at 2,706 m and a population of 365,636 as of 1 January 2026, per the provisional INSEE estimate. Bonifacio is the island's southernmost town, perched on limestone cliffs above its harbour, and it is the base from which essentially all Lavezzi traffic runs. The strait is also an international border: Sardinia is Italy, and the Santa Teresa Gallura to Bonifacio ferry crossing takes about 50 to 60 minutes, per the aggregator data, with the route operated by Moby and Ichnusa Lines, a pairing kept in place, as reported on 9 October 2026, after Sardinia found no rival operator for the service.

That geography matters for planning. A trip to the Lavezzi Islands is almost always a half-day or full-day boat outing bolted onto a stay in Bonifacio, Porto-Vecchio or, less commonly, a Sardinian base on the other side of the strait. The islands have no resident population and no hotel: you sleep in Bonifacio, not on Lavezzi.

The reserve context is not a footnote. Île Lavezzu and the wider Lavezzi group sit inside the Bouches de Bonifacio Nature Reserve, a designation reported by the prefecture of Corse-du-Sud in its coastal orders for the area. Protected status shapes what boats may do, where swimmers may enter the water and what the guided tours emphasise, and the sections below deal with each of those points in turn.

How Do You Get To The Lavezzi Islands From Bonifacio?

You reach the Lavezzi Islands by boat from Bonifacio harbour, where a cluster of licensed operators run catamaran cruises, speedboat trips and guided snorkelling excursions into the archipelago, and there is no land access of any kind. Departures also run seasonally from Porto-Vecchio, and the islands can be viewed from the Santa Teresa Gallura to Bonifacio ferry without landing. Bookings for the guided products are made through each operator's live listing.

The choice of departure comes down to where you are sleeping and how much sea time you want. Bonifacio departures keep the sailing time short and leave room in the day for the town's own sights, including the Bonifacio citadel and cliffs and the Escalier du Roi d'Aragon, the stairway of 189 steps cut down the cliff with a 180-degree view over the water towards Sardinia. Porto-Vecchio departures tie the islands into a longer southern loop, sometimes combined with the coast towards Palombaggia beach or Rondinara beach on the drive down.

Small-group options exist for swimmers who want a guide in the water, and La Maddalena combinations run as full-day trips from Bonifacio that cross into the Sardinian national park before returning through the Lavezzi group.

The ferry side of the strait is a separate question from the tours. Corsica Linea, La Méridionale, Moby and Corsica Ferries serve the island's ports from France and Italy, and ferries have no affiliate programme on this site: crossings are booked directly with the operators. Moby and Ichnusa Lines hold the Santa Teresa Gallura to Bonifacio route, a crossing of about 50 to 60 minutes. More than 8.5 million passengers, excluding cruise passengers, passed through Corsica's ports and airports in 2025, per the ORTC and DREAL annual report published 30 May 2026, a figure that shows how much of the island's life moves by sea.

What Can You Do At The Lavezzi Islands In Corsica?

The activities at the Lavezzi Islands are swimming, snorkelling over the reserve's shallows, walking the granite slabs of the main island and photographing the strait, all delivered by boat: the guided products from Bonifacio combine the crossing with snorkelling stops, aperitifs on board or full-day routing through the La Maddalena archipelago on the Sardinian side. There is no shop, no road and no accommodation on the islands.

The water is the point. Snorkelling is the most common reason tours stop here, and several Bonifacio products are built around it, from catamaran rides with masks and fins supplied to small-group guided snorkel cruises. Aperitif and sunset formats exist on the Bonifacio coast too, aimed at visitors who want the cliffs and the strait in low light rather than a long swim. On land, the islands' granite, wind-sculpted and bare, is walked on marked ground around the main island; the reserve's rules, set out below, are what keep the place quiet rather than any fence.

A useful way to compare the Bonifacio products is by what each one actually covers rather than by headline price, which the token blocks print anyway.

The La Maddalena option deserves a note: it is a cross-border product, departing from Bonifacio in Corsica and entering Italian waters and the Sardinian national park before returning. Passport-free travel applies within the Schengen Area, but the practical point is simpler: it is the fullest day on this coast, and it books out far ahead of a same-week decision.

Can You Swim At The Lavezzi Islands?

Yes, swimming is possible at the Lavezzi Islands, and it is one of the main reasons the boat trips stop there: tours anchor in the shallows of the reserve and passengers enter the water directly from the boat. The full answer on conditions, safety and how the reserve's rules apply is on this site's dedicated page, and the supervision picture on the Corsican mainland is separate from the islands, where you swim from a vessel, not from a staffed beach.

The dedicated page, can you swim at the Lavezzi Islands, takes the question in detail. On safety, the mainland picture is this: Ajaccio operated seven lifeguard posts on its main beaches from 1 July to the end of August 2026, per the town's own announcement, and Haute-Corse's supervised beaches are staffed by volunteer firefighters from about 1 July to 31 August. None of that extends to the Lavezzi Islands: swimming there happens from a boat, in open strait water, with whatever crew and equipment the operator carries.

The general sea-safety numbers apply anywhere on the Corsican coast: 112 is the European emergency number, 196 is sea rescue, reachable by VHF channel 16 at sea, and 15, 17, 18 and 114 cover medical, police, fire and SMS access respectively. For mountain incidents inland, the PGHM in Ajaccio answers on 04 95 24 24 00. A swimmer at Lavezzi is far more likely to need the crew of their own boat than any of these, which is why choosing a guided product rather than a bare rental matters for nervous swimmers.

What Rules Apply Inside The Bouches De Bonifacio Reserve?

The Lavezzi Islands sit inside the Bouches de Bonifacio Nature Reserve, reported to be managed by the Office de l'Environnement de la Corse, and reserve status means regulated anchoring, restrictions on fishing and collection, and management measures that the authorities continue to tighten.

The parallel case that shows how seriously Corsica takes its marine reserves is Scandola, on the west coast: the Scandola Nature Reserve was the first created in Corsica, by ministerial order of 9 December 1975, with 919 ha of land, 1,000 ha of sea and a 70 ha integral reserve, managed by the PNRC, and it forms part of the UNESCO property "Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve", inscribed in 1983. There, the land area is closed to the public and visits are by boat only, per the OEC's published rules. The Scandola nature reserve page covers that site in full.

For Lavezzi specifically, the prefecture of Corse-du-Sud publishes arrêtés for the reserve covering regulated activities such as sea-urchin fishing, which confirms the active management of the area without licensing any visitor numbers here. The practical takeaway for a visitor is behavioural: follow the crew's instructions on where to enter the water, take nothing from the islands or the sea, and treat anchoring and fishing as things done only where the operator says they may be done.

What Is There To See Nearby Around Bonifacio?

Bonifacio itself stacks a clifftop citadel town, the 189-step Escalier du Roi d'Aragon cut into the cliff face, boat trips beneath the limestone cliffs, and day trips into the Désert des Agriates and the strait, so a Lavezzi outing sits naturally inside two or three days based in the town. The Escalier has 189 steps and a 180-degree view towards Sardinia, and children receive a "diploma" at the top.

The Escalier's entry price of about EUR 5, its monthly opening hours and its closed-shoes rule are reported rather than fully confirmed, so check before you go. The Bonifacio citadel and cliffs page carries the town's upper sights, and specific citadel entry fees for Bonifacio and Calvi remain to be checked before you go.

Beyond the town, southern Corsica spreads the beaches for which the region is booked: Palombaggia, Santa Giulia and Rondinara on the Porto-Vecchio side, and, further afield, Saleccia and Lotu in the Désert des Agriates, reached by boat shuttle from Saint-Florent, by 4x4 track from Casta, or on foot. A fortnight on the island can take in the south, the west coast's Golfe de Porto and Girolata, and the interior's Restonica valley and Aiguilles de Bavella, and the things to do in Corsica root page indexes all of it.

When Should You Visit The Lavezzi Islands In Corsica?

The boat season around Bonifacio runs with the summer: the Météo-France 1991-2020 station normals show July averaging 8.6 mm of rain at Ajaccio and August a mean daily high of 29.2 °C, while November carries the heaviest monthly totals at 111.8 mm at Ajaccio and 134.3 mm at Bastia, so crossings concentrate in the warm months, and no single "best month" is stated as fact because the data does not license one.

Sea state in the strait, not rainfall, is what actually cancels sailings.

The strait between Corsica and Sardinia is a wind funnel, and operators, not calendars, decide which departures run. The honest planning frame is the climate table: hot dry summers, mild wet winters, and snow only on the high mountains. October still averages a mean daily high of 22.8 °C at Ajaccio against 85.7 mm of rain, and September 26.1 °C against 57.8 mm, per the Météo-France 1991-2020 station normals for Ajaccio (Campo dell'Oro).

One seasonal rule is fixed in regulation and matters to anyone combining the coast with the hills: from 15 June to 30 September it is forbidden to light a fire or smoke in forests, maquis and massifs across Corsica, and a daily fire-risk map is published at 18:00 for the next day, with access to some massifs restricted from mid-June to mid-September. The UK FCDO notes a high risk of wildfires in France from April to October. None of this touches a Lavezzi swimmer directly, but it shapes any driving-and-hiking add-on to a southern stay.

What Should You Know Before Booking A Lavezzi Boat Tour?

Before booking, check the departure port, the cancellation terms and what the price actually includes: Bonifacio departures are short and town-friendly, Porto-Vecchio ones are full days, snorkelling gear and aperitifs vary by product, and the cross-border La Maddalena trips spend the day at sea, so the fit with your base and your swimmers decides the choice more than the headline figure, which the listing prints and this page never types.

Tipping is optional everywhere in France: menus must state "prix service compris", and an extra tip is voluntary, per the DGCCRF.

Practicalities for the day itself: wear what the crew tells you to wear, keep shoes for boarding ladders, and carry water, because the islands offer nothing to buy. The euro is the currency, the timezone is Europe/Paris, and the emergency numbers are 112, 15, 17, 18, 114 and, at sea, 196. Road conditions anywhere on the island, including the southern routes down to Bonifacio, are published live by Inforoutes Corse, which is the standing pattern worth knowing rather than any individual closure.

Common Questions About The Lavezzi Islands

The Lavezzi Islands distil Corsica's southern coast into a single boat day: a protected archipelago, water clear enough for snorkelling straight off the deck, and a strait with Sardinia close enough to see. Choose the departure that fits your base, book the product whose coverage matches your swimmers, and give Bonifacio itself the second day it earns.