GR 20 (Corsica) accommodation: where to stay and how to plan it

What makes accommodation planning different here

This is a hut trail with almost no alternatives. The Parc naturel regional de Corse runs twelve sites on the GR20 and sells every one of them through a single platform, pnr-resa.corsica: Ortu di u Piobbu, Carozzu, Ascu Stagnu, Tighjettu, Ciottulu di i Mori, Manganu, Petra Piana, l'Onda, Prati, Usciolu, Asinau and Paliri. A thirteenth, A Sega, sits on the same platform and is marked as being off the GR20, and a "Refuge de Puscaghja (reservation externe)" also appears there: it is a park refuge on the transhumance trails west of the route, not a GR20 stop, and cannot be booked through the GR20 centre. The park stages the walk in sixteen days and its own stage pages name private establishments instead of a refuge at three of the stage ends: Vizzavona, E Capanelle and the Cuscionu plateau. At E Capanelle the park's small refuge still stands but is unstaffed and cannot be reserved at all, so the gite U Fugone is the bed. Everywhere else the park site is the accommodation, and at eight stage ends there is nothing else within a day: Carozzu, Ciottulu di i Mori, Petra Piana, l'Onda, Prati, Usciolu, Paliri, and Ortu di u Piobbu on the first night out of Calenzana. Tighjettu has the bergerie de Ballone 25 minutes further on, Manganu has Vaccaghja three quarters of an hour back, Asinau has Chez Aline just below it, and Ascu Stagnu has a hotel next door. That is the whole list of second chances. Two of the twelve have no bunkhouse at all. The park's 2026 conditions of sale name Asinau and Ortu di u Piobbu as the only sites with no building of bunks: a bivouac area with tent hire, and catering as normal. Ortu di u Piobbu is the first night out of Calenzana, so a walker who books "a refuge" for night one has bought a pitch or a hired tent, which changes what they carry and how a wet first night goes. Both buildings burnt, Ortu di u Piobbu almost completely in May 2019, and neither has been replaced. Booking is compulsory for every option, a bunk, a pitch or a hired tent, and the 2026 tariffs are 20 euros per person for a bunk, 12 per person for a pitch and 27 or 39 for a two-place tent with the pitch included. Places are held until 19.00 and then released. Online sales close 48 hours before the day of arrival, cancellation with a refund runs out two months before the start of the walk, and a date change needs two days' notice through the reservation centre rather than a word with the guardian. The park publishes the same three bands on its own public GR20 page, seen again on 31 July 2026: 20 euros per person for a bat-flanc, 12 per person for a bivouac pitch, and 27 for one person or 39 for two in a hired two-place tent with the pitch included. It is one island-wide tariff for all twelve GR20 sites rather than a rate per refuge, so there is nothing to shop around for and no reason to research it refuge by refuge. Meals are not sold on the platform. The park states that meals must be reserved with the guardian on arrival, so half board on this trail means a bed booked months ahead and a dinner asked for at the door. Arrive in reasonable time, expect a fixed plate, and carry a fallback if you are late or particular. Bunk payers get the indoor common room and kitchen; if you are in a tent you cook and eat outside, which is the difference that shows up in bad weather. The bergeries are a separate world: privately run, independent of the park, unbookable through the refuge centre, and reached by phone, text or email. Ballone takes a text message, Chez Aline takes a phone call and has 20 beds and an email people report going unanswered, Vaccaghja has no site of its own and more than one number in circulation. Basseta, Matalza and I Croci on the Cuscionu are the exceptions with real websites, and Matalza and Basseta take online bookings. Prices at the bergeries are often not published at all, so agree what you are paying before you eat or sleep, and carry cash: the gite at E Capanelle states in capitals that cards do not work. One platform, pnr-resa.corsica, for the twelve park sites, opening for the season in January in recent years. Everything else is booked direct with the operator: phone, email, a text message at Ballone, an online basket at Matalza and Basseta, and nothing at all at the campsite in Conca or the bivouac at Castel de Vergio, both of which take no reservations. Deposits vary from none at all at Bocca di Verde to half the stay at the Auberge de Bavella. The park staffs its refuges 16 May to 4 October in 2026 and publishes the dates each year in its conditions of sale. Outside that the buildings stay open, unstaffed, with nothing sold. The private places roughly match or slightly beat it: Castel de Vergio 1 May to 4 October, Bocca di Verde May to early October, Basseta and I Croci May to October, La Halte du Prince April to October, La Tonnelle at Conca staffed from mid-March to the end of October, and the Auberge du Col de Bavella all year. Camping and wild bivouac are banned outside the laid-out bivouac areas and along the whole of the route, in the park's own words. In practice that means you pitch at a park refuge, on a park pitch you have booked and paid for at 12 euros a head, or on private ground at a bergerie, gite or campsite that offers it. Park pitches must be booked like a bed. A few private grounds take no bookings at all, which makes them the only places a tent can simply turn up: the campsite at Conca and the bivouac at Castel de Vergio both say so plainly. Hire tents are widespread, two-place and already pitched with mattresses, from 27 euros at the park sites. Calenzana at the northern end sits above Calvi; Conca at the southern end is inland from Porto Vecchio, with the nearest shops and services in Conca itself or 5 km away at Sainte Lucie de Porto Vecchio, and La Tonnelle runs a shuttle. Vizzavona, halfway, is the only point on the route with a railway station, 50 m from the hotel of the same name and a few metres from the Alzarella bivouac, which makes it the natural place to start, stop or bail out. Transport detail belongs to the transport layer and is not repeated here. The park publishes availability as bands rather than numbers, more than five places, fewer than five, or full, so per-refuge capacities are not knowable from the operator and are not recorded here. The park does describe the standard shape of one of its refuges on its own GR20 page, around thirty bunks, a first-aid kit, an outdoor cooking area, a common room, meals, a small shop, showers, dry toilets, running water and free phone charging. Read that as the shape of the building, not as a capacity you can count on for a given night: the booking platform still shows only bands. Bat-flanc means a sleeping platform, not a bed: no sheets and no blankets at the park refuges, and none in the dormitories at Matalza or the gite at E Capanelle either, so a warm bag is not optional. Two places at Bavella are routinely confused and the auberge says so itself: the Auberge du Col is 300 m below the col, the gite les Aiguilles is at the col. The domain that GR20 listings still give for the gite les Aiguilles has lapsed and now serves unrelated content, so use the phone number. Bags can only be sent to three points on the trail, Calenzana, Vizzavona and Conca, and the carrier requires a hotel or campsite address, so a private room at the halfway point rules out a bag waiting for you.