Corsica ferry return trip: what the crossing really costs

Almost nobody sails to Corsica one way. Yet prices are advertised one way everywhere — and that is where budgets slip: on a return trip, everything is paid twice. The reclining seat, the cabin, the car. No need to double a headline price in your head: below are return trips we have actually observed, each one made of two dated departures.

Leaving from the mainland, the cheapest return we have recorded on Marseille–Ajaccio is €82.77 for one adult in a reclining seat — out on 27 October 2026, back on 14 November 2026, with La Méridionale. Same route, in a cabin: €165.91. The journey has not changed, only the comfort.

See this return trip with La Méridionale

Every crossing quoted here is still to come: a departure that has sailed cannot be booked. Readings of 24 October 2026.

The cheapest return trips, by how far ahead you look

Three windows, three different questions. "I am leaving soon" does not cost the same as "I am planning ahead" — and the gap does not always run the way you would expect.

Over the coming month, 10 routes from the mainland are recorded, from €65.00 return.

Widen the search to the next three months, up to 24 January 2027, and the overall floor stays at €65.00 — but several routes, taken one by one, come down.

And across the whole year, up to 24 October 2027? The floor does not move any further: €31.52. That is the most useful finding on this page — waiting until next year does not bring the price down, but looking a few weeks further ahead sometimes does.

What comfort really costs, once it is doubled

On a booking page, the supplement for a reclining seat or a cabin looks modest — it is shown for a single leg. On a return trip it becomes a line item of its own. The table below gives, for each way of travelling, the observed floor, the median and the top of the range across every route.

Three things stand out.

The reclining seat is nearly free; the cabin never is. For one adult travelling alone, the figure goes from €65.20 in a seat to €120.00 in a cabin, and the gap widens on the median — €88.00 against €165.91.

The car is the heaviest item. For two adults in a cabin, the floor starts at €180.00 without a car and €282.63 with one. On the median, the gap widens sharply: €234.80 against €356.00.

Children weigh less than the car. Going from two adults to a family of four, car and cabin included, lifts the floor from €282.63 to €388.00 — noticeably less than the vehicle adds on its own.

Two companies are sometimes better than one

Here is what a one-way comparison cannot show. On routes served by two companies, nothing obliges you to sail out and back with the same one. The sharpest gap in our readings shows up, this time, when leaving from Corsica.

On Bastia–Livorno, for two adults, two children, a car and a reclining seat, leaving Corsica on 16 August 2027: €474.56 taking Moby Lines out and Corsica Ferries back — against €613.00 with a single company on both legs. A €138.44 difference, for two identical crossings.

This gap is no hidden bargain: two companies serve the same route, each with its own fare grid, and the cheaper one on the way out is not necessarily the cheaper one on the way back. It only shows up if you look at the outward and return legs together.

Route by route, leaving from the mainland

The full table, with the cost of each accommodation on a return trip. Click a route to see the detail — prices by month, by day of the week, and by company.

When to book, and how long to wait

The year's floor almost always falls within the next three months: across the routes we track, widening the search beyond a quarter barely lowers the price any further. Restricting yourself to the coming month, on the other hand, costs more on several routes — compare the first two tables and the gap shows up route by route.

To place these figures over time: across all the routes we track, between 13 June 2026 and 29 September 2027, a return trip for one adult in a reclining seat has ranged from €48.70 to €274.69. The absolute floor was observed on Savona–Bastia, for a departure on 4 September 2026. It shows how low the price goes when everything lines up: a short route, an off-peak date and the lightest formula.

The other way round: leaving from Corsica

Islanders and visitors already on the island are looking for the opposite — a return trip starting from a Corsican port. The same rules apply, with prices that are not symmetrical.

How we obtain these figures

Every return trip shown is the sum of two crossings actually observed, each with its own date and company. We do not compute a return fare: we record two one-way fares and add them, which is what you pay if you book the two separately. Some companies apply a return discount we cannot see — the real total may therefore be lower, never higher.

Prices are standard fares including tax for non-resident travellers, recorded on the companies' own websites. They are indicative: only the companies' sites are authoritative at the time of booking. Our methodology sets out the sources, the collection schedule and the limits we accept.