Hotel web-sites often make the properties look better than they are. Pietracap's is certainly inviting. The good news is that the hotel is truly beautiful, one of our top favorites in a four week trip through friendly and exhilarating Corsica and Sardinia. Nestled on a hill side dense with olive trees and an abundance of flowering plants, one could easily settle in here by the pool with a good book and your favorite libation and do nothing else.

While our room was a tad smaller than we would prefer, it was beautifully decorated. It had a lovely little porch overlooking the pool area with a table and chairs and an outside wall covered in bougainvillea. A short and easy drive North from the ferry landing in Bastia, this is a great base of operations to tour Cap Corse to the North or explore Bastia and surroundings and still stay in a quiet country location.

Pietracap has a much better than average breakfast, a small but viable bar (with great jazz music piped in) but no regular meal service. While it is only a few miles from downtown Bastia, one would be stranded without a car. There is a decent sized outdoor parking area, while on the subject of automobiles.

This is much better than your average 3 star hotel. While it may not have some of the facilities that would qualify for 4 stars, it had more character and style than more expensive hotels we have stayed at elsewhere in the islands. Exquisite and original landscape paintings were hung through the halls of the hotel, and may be a temporary exhibit. We asked if they were for sale and told no, they were on loan from an artist who has a studio in Paris

The staff is particularly warm and welcoming. We arrived late on a Friday night, too late to head out for dinner. When asked if we might have a drink in the downstairs bar (closed at the time) , the front desk manager seemed happy to oblige us with two well made gin and tonics and some suitable snacks while we listened to the local jazz radio station on their loud speakers.

We spent three nights here on a weekend and directly from the ferry from Nice. It was our first trip to these islands, and we were busy exploring Bastia, Erbalunga and environs. Next time we will come back and just chill. One could stay here before taking the early morning ferry back to Nice, but I would hate to leave such a beautiful place in the early morning hours (see my review of the Best Western in Bastia) and possible miss that beautiful breakfast.

We found Bastia to be a charming city with a life of its own. Tourists are welcomed but not fussed over. The old harbor area has a number of restaurants and bars that cater mostly to the tourist trade, a good place to eat seafood outdoors and under umbrellas with your own favorite mix of sun or shade. A short distance away, the old market square and the citadel areas are worth exploring for the true character of the city and yield real Corsican food and ambiance. While a little rough around the edges, we felt quite safe here, and enjoyed strolling some of the commercial streets catering to the local populace with few postcard and tacky souvenir places in sight.

We will be heading back to Corsica, and most definitely to Pietracap.

My wife and I spent 3 days at the Hotel Pietracap in Bastia, Corsica. The hotel is located about 5 minutes by car north of the centre of Bastia. It is an older hotel, but is well-maintained and clean.

I found the service to be very good - I made some small requests when booking the room and there were no problems when I arrived. Breakfast is included in the price of the room, and you have a choice to eat in an area by the pool and gardens, or on your balcony overlooking the sea (we chose the latter). Breakfast is brought to your room within 5-10 minutes of calling for it. Also, we left the hotel at 6am on the last morning, before the kitchen opened, and the fellow at the front desk went out of his way to prepare a breakfast for us. They also recommended some excellent restaurants to us.

There is parking at the hotel and it is easy to access the Cap of Corsica and other parts of the northern island. The beaches in the north are not as nice as those in the south, but are much less busy.

The airport is about 15-20 minutes away by car.

Would definitely stay there again.