Kosten
Plage

Kosten Plage is a paillote, the Corsican word for the wooden beach shack that grows into a whole day out, and it sits at the soft edge of Santa Giulia where the sand meets one of the calmest bays in the south of the island. It opens for breakfast, serves the beach through the afternoon, and by the time the sun drops it has become a bar and restaurant with a DJ. That single fact, one address running from the first coffee to the last cocktail, is the thing to hold on to about this place.

Our honest position, the same one we take across the Corsica club directory, is that Santa Giulia is a bay you come to for the water first and the venue second. Kosten earns its keep by making the venue easy rather than exclusive, and by feeding you well at both ends of the day.

Come at one in the afternoon and Kosten is a snack bar with a beautiful view. The wood fired oven turns out pizzas, the kitchen sends salads and paninis, and you eat with your feet more or less in the water while paddleboards and the odd jet ski drift across the bay. The crowd at that hour is families and groups of friends spread along the deckchairs, and the pace is deliberately lazy. It is the kind of lunch where nobody looks at a watch.

Come back at eleven at night and the same wooden deck is a different animal. The lights come down, a DJ takes over, and the snack bar becomes a proper bar and restaurant serving an a la carte dinner alongside a long run of tapas and pizzas. This is where the food and scene actually meet, because you can graze small plates over cocktails while the music builds, rather than choosing between a meal and a night out. The energy is sociable and young without tipping into a hard club, which is exactly the register Santa Giulia suits.

Where it falls short is the flip side of that easy charm. Kosten publishes almost nothing firm on price, so you take the deckchair on trust and confirm the number in person. Santa Giulia is also one of the most loved bays in Corsica, which means the sand and the car park both fill fast in August, and a paillote on a busy bay is never going to feel like a private hideaway. If you want a designer club with a rate card and a reservations desk, the polished tables at Tamaricciu on Palombaggia read that part better.

Santa Giulia is a near enclosed lagoon of a beach, a wide arc of pale sand wrapped around water that stays shallow and warm a long way out, which is why it draws so many families and why the swimming feels safe on a calm day. The bay collects a handful of paillotes and watersports stands along its shore, and Kosten is one of the livelier ones for food and evening music. Our full Santa Giulia beach guide covers the swimming, the access and the quieter stretches away from the deckchair lines.

Santa Giulia sits about ten minutes by car south of Porto Vecchio, and the bay is reached by the road that drops down from the main coast route, with parking behind the sand that goes quickly on July and August middays. There is no train and only limited seasonal bus service to this stretch, so most people arrive by hire car or taxi. Booking works in two lanes. A daytime deckchair is walk up, you simply take what is free once you are on the sand, while a summer dinner table or a private event is best arranged by contacting the paillote ahead, since evenings are when the place is busiest.

Prefer it settled before you land in Corsica? Send your date and party details in the form and we will ask Kosten Plage directly, then come back with what they hold, the going deckchair rate and any event terms, free of charge.