Bastia & Cap Corse (East Coast)

Diving here runs out of a working town rather than a resort. Corsica Sub loads its 20-place semi-rigid Napadelis in Bastia's Vieux Port, Toga Plongée works from the Port de Toga marina five minutes from Place Saint-Nicolas, and Dollfin operates from a beachfront base at Marine de Sisco a few kilometres north. The sites string along the coast road, and two of them skip the boat entirely — Grigione is entered straight off the D80 and the Miomo P-47 is about 200 m from shore. The whole corridor sits inside the Parc naturel marin du Cap Corse et de l'Agriate, so a regulation dive flag is mandatory and the park's no-touch, no-feed rules apply throughout.

The seabed is rock and sand, and the diving splits between rocks and wrecks. The named rock sites mostly sit deeper than the shore reefs — Scogliu's tunnels and faults at 26–38 m, the Cinquini pinnacle rising from 44 m to 22 m off the harbour mouth, U Rigonne's grouper rock at 35 m off Erbalunga — while Cap Sagro slopes gently from 2 to 12 m for the easy days. The wreck list is long for a small area: P-47 fighters off Miomo and Santa Severa, the 1860 steamship La Louise, the 35 m yacht L'Insuma, and the B26 bomber at 63 m. Grouper families hold several of the rocks, with octopus, nudibranchs, a barracuda school and protected giant fan mussels recorded at Minelli 35.

This is a small-club coast — three or four independent centres and none of the tourist diving footprint of the island's famous names — and it suits divers who value quiet boats and a long wreck list. Beginners get genuine shore sites, and the local schools teach the full French Level 1–3 ladder, so the deeper grades can be earned on the spot rather than brought along; the 63 m B26 de Lavasina stays gated to CMAS*** with Rescue. Divers after habituated big grouper or a livelier dive-travel scene are better served elsewhere on Corsica — Calvi and the Revellata in the northwest, or Lavezzi in the far south.