Travelling to Sicily

Dear all,

Would you please help me with itinerary for 10 days trip to Sicily, this June?

My former plan was for second half of June with return in beg. of July, flight to Palermo, leave from Catania, and stay in Palermo (visit Monreale, Cefalu), Agrigento, Modica (visit Ragusa), Siracuse and Taormina, 16-18 days.

But now I can't stay until the end of June, I don't want to go in July or August as it will be too hot for sightseeing, so I am trying to find some shorter version. I was more interested in eastern part (baroque towns, Ortigia and Taormina), but as there aren't direct flights until July, I am thinking about visiting Palermo, and stay on some nice beach for few days. There are direct flight to Trapani, so start and end there.

I am traveling with almost 3 yo (with stroller and baby carrier), and only by public transport. I wanted to see Palermo, so I would keep this from former plan, but I don't know where to go next, for 3/4 nights.

1 Trapani (morning flight), move to Palermo, afternoon in Palermo

2 Palermo

3 Palermo, half day trip Monreale

4 Palermo, day trip Cefalu

5 Palermo, day trip Agrigento (not sure with this, as it is quite a long time in train there and back)

6, 7, 8, 9 ? (last day move to Trapani, overnight before flight from there)

10 Trapani (morning flight)

I have found only an afternoon bus from Trapani airport to Palermo, so we have to go to city, and take a bus to Palermo from there?

I have read here in forum about Castellammare del Golfo, and it looks nice. Is there a good connection between Palermo - Castellammare and Castellammare and Trapani?

If I stay close to, I would also like to visit Zingaro reserve, I found that it is open again, but it seems that only way to go there is by privat car, or taxi - or is there some option via public transport? If taxi - how much, and is it possible to book one with car seat? Would it be better to stay in San Vito de Capo, or Scopello, for Zingaro visit? And last - 3yo may walk or be in baby carrier, baby stroller is useless in Zingaro (coastal way)?

Or do you have another idea for coastal town, with nice architekture, and beaches nearby?

Many thanks, Katjes

Hi,

My wife and I are due to travel to Sicily from the UK for a 2 week trip, last week of September/first week of October. This would be our first visit and we planned to rent a car and tour some of the island staying in a few different places - Palermo, Cefalu, Aelion islands, Taormina, Syracuse.

Now that the yellow zone restrictions have been reintroduced, we were hoping for some first hand experiences as to what impact this might have for us? Ideally from locals or people who have recently visited or are currently visiting Sicily.

We would obviously follow all the local restrictions and mask rules, we are fully vaccinated ourselves, plus both recovered from previous covid infections some time ago. However we have some concerns that our plans to tour around might mean we would be wearing our masks pretty much all day every day (when not driving) and that the restrictions will result in places we would like to visit being closed or very restricted.

So we are now considering whether to book elsewhere and head to Sicily another time. Or are we worrying too much?

Arriving into Palermo airport on 9/30 and would like to experience two nights in Palermo before going back to Palermo airport to pick up car for drive to rental in Cefalu on October 2. Any suggestions to airport transfers, hotels and restaurants? Grazie!

We'll be spending four nights car-free in Palermo in mid-September, then heading to San Vito Lo Capo for another four nights. We'd like to pick up a car in Palermo and then return it to the Palermo airport. Is this the best strategy, or is it best to make the trip to the airport for the pickup as well? Any tips on car rental companies much appreciated.

Dear All,

I'm trying to work out the itinerary for our visit to Sicily (travelling with my girlfriend) starting on the 10th of June. We arrive and also end our trip in Aeroporto di Palermo Falcone e Borsellino. I intend to rent a car through Auto Europe as suggested here in the forums. I also read it's best to avoid driving in Palermo and only hiring the car after departing the city. So as I understand we need to take the bus after flying in, and back again after 2-3 days to get the car?

Is the smallest category generally enough (C1, VW Up) for a couple or is it worth spending more (VW Polo, or upwards) for doing a road trip around Sicily?

Could you please help me to allocate the number of days appropriately? We are young, energetic, food and nature-loving people.

What I have in mind currently (open also for other suggestions):

Palermo, city and Monreale with the cathedral

Segesta with the temple, Erice medieval village

Mazzara del Vallo

Agrigento - Valley of Temples

Modica

Capo Passero

Pachino village

Siracusa

Taormina

Etna

Cefalu

Aeolian Islands

Mondello

In case this is too much for this amount of time, what questions should be raised to help with deciding what to skip/replace?

Also, is there any ticket that should be booked online in advance to avoid the crowds?

Thanks for your kind help and input!

Hello,

I am planning on visiting Palermo during Easter i.e. from 3rd April (Sat) till 6th April (Tue). I need a PCR test result before returning back to France (taken less than 72h). From what I understand only Antigen tests are provided at Palermo Airport for arrival passengers.

Is there a test centre which will remain open on Easter Sunday ? If yes, do I need to take an appointment or can I just show up and stand in a queque ?

Any information will be highly appreciated.

Deejay

Due to the unique current offerings airline wise we have 6 nights/7 days in Sicily as part of a broader trip. We fly into Catania midday day 1, and our departure is from Palermo at 8pm, offering a near full-day in Palermo on day 7 (with bags safely stored with our hotel)

My dilemma is allocating the 6th night.

So far we’ve settled on 2 nights in Ortigia, 2 in Taormina, 1 in Palermo. For our 6th night I cannot determine if we should devote 3 nights to Ortigia as our base to have more time for places such as Noto etc or place a 2nd night to Palermo to have 2 full nights between transfers.

My current thinking if 3/2/1 is arrive Catania middday day 1, head to Ortigia and spend afternoon/evening there.

Day 2 - visit Noto, Ragusa, Marzememi or so one (1-2 of these).

Day 3 - visit another couple of places

Day 4- drive to Taormina, staying there.

Day 5 - visit Etna or gorges etc

Day 6 - to Palermo, spending part of the day in Cefalu

Day 7 - Palermo till leave for our flight late in day.

Is this a wise itinerary or should we forego the 2nd day of exploring behind Syracuse in favor of 2 nights based in Palermo?

Hi there,

My family of 4 (kids aged 9 and nearly 5) are planning a trip to Sicily for 4-6 weeks in 2023 (and other parts of Italy too after the 4-6 weeks are up). We will rent a car for most of our stay.

We are planning to come in mid-June, which is the earliest we can arrive that spring.

My main question is: We aren't certain though if we should stay through to the end of July (6 weeks)?

We don't really know what its like in July, as we've been to Sicily in different periods befo

* early-mid June a few years ago (a bit north of Catania, Ortigia, Agriturismo Silitti near Caltanisetta, Marsala, Scopello); and

* a few days in early October for our honeymoon about 10 years ago (Ortigia and an agriturismo called Zottopera near Chiaramonte Gulfi).

We would ideally like to have a relaxing time with the kids in Sicily - and are hoping to avoid extreme heat (e.g. over 33 Celsius) during the middle of the day, crazy busy-ness and the worst of the Italian school holidays.

We are planning to stay in 2 or 3 spots as bases (about 10 days each): something like beachside near Noto/Ragusa, another near Palermo; and possibly an agriturismo in a central region or near a nice village (in a different region) as a third base. With possible weekend stays in Ortigia, Palermo, Cefalu and San Vito lo Capo.

Most places in Italy we'd like to visit mention September/October as ideal timing to visit, which I believe is also true for Sicily. But if we can visit Sicily at the start of our trip, we can leave September for areas like further north like Tuscany, Urbino, Ascoli Piceno.

Hello everyone I have a question and have been looking thoroughly to find an answer but no luck.

I have been in Italy since the 18th of August and plan to fly to Sicily (Palermo) on September 9th from Milan. Throughout these days I been traveling through Italy only. Since Sicily is on yellow zone would I be asked a negative Covid test?

Or when I fly back to Italy which I plan on the 18th of September to Rome will they ask me for a test?

I am American & fully vaccinated with a “letter of recovery from Covid”.

Hope anyone has any insights or information, much appreciated!

We will be visiting Sicily end of June, beginning of July. We will be travelling in a rental car. We know Palermo is not a city to travel by car, but we would love to spend a few nights there anyway.

So could anyone give us some advice a place where we could stay and park our car safely during our visit of the city. We would be arriving and leaving from the direction of Cefalu. Thx!