Recomended area to stay

Hi all, we've booked our flight to Catania for August 2022 next year for an 8 night stay. As well as visiting the sights in the city itself, we'll be using it as a base to explore the rest of Sicily also via public transport. However, as yet, we've not booked our accommodation (budget hotel, B&B only - no hostels). So what would be the best area(s) in the city to base ourselves? And are there any that you would not particularly recommend? This is will our first visit here and we are a couple in our late 20's. Thanking you for your help.

My husband and I visited Syracusa, Ortigia, and Catania a few years ago and promised we would return some day, and we are scheduled for 2 weeks in October! Can't wait!

We are interested in history, wine, biking, scenery, and local flavor. We do not want to be changing hotels every other day, so let me lay out what we are thinking and then get some feedback.

3-4 nights in Trapani: Fly into Palermo, rent a car at the airport, and drive to Trapani. If we aren't to tired we will detour to Segeste on the way. We would like to take the cable car to Erice, bike on Favignana, and then maybe visit salt flats.

Day 4: We were thinking that if we got up early we could make it to Agrigento, visit the ruins, and then continue on to Ragusa. If that's too much we would spend a night in Agrigento.

3-4 nights in Ragusa: We originally thought we would like to rent ebikes and visit wineries and other towns like we did in southern France and Tuscany, but as I'm researching I am wondering if that's a thing in that area. I couldn't find bike rental places in Ragusa and don't see any vineyards in that area either. (I did find a map that shows vineyards north of Vittoria and Comiso.)

3-4 nights in Palermo: We would do a day trip to Monreale cathedral, a day trip to Cefalu by train, and a day seeing the sights of Palermo.

Here are my questions:

1) Should we skip the Ragusa area and stay to the west, and if so, what should we do with those days? Should we stay in Vittorio or Comiso and try to rent bikes and visit those area wineries? Is that a pretty area? (I love the pics I've seen of Ragusa and Modica.)

2) Is there an area that has biking options (single day rides vs. multiple days). Ideally we would like to visit wineries on these rides, but scenery is a good incentive, too.

3) In my itinerary above I still have a few nights unaccounted for. Should I add another place, like Cefalu to the itinerary, or a place on the southern coast, or Marsalla, or should I just add the days to the places we are already staying?

4) We thought about visiting the Villa Romana del Casale, but it's about 2 hours north of Agrigento so not really on the way to any place unless we stayed in that area (Enna?) for a day or 2. Thoughts on that?

5) We also thought of staying overnight on Favignana to have 2 days of biking. Is that too much time allocated to see the island?

I will stop there. Vagabonda and others were so helpful on our last trip that I'm hoping for some common sense wisdom again this time. Thanks in advance!!

Kim

Just booked our first trip to Sicily and will spend 7 nights in mid-November 2021. I realize not enough time, so looking to probably focus on the eastern part of the island and fly into Catania. Have some questions to help with planning

1)Thinking of spending around 3 nights in the Syracuse, Noto, Modica area. Which city/town is the best place to stay and explore from there? Planning to most likely do local buses to explore during the day

2) We'd like to spend 2 to 3 nights in the Mount Etna area and possibly stay in Taormina for part of it. Thinking of renting a car from Catania for this part of our trip. If not, anyone have a tour group they recommend for tours of Mount Etna.

3) We hate to miss Palermo, but realize with only a week you need to make choices. Will there be get similar food markets in Catania to those you find in Palermo.

4) We would not to spend a day sampling wines and wondering which region to target in the areas we plan to visit.

Thanks much for any comments you can provide!

My husband and I are retired and we and our son are planning to travel from Rome to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum for two or three nights in late September or early October and had several questions:

Which is preferable as a base - Naples or Sorrento?

When you visit Pompeii - what can you reasonably expect to be able to do after the visit such as a museum or walking tour - same with Herculaneum.

Any recommendations for a tour guide for each place.

I am going two weeks to Sardinia week 30/31 with my family (kids 11 and 17). We want to stay two different places that needs a pool. Not hotel, but cosy places (Airbnb ect). The area must be close to good beaches for snorkling, but it has to be accessable by car. We cant do long hikes with our 11 years boy.

Which area of Sardinia can you recommend out there ?

Keywords

• Want to stay a cosy place with pool in a nice small town where we by foot can visit small reastaurants ect.

• Not to far from good beaches. We hire a car, but we don’t want to drive more than an hour to reach beaches ect.

• Good beaches, with good opportunities to snorkel (not only sand 😊)

• Which area og Sardinia is best. East, northeast, south….?

Thanks 😊

Hello

Me and my friends (~8 people) are planning to visit Sicily from the last week of December until the first week of January.

We want to stay in a villa and not a hotel and because of the weather want to stay at the coast. Because of reasons we need to land at Catania so I searched around this region.

At the moment all the villas of interest are in the southern region of Sicily.

I have two questions:

Firstly, I would like to know a good area to spend new years. I read in earlier threads that Catania is reommended for the most lively time regarding new years eve.

Do you know how long public transport operates around this time? (we will most likely have a rental car but I guess on this day all want to have a drink) I have a hard time finding any information on public transport to be honest...

Also are private fireworks allowed ?

Maybe there is also a city nearer to the south you could recommend for new years eve ?

Secondly, I read in several threads that in the winter season some places aren't as busy so I just wanted to ask if the South region also has these problems (I'm talking about the Pozzallo and Santa Maria del Focallo area and maybe a little to the right and left of it since we have a car)

Thank you in advance and best regards,

Bastian

Hello

Looking for advice. Hard to tell from maps but am trying to figure out where to stay in Giardini Naxos. We are a family of 3 ( 16 yr old daughter) and like to be able to walk to a good variety of restaurants and a (preferably sandy) beach. We don't care for noisy nightlife. So should we be looking at the Recanati area or further north on the bay above the promontory that sticks out? Or is the town small enough that it doesn't matter where we stay? We will have a car but prefer to walk to restaurants in the evenings.

Think we prefer to stay in Giardini rather than Taormina due to cost and parking!

Any tips or advice gratefully received as haven't been to Sicily before. Thanks.

Hi everybody !

I have a layover in Naples on my way to Albania and I’ve never been so I was hoping to visit. However, I arrive at 5 pm and depart the next day at 3:30pm. Considering that my hotel is a 7 minute walk from the airport and that I have a small backpack as carryon (that I’ll probably leave at the hotel), can I visit Naples between 5pm and 9pm the day I arrive and 8am to 12/1pm the next day?

Do you have any recommandations on things I absolutely can’t miss? And obviously, can anybody recommend a must-eat-at pizzeria?

Additionally, if someone has any insight on the whole pickpocketing situation (is it really as bad as they say? What should I avoid doing or what should I do to stay safe, beside the basic 101 of keeping my wallet close on me, etc).

Thank you so much !

Hello all,

We are planning to visit around Lake Como starting from tomorrow (Wednesday - 28 Jul), and we will stay in a hotel near Lecco. However, we just saw in the news that there is a massive flood in the Como area (west shore) that caused many roads to be closed, and it will rain more until Wednesday evening.

Unfortunately, we have a non-refundable booking, and our hotel told us that there is no flood whatsoever around Leko. Is there anyone in the Como area who could tell how bad the situation is? And in case of a weather-related reason like this, is there any way of getting a refund on a non-refundable booking?

Thank you.

Hello,

looking to stay in both - would like to stay at least 1 night in Arbellobello - can someone recommend a trulli to stay in?

also looking to stay at masseria - preferably that has a farm/olive/wine on site, i think in Ostuni area, there are so many of them that i kind of lost in choices, can someone recommend one they stayed please

most likely last week of September - first week of October 2021. will have a car

thank you