Scopello without a car

Any thoughts on our new itinerary, we have 9 nights and 10 full days, arriving and departing Palermo, we don’t have a car:

3 nights Cefalu

1 night Erice

2 nights Marettimo

3 nights Favignana

We don’t like overcrowded beaches, enjoy to see the real Sicily and romantic evenings, don’t want to visit the temples, want to be close to the sea.

Many thanks!

Hi

After a lot of thought we changed our plans to stay in Castellamare instead of San Vito. The reason was because we wanted a more authentic Sicilian town without hordes of tourists and crowds and really like the look of the marina, fishing boats and buildings.

We are really keen to go to Scopello and Zingaro by boat but can only find tours from San Vito, any advice on this? How much is it to rent your own boat, how does this work, how far is it to Zingaro? If boat is not an option, how frequent are buses and how far is it? I read somewhere that the park is partially closed due to a fire is this still the case? We will not have a car.

Is there any local beach in Castellamare or anything else to do if we don’t want to go to Zingaro every day?

FYI our itinerary will be:

Flying into and out of Palermo we have 10 full days

3 nights Castellamare

3 nights Trapani/Erice

3 nights Favignana

Many thanks!

My husband and I plan to spend a few days in Sicily next month. We will arrive Catania 13 July. We prefer to finish the whole trip via public transport as parking seems to be difficult in some towns. Our itinerary is as below.

14-16 July Catania to Taormina (we will join a day trip to Etna on 15th)

16-17 July Taormina to Agrigento by bus (SAIS bus service but I think we will have to transfer in Catania?)

17-19 July Agrigento to Scopello. This is a problem as I can't find any info about taking public transport between Agrigento and Scopello? Should I cut Scopello out of this trip and leave more time to Agrigento and Palermo?

19-20 July Scopello-Palermo

Any ideas about this itinerary? The biggest problem is the travel between Agrigento and Scopello. Suggestions are welcome please!

Can we travel from Agrigento to Scopello with public transport? Since we're not renting a car this time, should we cut Scopello out of our plan?

We are traveling to Trapini October 3rd. We had planned on on only 3 nights with only 2 full days.

From there we are traveling to Sorrento for 3 nights. We have been to Sorrento before but not Trapani or that area. We could easily switch to 4 nights in Trapani and 2 in Sorrento . Should we ?

Also what day trips should we include from Trapani? We considered Erice for sure and then either Segesta, Favignana Mazia or Mazara del vallo. We do not plan a car , but could consider it (we're nervous about local traffic nuances )

Thank you for any help. Brent

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?

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

We are a ‘mature’ couple traveling to Italy with 11 nights open between Rome & Florence so decided to visit Sardegna in early September. Probably flying into Olbia & departing from Cagliari.

Enjoy white sandy beaches, crystal clear water (who doesn't?), swimming, drinking local wine & local food. Also realize that beaches in Sardegna are rocky.

Prefer to stay at hotels in town to walk to dinner and stroll around town at night. Will rent a car to drive to close beaches during the day, perhaps stay at a beach hotel for 2 or 3 nights if on a beautiful beach.

Any suggestions on itinerary - where to stay & for how many nights? Perhaps 3 locations with 11 nights? The more I read on this helpful forum, the more overwhelmed I become on where to stay.

San Teodoro, Orosei, Villasimius, Isola Carloforte? Departing from Cagliari; how many nights would you recommend staying there?

Will reserve rental car prior to arrival, as well as hotel 1st and last night. Should I make hotel reservations in advance for the rest of trip? September is a busy month and may be more so this year.

TYIA!

Hi everyone!

My wife and I are traveling to Italy for two weeks. Do you have any suggestions on what to do or see? Here is our route with car and ferry:

1 night in Milano

1 night in Santa Margherita - visiting Portofino

2 nights in La Spezia - visiting Cinque Terre, Vernazza and Riomaggiore

1 night in Florence

5 nights in Amalfi - buss or scooter around the coast

3 nights in Capri - buss or scooter

1 night in Rome

So we were thinking about leaving the car somewhere in Amalfi because it seems that using car in the Amalfi Coast is unnecessary. Then we take a ferry from Amalfi to Capri.

First off- thanks in advance for any advice! (first time posting)

We are planning a ~2.5-3 week trip to Italy for May 2022 with our 2 kids (6 and 8).

My idea of a dream Italy vacay is cozy farms, beautiful scenery, amazing food, space for the kids to run and explore, bike rides, horse rides, and an authentic feel.

We also like to take our time in places vs trying to rush and see it all. I feel we have to see Rome and Venice but also know our kids will easily get overwhelmed and tired by the big cities.

Based on that, I have loosely come up with the following itinerary:

Fly into Rome (found a great points flight from our city); 3 nights here

5 nights in Umbria (agriturismo)

5 nights in Tuscany (agriturismo)

? 1-2 nights in Bergamo (my hubby has been and loves Citta Alta neighbourhood)

3 nights in Venice - fly home

Any thoughts on this? I love the idea of Cinque Terre but perhaps best to save it for another time (without the kids!).

Thank you!! Cait