New years in Sicily

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!

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.

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.

Hi! I'm planning on doing a long holiday in Italy from the end of September until November. I will be doing most of my transport via public transport, but biking/hiking or renting a car every now and then might be an option too.

What I'm currently thinking about:

- Enter sicily by train, hop off on the east coast. Visit Taormina, Catania, Siracusa, and possibly Ragusa as main sites. 5 days?

- Take the ferry from either Pozzallo or Augusta to Malta

- Spend about a week on Malta

- Take the ferry back, see (possibly Ragusa here) Valle dei Templi, and the north and west of sicily. About 10 days?

- Take the ferry from Palermo to Cagliari

- Spend about two weeks on Sardinia (not sure what places yet)

- take the ferry from Porto Torres to Barcelona

Is this a feasibily itinerary? The suggested staying times for these places seem to be all over the place (e.g. 5 days enough for Sicily, two weeks in Malta) so I'm wondering if I'm taking it easy enough or if I could include Amalfi for example. Is two weeks in Sicily enough if I go by public transport? I want to see the main sites and take some relaxed days off too. I don't need to spend days in every town exploring every alley.

I plan on staying in hostels and cheap hotel rooms mostly. I can also bring camping gear but I'm not entirely sure if it's worth it as I think a lot of campings will already be closed in October. I don't particularly have a set budget but I prefer to spend my cash on good food and perhaps some guides. I don't have a need for luxury hotels or driving a car everywhere.

Early stages of planning a 2 to 3 week trip around Sicily. Will finish along the east coast and fly out of Catania. I am thinking two to three days each for Syracuse and Catania with one day trip to Taormina from Catania. Am I being fair, reasonable in my expectations? A little bird tells me that I should spend more time in Taormina (which would likely be at the expense of time in Catania.) Interests are historical/artistic more than beach/landscape. Would also welcome recommendations on places to stay - convenient with character as we will not be hiring a car.

Hello, I posted my question on the main Italy TA forum, but as I've been narrowing down our options, I wanted to ask people specifically knowledgeable of the Italian Riviera/Liguria.

My husband and I will be vacationing in Switzerland Sept. 20 - October 21, ending our trip in Lugano, and would like to extend our trip to include the Italian Riviera area. We have up to 2 weeks to spend, and will need to get back to Zurich for our flight back to the US. We would prefer using public transportation, rather than renting a car. We have been to Cinque Terre, and hiked between some of the villages, but only as a day trip from our stay in Florence. That is really the only part of the Ligurian coast that we have seen.

My specific questions a is 2 weeks to long to spend in this region? We want to hike, sightsee, visit Portofino for the day, and just wander around in the villages of note. We are not looking for a lot of nightlife; just mostly scenic beauty, or interesting towns/villages. If two weeks is not too long to spend in this area, then would the recommendation be that we divide our stay between one place along the Riviera di Levante (Santa Margherita Ligure was recommended), and one base in Riviera di Ponente? We could also spend one week in this area, then move elsewhere (still saying north for train from Milan back to Zurich), but knowing we will be ending our trip the end of October/early November, weather will need to be considered. Appreciate advice on my 2 week plan in this area. Thanks so much.

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

Hi

I'm starting to plan a trip to Sicily and the Aeolian islands in early September (covid permitting of course) and I'd be grateful for some advice.

We're planning to fly into Catania Airport on an early morning flight from London, then head straight to Milazzo port to catch a ferry to Lipari and then stay as follows:

4 nights Lipari

3 nights Panerea

2 nights Taormina

Just wondering what's the best way to travel when we get to Catania? We need to get from the airport to Milazzo Port and then from Milazzo to Taormina, and finally from Taormina back to Catania airport to catch our mid-morning flight back home. Would we be best to hire a car for the whole duration and pay to park it for a week at Milazzo while we're in the Aeolian islands, or can we do everything easily by bus/public transport? And would we be missing out by not having a car to explore the area around Taormina?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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!

Hi guys

I need help to get my itinerary together!!!

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