Sardinia and Sicily

Sounds wonderful. Using rome2rio.com, I see a ferry line from Cagliari to Palermo. To find flights, I start with wikipedia's page for each city's airport. Near the bottom of the page you'll find a table listing all the airlines that use the airport and the destinations they fly to. Where does the cruise start? You want to look for open-jaw flights from Oregon to ??? and Italy to Oregon. Use a site like expedia or travelocity to start looking for possible routes, choose the multi-destination option.

I was in Sicily for 2 weeks and would have needed another week to see the highlights I skipped. I haven't been to Sardinia, so I can't advise on how to split the days. But if you haven't been to Barcelona, I'd highly recommend allowing a few days there before flying to Italy.

How great to have so much time! I haven't been to Sardegna, but I would allow two weeks, and spend the rest in Sicilia. I go for three weeks at a time and don't see everything I'd like to see.

Favorites of mine are Palermo, Monreale, Cefalu, Segesta, Selinunte, Erice, Agrigento, Piazza Armerina (beautiful in itself with the bonuses of Villa Romana del Casale and Morgantina), Siracusa, Taormina, and the Lipari Islands (allow several days for this area).

Day trips would easily be Segesta, Monreale (half a day, really), Segesta, Villa Romana and Morgantina. Selinunte has a small harbor and almost no non-European tourists.

Let me know if you want specific details, but if you google these places, you can see what might interest you most.

I've planned a trip to Sardinia in September. With as much time as you have, you might want to also take the ferry to Corsica. From researching both islands, I think you'll easily have time to explore both. It seems that Sicily, one of my favorites, has more tourist attractions than the other two islands.

Thanks for the responses. They are helpful. I agree that Sicily deserves more time than Sardinia with the exact split to be determined by researching the islands. A possible side trip to Corsica (and/or Malta) sounds interesting and maybe doable. Also the day trips to nearby islands.

We start our trip and fly into Ft Lauderdale for the cruise to Barcelona. Yes, we will spend several days in Barcelona. We could ferry to Sardinia or fly via Milan or Rome. Then ferry to Sicily. Later probably fly home from Palermo. We plan to drive so will see if using one car for both islands is doable and practical.

Thanks to all again.

Rolf

We have done both islands and Sardinia is a jewel-it's where my Italian friends take their vacations in August. We did the West coast of Sardinia starting in Cagliari and driving the coast and discovered Algero, the world class wineries along the coast, taking a ferry for a day trip to Corsica, driving through the incredible neighborhoods around Olbia, and then driving through the center and staying at a B &B/farm in the center before flying back to Rome from Cagliari. We used TA for our entire week and were not disappointed.
Sicily (in my opinion) needs a minimum of two weeks-one for the west and center, the other for the East. For the West, Palermo, Segesta, Cefalu(!!!) Erice, the valley of the temples along with Sellunite(?) should be a week. For the West, we based in Plaermo,2 days, Cefalu, 2 days, and Erice then heading East, with stops at Villa Armenia, Syracuse, Taromina, Etna staying in Girodini Naxos below Taromina.
On both islands we used rental cars, and one note-outside the major cities, siesta is still practiced, with wineries closing from 12 to 2 or 1 to 3.
My advice would be to 10 days in Sardinia, and at least 2 weeks in Sicily with the balance of the time in Corsica, or maybe adding Malta. Finally, since we last went 2015, I suggest you look at TA for lodging-I don't like to suggest places unless I've stayed there within the last year. We've been to Sicily 4 times, mainly in the spring and fall, as was in Sardinia in late June. Suggest you look at flying on Easyjet into Alghero and flying out of Palermo through either Brussels or Rome to return. All three islands (especially Sardinia and Corsica) haven't seen many Americans but language wasn't a problem.
You'll have a ball!1

Okay, Corsica may become a greater possibility for incorporation into our travel plan. Also, Malta. I will do the research and see if all four islands are doable without being forced to miss some things. Spending more time is usually not a bad idea in my experience.
Interestingly, in regard to flying back to Oregon, it seems cheaper to book separate itineraries from Palermo to Frankfurt, then from there to Portland.
Thanks for all the input. My itinerary will expand a bit most probably with the advice.

"Interestingly, in regard to flying back to Oregon, it seems cheaper to book separate itineraries from Palermo to Frankfurt, then from there to Portland. "

Be very careful. If you plan to do this all on the same day, and there's any disruption that causes you to miss your flight from FRA to PDX, you are stuck. You'll have to buy a last-minute one way ticket home; the cost of this will be much greater than any savings. If you do want to split your ticket, it's prudent to spend a night in Frankfurt. When I went to Sicily, I bought separate ticket from Catania to Rome, spent a night in Rome, then flew from Rome to Philadelphia the next day. This worked well.

And be careful not to confuse the "real" Frankfurt airport (code FRA) with the Frankfurt Hahn airport which is quite far away (code HHN). If you fly into HHN, you will definitely not make an easy connection to FRA!

Note that Catania is a larger airport than Palermo with more flights, so if you plan to end your Sicily time near there, you will have more options for your next step (be it Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, or home to the US). Taormina is a great place to visit; it also has buses direct to the Catania airport, or it's an easy drive on the autostrada. There are two other, smaller airports in Sicily; Trapani in the west (mostly budget flights) and Comiso in the southeast (small with few flights).

Do use Chani's tip about checking the Wikipedia page for each airport to learn about options. Of course, not all flights are daily, so you have to check directly with the airline before making any definite plans. There are three airports on Sardinia (Cagliari, Olbia, and Alghero, from largest to smallest); four on Corsica (Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi, and Figari); and one on Malta. I'm not sure about connections between these four islands, since they represent three countries; you may have to connect in places like Rome or Nice.

You may be able to lease a car for Sardinia/Sicily for a month that would save you money over a rental. Consider that in Sicily you can see Palermo and Cefalu by train, then rent a car to visit sights as you transverse the island, so it may not be worth it to have a car that you have to ferry across the sea, and there may be big drop-off charges.

I haven't been to Corsica, but I was in Malta for a 5-day intensive tour and didn't see everything. It's well worth 5-7 days. It's history is long and surprisingly varied. It's thought that Malta was first settled by Sicilians at least 7000 years ago. You can see the ruins of their stone temples - the first free-standing buildings ever and so old, they had fallen before the Egyptians began building pyramids. Every sea-going culture left its mark, the great siege in 1565 is credited with stopping the Ottoman conquest of Western Europe, and Malta played a key role in WWII. You can visit the bunkers that are similar to the Churchill War Rooms in London. Picturesque fishing villages, Caravaggios, ancient catacombs, beautiful churches . . . And English is the second language of Malta, thanks to its having been a British crown colony from WWI until it's independence in 1964.

Thank you to Chani and Harold for the valuable information.

I was not aware of the airport choices in Sicily so that is very good to know in terms of flying out and where to end our trip. I did plan to stay at least overnight in Frankfurt or whatever hub we fly to on our way home. I have not decided how to get from Barcelona to Sardinia (either ferry or plane).

I will look into the car rental of lease deal. When dealing with several islands, I wondered about ferrying a car around or individual rental or lease on each island. If renting in Sicily, I would of course wait to start rental after seeing Palermo. And I agree that Malta probably deserves a week so we will see. I may have to extend the trip to see all these islands properly.

Thanks again,

Rolf

Two things I noticed while in Sicily last year:

• There seems to be frequent public bus service to the Catania airport, because many of the buses from Catania to neighboring towns make a stop there.

• Pedestrian rates on ferries from Sicily to Malta are very high considering the short distance involved. I suspect vehicle rates might be prohibitive. Definitely check that out soon and factor it into your planning. Perhaps there are some good advance-purchase deals.

Car rental rates bounce all over the place. Now you can get information on where to begin and end each rental period, but you may find really cheap rates in December, then higher in February, and then even better in March or April. I have no info on leasing. For rentals, use autoeurope.com as a start. It's a consolidator and you see the rental companies. Then try booking directly with each one. gemut.com is a U.S. based consolidator. Their website has invaluable information on renting and driving in Europe, but they don't show prices/companies online, instead you give them parameters and they send you a quote. But you can deal directly with them by phone when you get to the stage of actually looking for reservations.

Again, use rome2rio.com to find connections. I just put in Sicily to Malta and found there are flights from Catania. There's a ferry, but it's from a fairly remote part of Sicily, so not useful for you. You won't want to take a car to Malta - they drive on the left (like the U.K.) and traffic can be awful. If you visit, stick to buses, taxis and/or private guide/driver.

Thanks for all this input. The logistics of getting between islands, then how to get around, will of course be the biggest challenge. I agree about not driving in Malta; it is pretty small anyway.
Great info on car rentals. I have used AutonEurope several times in Europe but drilled down to the actual companies. I might try that. I think doing separate rentals for each island may be best. We will see as I get deeper into this. Usually I book way ahead for cars but with the prospect of a knee replacement for me, I may have to wait to book longer than usual.
Thanks again to all and I appreciate the input and details to which I will refer as I plan deeper.

As long as the car rental can be cancelled, you may as well book as soon as you see a good deal. If the price drops, just cancel and rebook. I've booked with Autoeurope and had to prepay, then cancelled and got a refund on my credit card within a day or two. Just be careful, sometimes a prepay option is non-refundable.

Thanks for the reminder on cancelling and rebooking car rentals. I actually did that once years ago. Once I firm up my dates and itinerary. I will definitely book!