Sicily visiting fall of 2024 – suggestion on where to sleep and eat

here are a few places we stayed, over two separate trips, that we really liked:

Palermo: Delle Vittorie Luxury Suites & Rooms. good location, very nice management, great breakfast.
Trapani: Residence La Gancia. great location. we splurged on the Junior Suite Studio w/Terrace, and it was pretty reasonable and very private
Agrigento: Dimora dei Templi. fairly new B&B, very modern decor. kind of basic, but the owner is really nice and the location is good -- you can walk to a nearby trattoria for a delicious dinner and it's a quick ride to the Temples. we only stayed here 1 night
Ragusa Ibla: Giardino sul Duomo. very close to the Duomo, and an easy walk through the old part of town. we also walked to the "other side" of Ragusa, the stairs weren't too terrible :~). lovely garden area, and a pool. we stayed in the Camelia Suite and loved the terrace.
Taormina: Villa Ducale, on our first trip, lovely hotel but it became too pricey by our 2nd trip (post pandemic), so we stayed at Casa Cuseni, which is a quirky B&B/museum with great gardens and lots of history. Oh, and we also stayed 1 night at Hotel Belvedere, in one of the rock suites, when we cut a night from Cefalu (see below). Gorgeous hotel, we were lucky to find the one night at a price we could afford.

In Ortigia we stayed in an Air BnB apartment, and we only stayed 1 night in Cefalu in a very basic B&B. we are in the minority in that we didn't love Cefalu -- one day and night was more than enough.

When we stayed at Delle Vittorie they were listed as “B& B Delle Vittorie” so don’t let the name scare you off. We loved our stay there and would highly recommend them. We took the Streaty Food Tour and really enjoyed it.

We appreciate your suggestions and will look closely at each of them.

Agrigento- Colleverde Park Hotel, near The Temples. Excellent dining and staff. Highly recommend this hotel. Views of Temples from hotel.
We mostly stayed in apartments in Sicily.Loved them all.
Taormina- We enjoyed Hotel Villa Schuler, in its own private park, easily walkable to shopping and dining street. Book a sea view room.
Dining:
Did not have good dining experiences in Taormina. In fact, got food poisoning at a restaurant there. I was so sick that we had to delay our return to the U.S. for several days.
Siracusa/Ortigia- Excellent restaurants include Locanda del Collegio and Regina Lucia. We had a horrible experience at a restaurant there that had “Don” in its name, avoid!!

We loved Cefalu and loved where we stayed. Its hard to give a recommendation when I don't really know what exactly you look for in accommodations, but in any case, we stayed at B & B Scirocco. It is in the Rick Steves guide. This place is literally across the street from Rocca di Cefalu. It has an amazing roof top deck that overlooks the rock, the town and the water and is where they serve an exceptional breakfast with so many options you could stay a week and not become bored with the food. We came by train and it was quite convenient to the train station. We walked so we appreciated that it was not in the lower part of town. There was a bank and ATM across the street as well as some cafes/bars. We ate our meals closer to the cathedral.

I did get "burned" on a recommendation I made recently, so please read other reviews. Booking.com is a good place to look. Oh, and B & B Scirocco does have an elevator, but my recollection is that it didn't work during our stay. That never bothers us, but it is at least a couple flights of stairs up, which is why there is such an amazing view.

Most of the places we stayed in Sicily had roof top terraces. We really enjoyed them and that was typically where breakfast was served.

Thanks. Breakfast is important to us and all the recommendations give us options to consider.

These are the places we most enjoyed on our September 2022 trip to Sicily:

Palermo: sleep - Santuzza Maison de Charme (gorgeous restoration near cathedral); eat - Procopio Pizzeria, La Galleria
Agrigento: sleep - B&B Terraze di Montelusa ( charming, great views, awesome breakfast); eat - Ristorante Ruga Reali
Taormina: sleep - Casa Cifali ( basic B&B); eat - La Locanda Dei Mori (simple, local, salads/snacks)
Ortigia: eat - Trattoria La Pigna (choose your whole fish), Cantina Rampa (lunch)
Etna winery: Emilio Sciacco (small, great tasting, Etna view)

We loved Sicily but, like @milgreen2, we did not enjoy Cefalu. It is the only place in Sicily where we would not happily return. Ditto for our experience at B&B Scirocco.

@mml, reasons you didn't like Cefalu and B&B Scirocco? I am just curious when I see strong reaction to something we really liked. I feel no need to go back, but we enjoyed being there. We actually didn't like Taormina, because it was so crowded, expensive, and we had a bad experience with the place that we booked there. I felt like our negative reaction to Taormina had more to do with the B&B and the weather than Taormina itself. We didn't think Trapani was that interesting but we took some great day trips from there. We really underestimated Palermo thinking it was a large city while we tend to prefer smaller places. We loved it and ended up rushing around taking in everything we could. When we got to Cefalu, it was nice to stroll and take in the views. We are not even "beach" people. We liked the hike up to Rocca Cefalu. Everything is so individual which is one reason why I hope people get input from multiple places--multiple guidebooks in addition to the forum.

Hi all.. looking to also to book for next May in Sicily. I have booked most but now am refining. Id also be grateful for more suggestions for Cefalu (Scirocco is booked out for some of our days) Palermo, Siracusa ..that have rooftop breakfasts and views. just 2 of us.

@lynmantle. In Palermo, we stayed at La Terrazza sul Centro. They have a rooftop terrace that is gorgeous with great views. We enjoyed the terrace at the "golden hour". Breakfast is served on the terrace and the spread was extensive and staff very friendly. Our room was large, spotless and had a small balcony. It is in a remodeled mansion. They have a part of it. I don't believe there was an elevator and it was three flights up. Not a problem for us, just wanted to make folks aware. It was a good value. It was in a great location. Please check booking and other sources for reviews, as well, as mine.