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14-Days Sicily Dream Trip. What did I miss???

Hello, All wonderful Sicily experts! After doing some research we came up with the following itinerary. All flights and hotels are booked. We can change hotels though at this point. We are in our early 60's. Traveling with our 23-year-old son. We are traveling to Europe a lot. It will be our 5th time in Italy! Last year we spent 3 weeks in Puglia, Matera, Calabria, and Rome. This time it is our dream trip to Sicily!

9/25 flight from Milan to Palermo. Picking up a car at the airport and driving to Trapani.

9/25-28 staying in Trapani. 9/26 visiting Erice, Castellammare del Golfo and Scopello.

9/27 - boat tour to Favignana and Levanzo. Spending evenings in Trapani.

9/28 a.m. heading to Valley of the Temples. Spending half a day, lunch, and going to Villa Romana del Casale. Arriving not later than 4 p.m.
How safe is it to park the car with the luggage there???

9/28 p.m. - 10/2 staying in Ortygia.

9/29 - Private tour - Siracusa/Ortigia, Noto.

9/30 - exploring Ragusa Ibla and Modica.

10/1 - Ortygia.

10/2 - 10/5 - Taormina. Stopping for a few hours in Catania.

10/3 - Tour to Mount Etna. Should take about 6 hours. We can visit Savoca & Fort d'Agro in the late afternoon.

10/4 - Taormina.

10/5 going to Cefalu via Messina. Staying in Cefalu for 2 nights.

10/5-10/7. Exploiting Cefalu & Castelbuono, and some beaches, We will need to make a few stops at the beaches. Possibly during siesta. Not for a long time.... but we will need to accommodate our son. :)

10/7 - Palermo via Monreale Cathedral. Dropping off the car at the airport.

10/7-10/9 - Palermo. 10/7 - Teatro Messimo concert.

10/8 - Private City tour.

10/9 - Flight to Milan

I understand that our plan sounds ambitious. But we are very active tourists. :) As I mentioned we booked all B&Bs. All of them are centrally located. We are well aware of ZTL zones. In some places like Ortygia and Cefalu, we already reserved parking.
All suggestions are highly appreciated. Looking forward to your replies.
Thank you so much!

Posted by
27170 posts

It looks like a good itinerary. It's hard for me to judge the pace since I don't travel by car.

You may be light on time in Palermo. You only have one full day in Palermo, and you have a tour scheduled. How long is the tour? Oct 7 will be a partial day, after seeing Monreale and returning the car. I'd take a day from Taormina and add it to Palermo, but I know some people do like Taormina.

Posted by
47 posts

Thank you! Definitely, something to think about. Our tour in Palermo will start at 9 a.m. and will end at 1 p.m.

Posted by
5222 posts

If time permits it, consider visiting Segesta on your way to Trapani.

I’ve read that it’s not safe to leave luggage in rental car.
However, I don’t have any personal experience with this because I only traveled around Sicily via public transportation.

I agree with Acraven, consider adding an extra day in Palermo.

Wishing you a great trip!

Posted by
200 posts

MIla0329, NOT to take away from the good advice and response you are receiving here on the Rick Steves site, but you might want to also post on Tripadvisor. They have a really robust Sicily travel forum with several Sicily experts such as Vagabonda who provide a treasure of travel advice. I had to laugh the other day when a poster was so appreciative of how helpful Vagabonda had been in making her Sicily trip a success that she said they should name a volcano in honor of her brilliance!

Posted by
2127 posts

I think you are trying to do too much on the 26th. If you want to see Scopello, consider stopping there overnight on the 25th. It’s lovely, small, and a beautiful scenic drive. The next day, drive to Trapani, check in, see Erice. I’d skip Castellamara del Golfo — I think you’d drive through it on the way to Scopello if you want to stop for a few minutes.