3 Days in Sicily

To pick the best base, it really depends what towns you really want to see and the distances among them. Three days is not very long (so Siracusa may very well be your best bet). Plan on transport, stopping to eat, etc. taking a lot longer than you think. This September, I had 4 full days and couldn't fit all the towns I wanted to see despite getting up early and running around like a headless chicken :-)

I used Siracusa as the base for 4 full travel days, with two nights in Ortygia and one night outside of Ortygia (either one is fine since the walking is easy and the city is compact). Siracusa made sense for me because it was more or less "in the middle" between the places I wanted to hit and it was only 1-1.5 hours from the Catania airport by bus. Taormina is very expensive (and more upscale, touristy, compact, and too far north to make for easy day-trips to the southeast corner) in comparison...having been to the Amalfi Coast many years ago, I didn't enjoy it as much as the other places in spite of its beauty and location (everything is marked up by at least 20-30 percent more than other places which are just as beautiful, in my opinion). If I had to do it over again, I would have stayed in Ragusa instead based on my interests (it was my absolute favorite and you can get there directly from Catania Aiport by bus). It's also relatively easy, although somewhat slow (and sometimes limited schedule), to get around "the Baroque towns" (Noto, Siracusa, Modica, Ragusa, Scicli, Avola, etc) by bus and train using Siracusa as the base. Noto and Ragusa were stunningly lovely and I couldn't get to Modica, unfortunately.

I would look on booking.com and then compare to the hotel sites themselves to see who has the better price. My friend and I stayed in the Grande Albergo Alfeo (pretty luxurious and modern as far as they go) and B & B Porta Marina (homey, much smaller) in Siracusa. There are lots of apartments to choose from if you need a 2-bedroom (just look them up on booking.com).