We are doing a RS Sicily tour this fall. After the tour we plan to stay in Sicily for 8 days, mainly to visit the Baroque towns and to spend additional time in Ortygia.
The plan is to stay in Ragusa for four nights, visit Ragusa and side trip to Modica, Scicli and maybe Caltagirone, then spend the last four nights in Ortygia with a side trip to Noto.
We will not have a car.
Any suggestions?
Posted by
11611 posts
Advice is to enjoy those destinations! We spent a week on Ortigia didn’t want to leave. We even cancelled some day trips while there to stay put on Ortigia. We had an apartment right on the water, marina side of the island.
We dropped our car off when we arrived in Ortigia and used Sicily Life drivers to move to Taormina and later to the Catania airport.
We stayed overnight in Noto en route to Ortigia when we still had our car which we had picked up at Palermo airport. . There is train and bus transportation to Noto from Ortigia. Enjoy your trip! You are doing the right thing to stay on and see more of Sicily in a relaxed manner. Are you arriving in Palermo early too? Your tour skips so many of the city’s highlights.
Posted by
OP
Cleveland, OH, USA
79 posts
Thank you, Suki. That is very reassuring. Yes, we will arrive in Palermo 2 days before starting the RS tour.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
82 posts
Roger, my husband and I have just returned from the RS Sicily Tour. It is a great tour, you will love it! We arrived four days early and spent two nights in Cefalù to get over jet lag. We really liked Cefalù, so if you can at least make a day trip there ( an hours train ride) it is well worth it. Suki is right , there is lots to see in Palermo, but it is also a very large, very busy city, and we found it a little overwhelming. If you are “ big city” people you will be fine. After the tour, we returned to Ortygia by bus and spent four nights there to relax after the tour. We loved Ortygia and took a bus to Noto for a few hours one day. Just take a taxi to the bus station( depending on where you are staying) which is just across the bridge in Siracusa and buy the tickets at the little booth. When we returned to Siracusa, we walked back into Ortygia to our B&B. it is best to take the bus to Noto because if you take the train you will have to walk up a big hill to the town. You might want to factor in a day of rest right after the tour! I don’t know your age or fitness level, but this is quite a fast paced tour with lots of walking and we were happy to have some “down days” in Ortygia. From what I have read, I think you have made a good choice to see the other baroque towns- be sure to buy some chocolate from Modica! We would have loved to have seen Ragusa as well but chose to go to Orvieto for three nights, and then London for three nights on our way home. The food in Sicily and on this tour is phenomenal! Best we have had on any of our RS tours. I can recommend a lovely restaurant in Ortygia if you want to PM me.
Have a wonderful trip!