Beaches with waves?

The Mediterranean Sea does not have deep ocean waves like the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. There is plenty of beach life in Europe, but it's not the same ocean experience when it's not the Atlantic (or Baltic, etc.) coasts. I might say that I have at least one doctor who will not swim in the Mediterranean. OTOH, Croatia is famous for how clean the Adriatic is on their coast. It can be cold water.

I would also add that (while I do like the idea of vacationing after Europe returns to work after August), many coastal areas can become sleepy, with half the stores shut down for the season. This is part of Rick's advice about visiting other cultures - i.e. they Work to Live, rather than Americans Living to Work. I've only been to Sicily briefly, so I can't offer specific advice.

As Tim says, the surfing beaches in Europe are on the Atlantic (Tarifa, Biarritz, San Sebastian). So, you will literally have to lower your expectations, as the waves will not be that big on Sicily.

I was in Sicily but didn't get to Cefalu; those that have, however, are unanimous in saying it's a lovely beach town, about an hour from Palermo.

I guess I didn't understand your point - why would your doctor friends not swim in the Mediterranean?

I guess I didn't understand why shops catering to tourists should remain open when the season is over and there aren't enough tourists around to break-even. It's not that the people working in those shops take a 6 months vacation up to the next Easter.

marctshark, I assumed that the following sentence would make it clear, but those doctors don't consider the water clean enough to be safe for swimming. I didn't express an opinion of my own, or urge one behavior or the other. But they are doctors I've used for over 25 years, and I value their opinions. I personally don't love swimming, so I seldom go in the ocean, except when we're at a small Caribbean resort where it is the main activity.

Dario, I do have personal experience with off-season Mediterranean closures. We went on a Rome-Barcelona small ship cruise, late in October, 2009. The pedestrian shopping streets (not oceanfront, I mean the redeveloped downtown) in Sardinia and Elba were half-closed, with very few shoppers around. In Corsica, the entire (small) tourist shop area (I mean more snacks and sun-hats than high-end boutiques!) was completely shuttered in the sunshine. When we went to the TI in Corsica (because there were no taxis at the tiny cruise port-150 passenger ship), the lady at the TI desk called several cab drivers, all of whom refused to leave their families for a half-day or full-day of hire! Finally, we hailed the only cruising cab we ever saw, and hired him for half a day. I believe you are wrong about going without the tourist-related business for several months. I'm not accusing anyone of being lazy - there are areas in the US, like Maine and Vermont, where people have a different job in the winter.

Edit: I should add that this description did not apply for the cruise stop in Palma de Mallorca in October. It was not jammed, but quite busy.

off-season Mediterranean closures.

As I wrote, I don't get why they should stay open off season when the number of tourist is too low to break-even. And, forgive me, my experience about off-season closures in seaside towns comes from the inside of a kitchen, not from the deck of a cruise ship.

We were two waiters and one chef. Forget the slaves who were paid in doggy bags, insults and life-lessons. One waiter and the chef enjoyed a monthly wage, they were fixed costs; the second waiter was the owner and he didn't live out of air. Nor did his family.

Either the place had a minimum number of customers any day or the boss had to pay our wages and his kid's bread out of his own pockets. Our 2 wages plus all the other fixed costs you can easily imagine. Plus the fixed costs you can't imagine.

So the boss-waiter always closed on September 25, made a two weeks' holyday and then went to work in his mother's restaurant that was in a slightly bigger city and that remained open even off-season.

His majesty the chef took two weeks off, then he started working off the books in restaurants in Northern Italy trying to get close to the Alps by the X-Mas season, where he already had a 3 months regular contract as a sous-chef.

All of us would have happily continued to work there during the off-season months, we couldn't care less about things like "living to work" or "working to live". We saw the off-season months as one of life misfortunes, not as a free choice.

If I had told my 40 years old boss and co-waiter that he wanted to spend the months between September and Easter as his mother's most loved employee... he would have fileted me on the spot as a tuna.

Children could read this message in the future, so I won't tell you what the chef would have done with my belly If I had told him he actually wanted to work as a sous-chef for months In Northern Italy.

Cabs drivers in Corsica enjoy a medieval monopoly and de-facto heritable licenses. They are rich: Rich people don't work when they don't want to. It doesn't mean anyone is rich in "the Mediterranean", it's quite a broad-brush definition across dozens of countries and different activities and jobs.

There is surfing in Israel. Waves are decent. Probably the closest waves you’ll find.

Every generalization you've heard here is both true and false. Mid-September is not really out of season. Well known resorts will be active, if not crowded. September is the biggest month for cruise landings in Italy, if the weekend weather is good there will be crowds of visitors, and Italian retired couples behave like couples everywhere and take advantage of September's good weather and lack of overcrowding.

There are some waves in different locales due to the sea bottom and currents. Even Lerici in Liguria has surfers when conditions are right. The best surfing in Sicily is on the south coast, however, when the Sirocco wind is blowing (from the SE). The bigger problem is finding accommodation close enough to the beach to hear anything so subtle.

Why would a foreign doctor know particulars about an entire sea on a different continent? Italy has many excellent clean beaches and a great system for encouraging and identifying same. Look for areas with a Bandiera Blu (Blue Flag) which is only awarded to beaches which pass rigorous standards. This blog lists Sicily's for 2016, just pick one: https://www.columbusassicurazioni.it/content/le-13-migliori-spiagge-bandiera-blu-in-sicilia/

Thank you everybody who responded. I’m going to head over to Cefalu. I’m living in the American Southwest so any place with water will be most welcome.
Somehow the post about the doctor swimming or not swimming and the post about shops being open or closed got mixed up with my post. I didn’t write either post. Perhaps someday I will master the internet.

About beaches with waves I'm not expert, but in this webpage there is a map about the best beaches for surf: https://www.eurosport.it/surf/le-10-migliori-localita-per-fare-surf-in-italia_sto7379484/story.shtml . probably are even the best for weaves.

About the off-season closure, is (as Dario says) a matter of cost/gain ration. The 90% of beach tourism in Italy is made by youngers and families with children, so mostly related to someone who is studying. In Italy schools/university stop lessons middle of June and start again middle of September: outside that time-range there is beach life during week-end or little more. Worth to be opened because once each 10 days land a cruise ship and there are very few tourists there? If you are the only shop/restaurant maybe yes, but if there are 100 shops and 70 restaurants... why stay opened? And cruise tourists has almost zero effects on the hotels activities and often scared the other kind of tourists (villages suddently invaded during the day...).
Tim is right: we work to live. At least in Emilia-Romagna we do so. But doesn't mean we don't work hard. And tourism workers aren't slaves always available. Don't you think that if a worker could have a fixed job at the same place he should be happy? Or an hotel owner isn't happy to have a 365 days opening time? Why in Rimini, as example, there are so many fairs and sport events between October and April? To attract tourists even when is too cold for beach tourism.

West side of Sardinia had fairly decent waves (lifeguard wouldn’t allow anybody out) in August, FYI.

If you can make your way up to Levanto, just north of Cinque Terre, you'll find decent waves. I would even say it is a surfer town (and scuba). But that is no where near Sicily, sorry. Good luck!!!

railroadlady, I'm sorry you found my reply (the first one after your OP=Original Post) to be so off-topic. ("off-topic" is a specific internet term.) I believe that mentioning water cleanliness and beachgoer support services is, in fact, relevant to the original post. This newsboard has a large number of people with varied travel experience, and most long threads (... discussions with a large number of posts) contain useful nuggets of information for dozens of readers other than the person who started the thread.

You are not personally responsible for any emotions you may read into responses-to-responses, so you should not feel bad about them. I have learned a lot of useful information from posts that were not 100% on the OP topic. However, it is true that this newsboard has a guidline (among others):

1. Stay on topic. Make your contribution relevant to the original post.

The most famous beach near Palermo is in Mondello, a district of Palermo. If you like staying on the water, that would be a good place to base yourself and visit the city from there. The 806 bus takes about half hour from the Politeama theater to the Mondello beach.
Cefalù, less than one hour East of Palermo, has a nice beach as well.
The most beautiful beach in Italy is probably at San Vito lo Capo, 1.5 hours west of Palermo.
The Zingaro Natural Reserve next to Scopello has some great water, although beaches are rocky.
Waves on the Mediterranean are generally not as big as on the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, and the waters in summer are often as flat as on a lake unless it’s a particularly windy day or in case of a storm. The biggest waves in Sicily are probably on the southwest coast, which can get quite windy at times.