Best town to stay in Sicily for 5 nights

How are you getting there? Arrival/departure points?
What time of year?
What else do you wish to see/do aside from Agrigento?
Will you use public transport of drive?
Those details might help suss out "best."

We will be their late April early May. I am not sure if we fly directly there from US and then go to Tuscany or take a train from Tuscany to Sicily. We are in the early planning stage. We will probably use trains for the day trips, or buses since it seems like Sicily might be hard to drive in.

I think it makes a difference if you're flying into Palermo or Catania.

We were on the RS Sicily tour, and I think the consensus of the group was that Siracusa/Ortigia was the favorite stop. But I wouldn't want to stay in one place and day trip everywhere. Maybe two stops.

We drove all over Sicily without any problems. We spent a week on Ortigia, Siracusa’s historic island and highly recommend it. You can visit the Baroque cities easily from there. You can visit Agrigento although a long drive. Sicily needs a minimum of two and a weeks to see it. It is rare to find direct flights from US to Sicily; most visitors change planes in Rome.

Thank you everyone.

Sicily is really large. I normally recommend at least two weeks there--and longer if you don't have a car. Five nights (only four days) won't give you time to see much, and you'll be further constrained by wanting to spend all five nights in the same place.

Since Agrigento is a must-see for you, that eliminates Siracusa as a possible base; it's about 3 hours from Agrigento by private car, and public transportation is much slower. For me that pretty much leaves Palermo. There's plenty in Palermo to keep you busy for three days. If you want to take a break in a smaller town, you can hop on a train to Cefalu. Note, however, that Agrigento is a 4-hour round trip from Palermo, and the archeological site is not at the train station, so additional travel time would be required.

I would fly from mainland Italy to Palermo. By train the trip would take at least 12 hours. Check skyscanner.com for flights from Florence, Pisa (more flights than Florence) or Bologna (probably farther from your Tuscan destinations).

I have never driven in Europe, but I used buses a lot in Sicily, and driving in the rural parts of the island didn't look difficult. Just don't drive in Palermo; traffic there is wild. You could take public transportation or a taxi back out to the airport when you're ready to pick-up the car for the drive to Agrigento. Although driving may not be faster than to train for getting to the town of Agrigento, naving the car would eliminate the need to get a bus or taxi out to the ruins.

Like Suki, we too drove around the island and driving was easy. Once away from the large cities there was little traffic. We didn’t spend more than 3 nights in any one town. The only busses we took were from Sigonella into Catania and Monreale into Palermo. We stayed in Sigonella, Agrigento, Marsala, Erice, Monreale, Cefalù, and Taormina.

We spent 4 nights right near Agrigento. It was part of a longer trip, and this was to see the ruins plus beach time. We stayed near San Leone, had a place with a pool, plus beach clubs in San Leone. Good restaurants, grocery stores, a really pleasant time.

If these were my only nights, I would fly into Catania, rent a car, head to Agrigento for a night or two, then finish up in Ortigia.

Hi Leif,
A poster with Sicilian roots going by 'whitehall' over on the Fodors forum Italy section, is in the midst of an extremely extensive TR/foto essay covering every square inch of that isle. Again--not their first time. Those looking for a base town or village could not hope to do better than checking out this TR.
Good luck.
I am done. The end.

I'd stay in Ortigia. Like others said, you can also visit the Baroque towns.
But then I'd drive to AGRIGENTO and spend the night there, it's too long a day trip from Ortigia.

Consider flying into other countries as Rome is always more expensive. Barcelona has inexpensive flights to Palermo and Catania.

We spent 2 weeks last May in Sicily. Flew into Catania, took bus to Ortigia for 2 nights - fantastic, but no need for a car. Bus from Catania airport was easy and cheap (6 euro one way, just walk out of terminal and turn right, kiosk is just down the sidewalk). One possibility for you would be to bus to/from Ortigia then go back and pick up a car. On our return to Catania we met larger group, stayed one night in Catania (took bus direct from Ortigia to city center). Then rented a car from a city office of europcar. We then stayed in a villa north of Catania for 5 nights, then drove to Agrigento for 2 nights, drove to Palermo, dropped off car at train station and stayed in Palermo for 3 nights. I loved Palermo, it's easy to stay busy for several days, on foot.

I did all of the driving, as others have said, driving in the cities is very stressful, outside is easier although you do have a lot of windy roads, just go slow. If you have an option to pickup/drop off car do it either at the airports or if you are doing city drop off/pick up be very aware of office closing times (including afternoons noon-3 or 4pm) and beware of ZTL (innercity zones that have congestion charges, billed via license plate/cameras). When we rented the car it was significantly cheaper for some reason for pick up in Catania city center. We chose to drop off in Palermo center rather than airport because we had lots of luggage and just took a taxi to our apartment. If I did it again, I might just drop off at the airport in Palermo because it was easier than I thought to get between the airport and Palermo center. FWIW I'm an experienced Boston driver, and have driven in Naples (the worst!) but driving in any of these cities is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not my preference, just a tolerable evil!

During our trip to Sicily in late September, we stayed 3 nights in Sciacca, which is about 40 miles from Agrigento. It is a relatively small coastal city, off the main tourist path (a relief for us), with good B&Bs, restaurants and lots to see. The old town is very walkable and has convenient bus connections to Agrigento, Palermo and Trapani on the west coast.

If you also want to do a day trip to Agrigento, then, for all intended purposes, your best choice is Palermo. Palermo is a beautiful city, has an airport, and you can reach Agrigento with a train in about 2 hours. The valley of the temples is just outside the city and you will need a taxi or a bus from the station but you can reasonably expect to get there in about 2.5 hours from the time you depart Palermo. Therefore it is conceivable that one could do a day trip to Agrigento from Palermo. From Palermo you can also visit the beautiful town of Cefalù in about one hour by train, although with only 4 days at your disposal you don’t have much time since Palermo and Monreale (just up the hill from Palermo) will require about 3 days to visit. If you select this choice fly to Palermo. Don’t even attempt to take a train from Tuscany. It will take forever and a day to get there.

Ortigia and Siracusa are yes beautiful but if you select this option, you probably have to give up Agrigento because visiting Agrigento from Siracusa on a day trip is not feasible without a car, and even then it is a long day because it is a 3 hour drive each way, to which you need to add the rental car pick up and return process. If you decide to stay in Ortigia (and therefore give up Agrigento), then you should fly to Catania, which is not too far from Siracusa.