bus from Catania to Palermo?

SAIS Autolinee runs busses from Catania to Palermo almost hourly. The 2 hr 40 minute trip costs €14. Most likely you would not need to purchase tickets until you get to Catania - check with your always knowledgeable tour guide. Looks like schedules from March are not yet posted.

I just returned from Sicily and Rome earlier this week. During our travels, we took the bus from Palermo to Siracusa (an hour past Catania). The Sicilian bus company running this route is Interbus. Although I diligently researched timetables and costs before going, the most reliable (and possibly only) way of purchasing the bus tickets is to do so at the bus station once you are in your departure city. I believe it was about 6 or 8 euros per person to do the run between Palermo and Siracusa. It is normally a 3-hour journey between those cities, but it took 4 hours because part of the highway was closed and we went up and through some high hills and low mountains on a narrow secondary road. I suggest you google "Interbus Sicily" and see what timetables you can come up with. No doubt your tour guide will be able to help you find the bus station in Catania to purchase your tickets when you are there. When at the bus ticket office, I had written out "3 persones, Palermo --> Siracusa, date (in European form, "4-1" means 4th of January), and time (in 24 hour clock form)" so that the ticket agent didn't have to try to understand my very broken Italian. Finally: If you just can't get the info you need on-line before your trip, from my experience I'm guessing you really won't have any problem just going to the bus station in Catania (a day or two before your bus journey) and getting tickets then. (Our bus was only half full, at most.)

Note that the bus goes to the central rail station in Palermo not the airport, so you still need to get to the Palermo airport (at Punta Raisi) from there. Airport was about 45 minutes by cab, although you can also get caught in traffic. You can take cab, train or bus to the airport, but you need to account for the time in your plans.

We went by car, and passed the bus caught in heavy traffic near Palermo, so timing is not a sure thing.

Any reason you're not flying out of Catania? Its a bigger airport with more flights than Palermo.

Things may have changed since 2015, but at that point there was not one, single bus station in Catania, at least not in the sense of a building where tickets were sold. Each company had its own small office located near the large uncovered lot from which (apparently) all buses departed.

Thanks for the great information!
Now I don't need to worry about that part of the trip.

Concerning flying out of Palermo versus Catania - when I looked at the flights to get back to Seattle, the options leaving Palermo looked better than those leaving Catania (better times, cheaper, fewer connections). So we booked the flights out of Palermo and just needed to figure out logistics of getting there from Catania.

Thanks again for the useful (and re-assuring) information.

Don

There are 4 daily trains from Catania to Punta Raisi airport that take 4 hours and something rather than 5 or more.
One change at Palermo Centrale, no reserved seats but tickets can be bought in advance on trenitalia.com
Tickets locally purchased must be time-stamped before use.

I just booked the RS Sicily tour for June and I'm doing the same thing, flying round trip Palermo. United fly from Newark direct to Palermo and from San Francisco I can fly direct to Newark. Using 75000 air miles it was $69 round trip so well worth the inconvenience.

I am also wondering how to get to Palermo Airport from the final Hotel, Romano House in Catania. I'm flying back the day after the tour ends to allow time to get to Palermo. From what I have found out it is a bus from Catania bus station to Palermo, then transfer to the airport bus. I did see somewhere there was a bus from Catania Airport too but I can't find much out about it. Looking forward to the trip though!