East Sicily - What city/town to make as "base": Syracusa (Ortigia), Catania or Taormina?

We’ve stayed in all three locations. We were on an organized tour that ended in beautiful Taormina. We spent two nights there and went to Ortigia on our own for 5 nights and did a day trip to the baroque towns of Noto, Ragusa & Modica. We ended our time in Catania for our last day. If we were to go back to Eastern Sicily we would pick Ortigia to base for 4-5 days. This was our favorite area. Late September/Oct is a lovely time to visit!

I would pick Siracusa because it makes for a great base to other towns, and is worth at least 2-3 full days on its own.

I’d vote Siracusa, on Ortigia. But I haven’t spent much time in Catania, basically just passed through. It’s a much bigger city so if you want that, it’s your best option. But the smaller (not too small) cities are often more atmospheric.
Between Siracusa and Taormina, Siracusa has more charm IMO and is less heavily touristic and therefore cheaper. With Ortyigia being a small island you get a great small town feel, great sea views, but it’s right there by the broader city of Siracusa so you have options. Also I think the sights in mainland Siracusa (the archaeological sight, museum) are excellent and an easy bus ride without a car.

Siracusa is where I would stay and take trains to:
Ragusa (2h 15m)
Modica (1h 45m)
Scicli (1h 30m)
Noto (45m)

To Janis, MaryPat, Agnes & Mira,
Thank you all!! I was leaning towards Syracusa (Ortigia) and I'm very grateful to see that you all seem to feel that Ortigia would make a great base.

I agree with the others. Syracusa is prettier than the other two and closer to other nearby cities worth visiting. Catania is my least favorite of those you mentioned. I only visited it in 2019 to see if it had changed much from the late 70s when I flew into the nearby air base frequently. Taormina is good for a couple days at most, or one full day without the cruise ship tourists.

I agree with Ortygia being the most picturesque, however, one must not miss Taormina either. There, I recommend a stay at the Sant' Andrea, a beautiful hotel right on the sea. It is close to town, so you can enjoy Taormina without the bustle and without a car. 2 nights in each spot with a coach transfer would be ideal, since that gives a full day at leisure to tour the sights.

Catania is where you fly into and out of, but is not necessarily for staying...

October is a perfect time to be in Sicily: cooler air temps and sunny clear days, and the sea is still warm. I don't know where else you are going, but do not overlook Agrigento, the area around Marina Di Selinunte, Erice, Segesta, and of course Palermo, which is a great, safe town in the Storico Centro and well worth a full day's visit at a minimum. The markets are worth the visit alone. The beach towns get very quiet once the summer mob has left, and they remain open til mid-October. They usually start to roll up for winter around the 3rd week of October. Things may be different this year, so check beforehand directly with hotels etc.

Ortigia, hands down. I want to go back. It’s worth much time on its own. Taormina is one full day. Catania is ok, some nice folks, but not so much to do there. Good luck

Same for me, Ortygia all the way.

We spent a week on Ortigia and could have stayed longer. Siracusa also has excellent Greek antiquities to visit. We walked over the small bridges into the city.
We spent two nights in Taormina and were ready to leave the last day.

Thanks to everyone who responded. We have made Ortigia our base for the 5 nights we are in the eastern side of Sicily. Staying in one of the RS recommended places (of course). From there we will take day trips to Etna, Catania and Taormina. In planning, taking the bus is proving to be more convenient most of the time. I was a little surprised by this.

Trains in Sicily are not fast, that's for sure.

Ortygia is a perfect choice! A restaurant we really enjoyed was A Putia Delle Cose Buone. It’s small, family owned - they don’t take reservations. Reasonably priced and delicious!

I was told it is very inconvenient to travel within Sicily without a car.
Since I am not a fan of car rental, I would be curious to see what your itinerary would look like and your logistics of getting around... Do you have to buy bus/train tickets in advance??
What are the frequency of bus/train service??
thanks in advance

We toured all over Sicily and spent a week on Ortigia Is/ Siracusa. It was our favorite place and we could have stayed there longer. Taormina was our least favorite place in Sicily. We only used the airport in Catania so can’t comment on it but it was not an easy airport to deal with. Palermo was airport was easy.

To: Gene from PA
Getting around Sicily without a car is certainly doable. We are basically going around Sicily clockwise starting with Palermo. Our first stop after 3 nights in Palermo. Here train service is very good and it's only 1 hour away. [BTW I always start my search for train service using Bahn.com. It's user friendly and accurate. It also gives me intermediate station stops to destination and a map of the route]
After Cefalù we are taking the train to Siracusa (Ortigia). Takes 5 hours with 2 transfers (ouch).
Example: DEP Cefalu 13:18 (1:18 p.m.) Train #R21893; ARR Termini Imerese 13:41
DEP Termini Imerese 13:53 Train #R5510; ARR Catania Airport 16:29
DEP Catania Airport 16:58 Train #R5499; ARR Siracusa 18:08 (6:08 p.m.) Total =≈5 hours.
While in Siracusa we are taking day trips to Mount Etna (meeting tour guide in Catania) and Taormina.
Here I found taking the bus to be more convenient than the train. Etna Trasporti (www.etnatrasporti.it) has buses every hour to the Catania bus station which is a 4 minute walk away from the Catania train station. And they then have good service to Taormina.
Example: DEP Siracusa (Corso Umberto) @ 8:00; ARR Catania (Bus Station) @ 9:20
(transfer time 10 minutes)
DEP Catania (Bus Station) @ 9:30; ARR Taormina (Bus Station) @10:40
After our staying Siracusa we move on to Agrigento. Here I found the train option to be out of the question. One train choice takes over 8 hours and the other arrives in Agrigento after dark (9 p.m.)
So taking the bus is the only realistic choice. I need to work on this leg of the trip a little more but what I've found so far is you can take an SAIS bus from Catania Airporto to Agrigento [www.saistrasporti.it] Example: DEP Catania Airport @14:25 (2:25 pm);
ARR Agrigento (Piazelle Rosselli) @17:05 (5:05 pm) Cost = €13.40
And getting to the Catania Airport from Siracusa is easy on the bus. Etna Trasporti (www.etnatrasporti.it) has buses every hour to the Catania Airport (stops at train station in Catania first). There is a bus stop at Corso Umberto, 196 which is close to the Siracusa train station. If you put "Corso Umberto, 196 Siracusa" in Google Maps and look around on "Street View" you will see the stop [and there is ticket booth there as well).
From Agrigento we go to Trapini. Here again the bus is the only real alternative.
Example: Take Salvatore Lumia bus to Trapani.
Example: DEP Agrigento @8:55; ARR Trapani @ 12:05
Cost: Single ticket: € 11.90
And from Trapini we take the bus to Palermo airport to fly back to Rome (our departure city)
Buses to Palermo Airport from Trapini run every 2 hours.
Bus Line: Segesta Autolina www.segesta.it.
Egatour Travel Agency Via Ammiraglio Staiti, 13, 91100 sells Segesta bus tickets.
www.egatourviaggi.it Tele: +39 092 321 754
Example: DEP Trapani - Porto 11:00; ARR Palermo Airport 12:10

Hope you found the above useful.

GnomeTraveler,
I would agree that bus/train service in Sicily is doable. Below is an example. We were going to follow this itinerary in 2020, but of course it was canceled. I wouldn’t hesitate to use public transportation.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/my-trip-to-sicily-in-zoe-s-memory/

Janis, thank you. What a wonderful trip report. I'm certainly going to go through it carefully to mine for some gems to use on our trip.
Best regards,
GnomeTraveler

An additional self guided tour using public transportation. They supplemented a driver for one segment. We found this trip report exceptional as well.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-trip-report-april-2019-2-weeks-2-sisters-part-1-trapani-erice