First time in Sicily for 8 days in September

Congrats on your marriage and honeymoon!

Many of the beaches in Sicily are not sandy beaches, but gravel beaches. Keep that in mind. There are nice beach clubs with umbrellas, lounge chairs, etc.

I would have to say that almost everywhere is going to have its full share of tourists. Taormina does seem to have a double portion. A hill town, every move you make is either up or down and a trip to the beach requires the use of a gondola to get down to the shore. Driving and parking a car there is not a great choice. Tourist shops all selling pretty much the same merchandise line the streets.

I recently toured Sicily and I would say that Palermo and Syracuse were my favorite two cities.

Please do not try to
pack in too much with so little time. Palermo and Trapani have all you are asking for. Trapani is one of the only cities I can think of with good beaches you can walk to from the center. Public and beach clubs. Its one of the best food cities on the island.

Taormina was our least favorite town of our 2 weeks Sicily trip. If you want a beach town i would base myself in Cefalu and daytrip to Palermo.
But that been said, Palermo is worth more than a daytrip. You could slplit you 8 days between Palermo/Cefalu and Ortigia (syracuse). Take the train between Cefalu and Syracuse, around 3 to 4hrs. You can do a daytrip to Catania (worth it) and Noto from Syracuse by train.

Yes..with 8 days, the combo of Palermo and Cefalu would be good. Mondello is the beach area of Palermo and it's fun to stay there..

I think three locations in 8 days means too much moving around.

If you are looking for nice beaches, I would consider looking into the Aeolian Islands. The fast ferry from Milazzo to Lipari is only about an hour. In my experience they are a little quieter than Taormina (altho I loved Taormina as well, and didn't have an issue with the crowds, and thought the beach was very nice). Our first time to Sicily we did a week staying in Palermo, Lipari, and Taormina and felt the amount of time was perfect, including plenty of beach time and also a hike on Mount Etna (I would also look into that if you're interested in hiking at all- you can even do quite short ones). Good luck with your planning.

Thank you for your responses. I think i am going to do 2 nights in Palermo, 2 nights in Cefalu and then 4 nights in Ortigia

Sounds like a good plan OP. I would just suggest you fly into Palermo and out of Catania to avoid a lot of unnecessary drive time. Also you don’t want a car in Palermo and don’t need one in Cefalu (one of our favorite towns and beaches!) either. Maybe consider a train to Cefalu and pick up your car on the way out of there, returning it at Catania Airport.

Congrats! I also did a honeymoon around Sicily. I would fly into Catania first and rent a car. A good base is Taormina. I want to go back, it was amazing, such a great vibe, good restaurants, and a nice beach called Isola Bella. I stayed at La Plage right on the water. I would avoid the town centre as my mates stayed there and said it was loud on the Corso all night. I looked at this https://www.travelingitalian.com/blog/taormina-travel-guide/. Then pop over to Cefalu for a day trip, it has the most amazing beach, more for locals and quieter than many other places. Messina is also a very small town with only a handful of things to do, so a good day trip. Mount Etna is a must, again, another day trip. Syracuse is another day trip if you like. Noto there wasn't much to do, but we had the best cannoli in the whole of Sicily there. Try not to rush as it went too fast, and you only have 8 days.

Just returned from a RS Sicily tour (12 days) We opted to start in Cefalu prior to the tour in Palermo. Loved Cefalu - beautiful, easy to get around on foot and stayed at B&B Scirocco. It is a small B&B with many steps to get to the business but Nicole is so welcoming, the place is quiet and the top floor is where you can watch sunsets, relax and your breakfast is served there. She also arranged for a driver to pick us up from Palermo airport (a godsend when tired from travel) and we used the train to return to Palermo. We did not like Palermo - culture shock after the peaceful seaside village of Cefalu. Palermo is dirty, smelly and not charming. We also found a beautiful place near Agrigento outside of the city limits which would be wonderful for a honeymoon. Beautiful gardens and great restaurant so you can stay put. Good luck and if you are interested in the Agrigento stay, reach out and I will look it up. Good luck and congratulations!

Hi there, congrats on your upcoming marriage! I was in eastern Sicily earlier this year and stayed in Noto and visited Noto, Ortigia, Scicli, Modica, and Marzamemi. Also, Catania because I was flying in and out of there. All of these were enjoyable day trips. Ragusa as you mentioned is also a good option although I didn't have the chance to make it there.

I haven't been to Taormina and I know people love it--I share my itinerary if you'd rather go the less touristy route. Good luck.

I’d probably do the east/southeast for this kind of trip. For a honeymoon it feels easier to make relaxing,, especially if you base near Ortigia or somewhere between Syracuse, Noto and Marzamemi. That gives you pretty town days, good food, a couple beach days, and you can still do Taormina as a day or evening out without making it your base. Palermo and Cefalù are lovely too, but for me they fit better if you want more city energy. With 8 days, I’d keep it simple and rent a car for part of it. We used these a lot when planning https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/destinations/italy/sicily, https://www.visitsicily.info/en/attrazione/isola-di-ortigia/, https://www.visitsicily.info/en/noto/

We managed to spend a bit more than 8 days in Sicily and look forward to returning. We enjoy food and history quite a bit, probably more than White Lotus resort scenes and we did not manage to get to the northeast of the island at all.

With that preface, I would say the highlights were Palermo (wander the streets eating arancini, go to the palace and the Palatina chapel, tour the opera house, take a bur out to the Monreale cathedral), Agrigento (solely for the magnificent Greek ruins in the Vale di Templi), and Ortigia/Siracusa. No one has mentioned Villa Romana de Casale in the interior near Piazza Amerina; we have seen Roman mosaics in Italy, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere, but nothing compares to these - neither of us can forget them. We put that between Agrigento and Ortigia on our route and are very glad we did (also enjoyed a great pane e panelle in Piazza Amerina). We also had time for Trapani and the Arcadian Islands, the Greek site at Segesta, etc. but with 8 days, I would recommend a focus on Palermo and Ortigia with a day at the temples at Agrigento and a day at Villa Romana in the middle of those two. Flying into Palermo and out of Catania.