Flying to Sicily

It really depends. Palermo and Catania are the 2 biggest airports in Sicily, fly into whichever one fits your needs better. If you are visiting numerous sights around the island (not staying in one area only), then flying into one city and out of the other is easiest. Both have plentiful connections to mainland Italy and other places in Europe.

The best, but not always possible option, is to buy it all on one ticket. Usually this goes North America -somewhere in Europe-Sicily. For example, I flew on one ticket Toronto- Rome - Catania, and home Palermo - Rome - Toronto. If you buy it all as one ticket, the connection time doesn't matter so much because if you are delayed the airline just puts you on the next flight.

If you need to do 2 tickets, flying into somewhere in Italy is probably going to give you the most choices. Rome, Naples, Milan? Leave plenty of time - if there's a delay that causes you to miss your flight its your responsibility to pay for a new flight.

I'd go to a search engine like Kayak.com and play with the options. If you want to go into one city in Sicily and out of another, use MULTI-CITY search, not one-way. One way tickets can be very expensive, multi-city is not much more than a normal round trip ticket and actually saves you money in backtracking costs.

Where are you flying from?

I think there are seasonal non-stop flights to Palermo from Newark, which helps.

A single ticket from the US to Sicily can be very expensive, and often involves multiple changes. On the way home, you would probably have to catch a very early flight. When we visited Sicily in April 2016, we flew to Rome, stayed for a couple of days, then took an Alitalia flight to Palermo. At the end of the trip we flew from Catania to Rome, stayed overnight, and flew home the next day. The option of flying to Rome was so inexpensive compared to flying on one ticket to Sicily that it paid for the extra nights in Rome. Milan also has many flights to/from Sicily.

Which airport you fly into depends on where you’re going to visit. I looked for the best connections and ended up flying into Catania. I found many flights that went through Rome but had little time between flights, meaning it would have been easy to miss a connecting flight. I ended up taking flights that went through Munich going, and Frankfurt returning, because they had sufficient times between flights that if my flight was delayed a little bit, it wouldn’t matter. That meant 4 hours between flights; more than I’d prefer, but plenty of time to allow for delays. To me, 2-3 hours between flights is about right because you will need to pass through passport control at your first airport in Europe (Schengen zone). Depending on how many flights arrive at the same time as yours, that could take up to two hours. Also, for my trip, because of where we were going to spend our first night in Sicily, Catania made more sense since our hotel was only 15 minutes from the airport. Had we flown into Palermo, we would have had a 45 minutes drive on roads we were not familiar with. We drove around the entire island so it didn’t matter which we flew into.

As a side note, Mt. Etna has been erupting this year, so if you decide to fly into Catania, stay abreast of what it’s up to, since the airport has had to close a couple times because of the eruptions.

I just bought my tickets a couple months ago for a May trip. I’m very happy with what I got (approx $1000 from Chicago.) Catania is actually the bigger airport, with more and better flights available. Everything from the US will require a change of planes, if you manage one stop then you’re doing well. It’s in your best interest to get these on the same ticket, so there’s some obligation on the airline’s part to get you there (and usually you won’t be the only ones on that flight with that itinerary.) and based on my time I’d in Rome’s airport, I’d probably try to change planes somewhere else.

Play around a bit. I actually SAVED money by adding an extra day and flying open jaw into Catania and out of Palermo. But it was almost impossible to do this backwards! I would never normally book six months in advance, but I would recommend doing so for Sicily. It’s a tricky destination, and your options can dry up fast. Good luck!

For me, the time I want to have between flights varies, depending on where I'm changing planes. If you tell us what your options are, the more experienced folks here can offer their opinions. I've avoided changing planes at Heathrow and DeGaulle and have not had an opportunity to do so in Rome, so my opinion is of little use to you.

I don't know what your departure/arrival airports are in the States & Sicily, but what we did was go to the Delta website and book a roundtrip ticket from our home airport to Rome via Delta. We changed planes in Rome and flew Alitalia to Palermo. Coming home we flew Catania to Rome on Alitalia. Then we changed planes and flew home from Rome to the US on Delta.

I liked this method because it was easy to book all of my tickets on one booking with one website. Booking everything through one booking confirmation number also helps the passenger because if the arriving flight from the States is late, the airline will make sure that you get to your next destination on their next available flight. (That may not be perfect for your schedule, but it does prevent you from losing money paid for a separate flight.)

When booking the above tickets, I believe the layover was about 4-5 hours. We had plenty of time, but everything was on time and we arrived at a relatively quiet time.

You may be able to book the Alitalia leg of the above trip more cheaply than booking it all as one reservation. If I booked the US to Rome/Rome to US segments separately from the Rome to Sicily/Sicily to Rome segments, I'd plan to arrive a day early in Rome from the US, and I'd also plan to arrive a day early. If the tickets are not booked on the same reservation, the connecting airline is not obligated to do anything for the passenger if they miss the flight.

Sicily is likely to be extremely hot in the summer. I loved the island, but my decision to go there in June was seriously misguided. I'd try for a different time of year if at all possible. The heat is draining, and you'll find that not all museums, cafes, etc., are air conditioned.

Thank you for all the replies! So helpful. We are flying from the New York area and looking to go in August. Right now it's looking like flights will cost approx $1100. Any more tips appreciated!

If you're free this Sunday at 1 PM, you may want to join us at our New York Rick Steves Travel Group, where we discuss past and future trips. I'll be there, and can go into details of my Sicily trip from April-May 2014 (scary to think it was 5 years ago!).

Details of the meeting here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/new-york-city-meeting-sunday-march-10-2019

Or, if you don't mind a LONG read, here is my trip report, including how I did the flights: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina

Unfortunately I work Sundays but I will read your review. Thank you!

1100 for August is a great fare, I'd jump on that if the schedule is good.

We are going to Sicily in June. I started looking at flights in November. Flying into Catania and home from Palermo. We live outside of Boston. Shortest flight time is essential as my husband does not like several hours between flights. The average airfare was 1400/pp. Two weeks ago I got Lufthansa/Swiss air for 974 which includes our checked luggage. I also found the weekends more money than the week days. We fly out Monday night and fly home on a Friday.

I purchase flying into Palermo and out of Catania for $1090 which I am very upset about. It is now down to $800 range. I should have waited. But I am looking forward to going!

The first rule of buying plane tickets - once you buy them, never look at the prices again! ;-)

But it sounds like scored a good deal. It's far better than what I'd pay flying from my home airport to Sicily.

purchase flying into Palermo and out of Catania for $1090 which I am very upset about. It is now down to $800 range. I should have waited. But I am looking forward to going!

Airline is almost certainly not going to give you a refund, but you can ask if they will give you a credit for future travel for the fare difference.