How to Fly to from Palermo/Catania, Sicily?

Going to jump in here even though I should probably start a different thread. We just booked our RS Sicily tour for November. Does anyone have any insight as to where we should stay the night before we start the tour in palermo? Many thanks to all this is such a useful forum!

When we flew to Catania we had a layover in Munich. Returning, the layover was in Frankfurt. When you say reasonable, I’m not sure if you’re referring to schedule or price. I don’t think most flights are priced reasonably anymore and schedules seemingly change frequently.

Check the major airports like Newark, Kennedy, Philadelphia, Toronto, Dulles, etc., to see what they offer. You may also able to get a good flight out of Chicago. Once you find that flight, you just need to get to that airport. I have some friends in Michigan who will drive to O’Hare or Toronto to catch a flight.

We took that tour this June and it was the most we've ever paid for flights, probably because you have to get in and off an island. Your home airport being Cleveland and not something larger is probably not going to help either. We flew from O'Hare to Zurich and then Palermo. Home was a direct flight from Rome to Chicago. We spent a week after the tour in Rome but connecting the Catania to Rome leg was driving up the price. So that short leg I booked as a one way ticket not connected with the Chicago to Palermo/Rome to Chicago ticket. Are you spending time anywhere else or just Sicily?

Themusteach-is there a reason you wouldn't just stay in your same room you will have for your RS tour? Do you mean like a different town or different hotel? Easiest to just book a night ahead for the same room.

I took this tour in 2022. It was wonderful!

I flew a round-trip from the states (MSP) to Rome on Delta. I stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport each direction. Then I flew on a separate one-way ticket to Palermo on ITA (the airline that replaced Alitalia). I booked another one-way ticket on ITA returning from Catania, spending the night at a hotel near the Rome airport, then catching my Delta flight home. All of this was a better deal than anything else I found from MSP. So you might consider doing something like this.

We did RS Sicily tour several years ago and booked Lufthansa to Palermo with connection in MUC. Return flight also Lufthansa from Catania with an overnight layover in MUC. All one ticket so if Mt Etna was acting up and flights were cancelled it made rebooking easier. You might consider looking at Detroit departure since it’s closer to Cleveland than Chicago. I think Lufthansa flies out of Detroit airport.

You just fly to Rome and then connect to Palermo or Catania, fly back from either city to Rome. Easy enough. We flew on Alitalia which is now ITA.

Ray S, yes we had difficulty finding flights that didnt have unusually long layovers. We found moving the dates around + or minus a day changed availability.

we flew on a multi-city ticket, via Delta, with a seamless connection in Rome to the Alitalia (now ITA) flight to Palermo. It was all on one ticket so that we didnt have to book separately.

Catania is a bigger airport than Palermo, so there should be more flight options. We couldn't return from CTA as planned because of Mt Etna. There are buses that run between Catania and Palermo that might be easier than the train. Note that Punta Raisa is where Palermo's airport is, and thats about 45 minutes past Palermo. Thats how people refer to it too.

@themusteach If you want to stay at the Ambasciatori hotel where the tour starts, send them a direct e-mail noting that you'r on the RS tour. They hold a block of rooms just for this purpose, but it will show up as unavailable on their website or booking sites. Do it quickly however.

The challenging part is getting it all on one ticket and not breaking the bank.

We went to Sicily this past May. Flew into Rome and spent two nights there. Then flew from Palermo to Rome the night before our international flight to US.

We flew on Ryan air to and from Rome but ITA was another option.

We could have purchased a ticket round trip to Sicily in one ticket (on ITA ) but I waited too long and tickets went sky high. We decided we would rather take a couple days more and go to Rome and pay a lot less for tickets. Our tickets round trip to Rome through Paris were about $900 and then about $200 more round trip with luggage included to Sicily. Round trip to Sicily at the time was about $1800.

We went to Sicily in late October/early November. The connection was easy going to Palermo (changed in Rome), but I couldn’t find any connections under 24 hours returning. We decided to add another week in northern Italy. Here was the transatlantic ticketing: open jaw, going DFW-Rome-Palermo and returning Bologna-Heathrow-DFW. We had a separate one way ticket Palermo-Verona.

We have also spent the night in Frankfurt when connections didn’t work well. Late afternoon flight to Frankfurt, get a good night’s rest and the transatlantic flight the next day home.

I'm on the east coast (Phila.), so a bit easier, but what worked for me is RT to Rome, then separate flights from there to Palermo and from Catania on Alitalia.

The Sicily tour is worth the extra effort/expense!

Everyone….thanks for your help!

Book your initial RT flight to a major city. Then use that as your jump off point. I used Munich.

I flying to Munich, spend a night there then on to Bucharest. After 2 weeks in Romania I head to Palmero, jump on the tour then have a direct flight from Catalina to Munich.

I then return on my original baseline ticket from Munich home.

I'll be on the RS Sicily tour in May 2023. Last week I booked round trip tickets to Rome on Delta. There is no longer the option to fly all the way to Palermo on a Delta ticket, presumably because in May 2023 Lufthansa agreed to buy 41% of ITA and Lufthansa is not in Delta's airline alliance group.

On the way to Palermo, I plan to spend a night near the Rome airport then fly from Rome to Palermo on ITA. After the tour ends, I will fly from Catania to Rome on ITA, spend several days in Rome, then fly back to the US.

ITA's one way fares from Rome to Palermo and Catania to Rome are not expensive.

Last September, we flew Delta from NC to Rome, then ITA to Catania. Returned ITA from Palermo to Rome then Delta back home. Easy peasy…and price reasonable.