Just booked our 2nd Italy trip. Rome, Sorrento & Sicily.

Hello! I spent 4 nights in Sorrento last September which started my trip. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Ambasiatori which was luxurious and so well located. The views of the bay were amazing. We walked all over town, toured Pompeii and Herculeum, did a day tour of the Amalfi Coast with Stephanie at Sorrento First Choice limos visiting Positano, Amalfi and Ravello where I impulsively bought a set of dishes (after lunch and lots of wine). We took the ferry to Capri for the day and hiked around. Bought a Capri watch (after lunch and wine - I'm sensing a theme). Lots of good food and beautiful scenery. My family is from Sorrento so that made it extra special. Have a great time!

Hello! I spent 4 nights in Sorrento last September which started my trip. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Ambasiatori which was luxurious and so well located. The views of the bay were amazing. We walked all over town, toured Pompeii and Herculeum, did a day tour of the Amalfi Coast with Stephanie at Sorrento First Choice limos visiting Positano, Amalfi and Ravello where I impulsively bought a set of dishes (after lunch and lots of wine). We took the ferry to Capri for the day and hiked around. Bought a Capri watch (after lunch and wine - I'm sensing a theme). Lots of good food and beautiful scenery. My family is from Sorrento so that made it extra special. Have a great time!

Hi Ron - We just booked our second trip to Sorrento for April 2016, as we fell in love the first time around. We are staying for 3 nights this time, instead of two. Sorrento is a perfect location because of the ability to either relax and enjoy the unmatched scenery (both town and view), or hit the road to see the sites (Vesuvius/Pompeii, Capri, Amalfi coast). We spent a day on Capri last time and (despite a rough ride over due to weather) really enjoyed the island scenery - make sure you ride the funicular! Our other day was spent exploring town and shopping. It was nice to enjoy the small shops, restaurants and cobblestone streets, without feeling any pressure to "see" anything. This time around, we plan on venturing out to hike Vesuvius and tour the ruins of Pompeii, in addition to our down day.

No matter what you do, you cannot beat a bottle of wine, or cup of cappuccino, while staring out at an Amalfi sunset in the Gulf of Naples. Enjoy my friend!

Kyle

Sorrento and Sicily are totally different scale and size - unless you include side trips from Sorrento...is there a reason you're giving them the same number of days? If you only have 5 days in Sicily, I would advise you to focus on one area only instead of jumping all over the place and trying to cover sites too far from one another. I was in Sicily for 4 full days last September (as a side trip from Malta) and only saw the southeastern Baroque towns (Siracusa, Ragusa and Noto and an out-of-the-way day trip to Taormina before heading back to fly out of Catania). The four days were very full days and, in retrospect, not relaxing enough. I relied on trains and buses because those towns were very accessible - a car would have shaved off only a few hours here and there. So even with minimized distances, 4-5 days in Sicily is not a lot of time and it will feel like "not enough".

You should decide what you're most interested in seeing first (and whatever constraints you have on what city in Sicily you'll be flying into), then go from there. I found the Lonely Planet book to be very helpful in planning my itinerary.

It's best to think in terms of nights not days so you get a feel for the number of FULL DAYS you have to enjoy a place. I am guessing "5 days" to you means (1) arrival day, (3) tour days, and (1) departure day. Is this correct? That is 4 nights and barely enough time in Sorrento area, i.e., 3 full days. You'll have half-day on arrival from Rome if you leave Rome early enough.

4-5 nights is certainly not enough, IMO for "Sicily" but you can, as mentioned above, enjoy one area, most likely the eastern side. If you do that, no car required.

I'm hoping Zoe will chime in as she has a lot of Sicilian travel expertise to offer.

Where will you fly out of? Did you book a return from Rome?

Unless you plan lots of day trips from Sorrento (Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii, Napoli, Ercolano), I would take two nights from Sorrento and add them to Sicilia. Fly from Napoli to Palermo or Catania and spend a week in either the western (Palermo, Monreale, Cefalu, Erice, Segesta, Agrigento) or eastern (Taormina, Siracusa, Piazza Armerina, Ragusa, Noto, Mt. Etna) part of the island.

Having a car will maximize your time.

We have decided to fly out of Naples to Polermo and rent a car. We added one more day to Sicily since you lose a day traveling. This will give us 5 full days. I am looking at hiring a driver one day while we stay in Sorrento to see other areas. We are going to go to Pompeli one day. When we visit an area we love to just explore that area at our own schedule. Just take our time. We would love to visit a winery , lemon farm etc. while in Sorrento. Any ideas ? We will be flying out of Rome so are planning on staying there the day before our flight home. When we visited Italy for the first time in 2008 we stayed in Rome for 5 days, Venice 3 days and Vernazza 5 days. We loved exploring these areas and eating at local restaurants away from the heavy tourist areas. Thanks for the help Ron

In light of your last post, I would suggest flying to Palermo and basing there. You can visit Cefalu, Monreale, Segesta, and Erice as daytrips (very easy with a car). Cefalu is about an hour away, Monreale is about 30 minutes or less by car. Erice is very near Trapani if you want to spend some time there.

If you are interested in limoncello, Villa Massa has tours; there may be others.

You can fill the six days that you have in and around Palermo. You can easily fill a week going no farther than Marsala. Erice, Segesta, San Vito Lo Copo, the island Levanzo all easily reached by car(or boat). I took the bus to Monreale and was glad I did. The Lonely Planet Sicily book was invaluable.
There is a direct bus from Sorrento to the Naples airport.