Malta & Sicily

First, you are gonna love both places! I'd start out with a couple of guide books and some YouTube videos to give you some ideas of the atmosphere in both places. My preference in Sicily is the little island Ortigia, just off of Siracusa. I think it is a perfect match for your likes. I'd suggest at least a week, maybe with a day trip to one of the baroque towns and an walk around the archeological park in Siracusa. Ortigia is easy going, great views, amazing food, excellent local wine (nero d'avola!!!), pistacchio based desserts and fun shopping (I am not a shopper but even I like browsing through these places).

Malta is a story unto itself. I went with friends a few years ago for a long weekend (our schedule was dictated by concerts we were giving in Italy). A long weekend is not nearly enough - we only got to make a list a things we wanted to see/do. And we haven't been able to get back there - which is our constant moan when we talk. Malta is so completely different in so many ways. Some say it resembles northern Africa. I wouldn't know. But it certainly isn't like anyplace in Europe I've ever been. Maybe like one of the smaller islands off of Greece? Anyway, we are still trying to get our schedules lined up -=and we're talking at least a couple of weeks because our must-do list is that long!

Sicily requires 2-3 weeks to do it justice. Instead of traditional museums, Sicily is filled with Greek and Roman antiquities, theaters, temples in
beautiful settings. Due to the heat in Southern Italy, we visited Sicily in October and it was perfect. Warm not hot, sunny. We toured from Palermo down the west coast and ended in Taormina( our least favorite due to cruise ship mobs which may no longer be an issue.) We spent a full week on Ortigia and could have stayed longer.
There will be an Archeological Museum attached each antiquities’ site and they are very worthwhile to visit. There are some churches you should visit such as Monreale outside of Palermo for it’s magnificent mosaics and the Duomo on Ortigia, Siracusa which dates back to an ancient temple, some of those columns remain inside the church. The piazza there is considered one of the most beautiful in Italy. And there is a cannoli shop there with a take out window! If you like seafood, Sicily is the best we have ever had! The swordfish is incredible!
We rented a car when leaving Palermo and dropped it off in Siracusa. We had a driver take us to Taormina at the end of the trip. Driver service to airport in Catania as well. We like “slow travel“ and cities too.
I haven’t been to Malta but do remember that there are ferries as well as flights connecting Sicily and Malta. I would like to go there in the future.

I would get the Bradt and Lonely Planet guides for Malta and read them for whatever sparks your interests (to me, the Hypogeum and Neolithical temples older than Stone Henge were a highlight), and to check out their visitor website (https://www.visitmalta.com/en/home). I would spend at least one full week in Malta and see both Malta and Gozo (my regret was that I only did one day trip to Gozo - not enough). Sicily requires 2 weeks or so if you want to cover the major regions. I would definitely not go in August or even early September. It was so blazing hot when I went in September, that is was hard to bare. Keep in mind how far south these two are. I would opt to go in the Spring instead or at least in October.

As already mentioned, 2-3 weeks in Sicily will give you a good feel for the island. We had 2 weeks and a rental car on our trip. Places we stopped at included Catania, Ortigia, Noto, Villa Romana Casale, Agrigento, Selinunte, Marsala and the salt farm, Erice, Trapani and its salt farm, Monreale, Palermo, Caccamo, Cefalu, and Taormina. We skipped Segesta as it is much like Selinunte and we were templed out. We would have liked to see Modica and Ragusa, but didn’t have enough time. Our trip took place between late September and early October and the weather was great. Taormina is nice when there are no cruise ships in port. To me, one full day on Ortigia is sufficient unless you’re using it as a base to take day trips to other places. We didn’t drive in Catania or Palermo, rather, took a bus into the cities.

When you dig into guidebooks to Sicily, I think you'll end up deciding you'd like to have about 3 weeks, since you don't like to rush around. If you'll be renting a car, you can be a bit more efficient than that. If you prefer to depend on public transportation, you need to allow more time. I used trains and buses and had 17-18 days. That wasn't quite enough, and I skipped all the major Greek sites (Agrigento, Segesta and Selinunte), which most people do not do.

We were in Malta for 2 weeks in January and did not feel that this was too long. January is definitely off season, which we liked. The weather was pleasant for outdoor activities but it was not beach weather. We spent 4 nights in Gozo and the rest of the time in Valletta. Bus transportation on Malta is very good. It is more sparse but we did a lot of walking on Gozo and the bus schedule was adequate (it would be more frequent during tourist season). The prehistoric sites in Malta are amazing. Don’t miss the Hypogeum. Buy tickets in advance.

We spent just over 2 weeks in Sicily. It was not quite enough time. We were there in late October and things were winding down. The weather was nice for touring, except in Piazza Armerina, it was cold and very foggy. Don’t miss the Roman mosaics outside of Piazza Armerina, my favorite stop.

Have a nice trip!

We were scheduled to revisit Sicily this past month for 28 nights (return Oct. 6) Of course it was canceled. Our first visit (2014) was following a tour of Southern Italy. It was limited to 10 nights in Eastern Sicily. For our 2020 self guided tour we planned on using public transportation and hiring a driver for part of our journey. If we reschedule we would opt to start late September.

I can’t comment on Malta, but it’s been on our radar for a future trip. Sounds like a great add on to Sicily.

I have not been to Malta.

For Sicily it depends on how much you want to see. As others said, maybe 3weeks to see a variety of places on the island. You could instead focus on 1-3 places in 1-2 weeks. For example, with 1 week I’d say stay in Siracusa and see it, Etna, and the baroque towns. OR Palermo/Erice/Segesta. You aren’t seeing all of Sicily that way but you get a good experience of one section.

There’s this weird thing with peoples advice on Sicily that you have to see it all. No one would criticize an Italy itinerary focusing on Rome and Naples or any other combination. Sure if you do Rome and Naples you miss Florence and Venice but that’s how choices work. Same goes for Sicily. You can pick a side of the island and focus on it, or pick 2-3 places across the island and stay 3-5 nights in each

I've been to each of them. Sicily we had 11 days which was a decent amount of time, although 2-3 weeks would be better and I am planning to go back. But with a car, in 11 days we visited Palermo (day trip to Cefalu), Erice, (Segesta en route between them), Selunite, Agrigento, Siracusa and Taormina. We also spent a day visiting some of the inland villages. Didn't feel rushed but there were other places we didn't get to (Aolean Islands for example).

I spent 7 nights in Malta (no car), based in Valletta. Didn't get to Gozo. But saw most of the rest of the things I wanted to.

Here are my photos of both:
Sicily - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/p379649825
Malta - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/p217899981

I think when you go would make a difference. Obviously both would be beach weather if you went in August (and September) but not so much if you don't go till November.

My trip to Sicily was during the summer; it was not my finest decision. Don't do that. Check historical, day-by-day weather stats on the timeanddate.com website to figure out what time of year will probably be comfortable for you. The data goes back about ten years. I like to check the most recent five years, or at least three.

Thanks to everyone for your invaluable advice and links to pictures and various websites! This input will help guide our itinerary planning and has further immersed us into further research. Grazie.

Like Eef, we spent nearly 3 weeks in Malta this past January and found plenty to keep us occupied. We also prefer "slow travel" and Malta is a wonderful destination to explore at your own pace. I agree that the transportation system is good though at times the buses and even the ferries were very crowded and it took awhile to get to places farther afield. With plenty of time, that's not an issue.

We did lots of research to decide whether to stay in Valletta or Sliema. We decided on Sliema and we were happy with our choice. For a shorter visit, Valletta might be better but in Sliema, we had a nice, large, inexpensive apartment near the ferry stop making it easy to go back and forth when we wanted to. Do the research to decide which location might be best for you. Our apartment was at Pebbles Boutique Aparthotel. We rented a two-bedroom unit so we would be at the back of the property as some of the units on the street-side can be noisy. There are restaurants below the hotel that are lively at night but we didn't have any issues with noise.

I think that the September - November time frame would be good for travel - August might be very hot.

Here are some of the highlights of our visit to Malta:

Fort St. Elmo - National War Museum

Daytrip to Gozo - though it's worth staying a few nights as Eef did

Walk around Three Cities

Music performance at Teatru Manoel in Valletta

Hypogeum

St. John's Co-Cathedral National Museum of Archaeology

You could easily spend 2-3 weeks in Malta and the same amount of time for Sicily. We added 5 days at the end of our Malta trip to spend in Ortygia, Sicily - one of our favorite places. We flew from Malta to Catania and took a bus to Ortygia - the bus stop is right outside the Catania Airport. For this trip, you could just travel around the Eastern side of Sicily - Catania, Taormina, Siracusa/Ortygia, Noto, Modica, Ragusa, etc. and save the rest for another trip.

We have traveled in Sicily at least 2 other times and find it to be a fascinating destination.

Happy planning!