More sicily questions

Where are you headed after dropping off the rental car? If you’ll be in Palermo then distance and time wise they’re about the same. I can’t speak about public transportation options comparisons.

You are correct in that the roads vary a lot. However, from my two weeks experience driving around the island literally in 2018, all the roads were fine. A few could use repaving and all could be better labeled and marked, but I’ve driven on worse roads in other countries.

I’ve driven from Palermo to Cefalu to Agrigento to Piazza Armerina. The only tricky roads were those nearing Piazza Armerina (watch out for shepherds and their flocks 🐑🐏) which were smaller rural roadways. Otherwise, they were all in very good shape. I don’t know why you think returning a car in a small town and then taking public transportation to an airport would be preferable to dropping it off at the airport which normally has well marked facilities and more flexible hours of operation.

I should have been clearer. I am going to Palermo after dropping off the car. So the question is whether drive to the airport and then take train into Palermo or drive to Cefalu and then take train into Palermo.

The reason I am considering Cefalu is that I thought it would be less hassle than driving past Palermo and then to the airport. But maybe not?

And glad to know the roads are generally ok! We encountered goats on Crete so I would guess sheep would be similar.

I would keep the car the whole way. Go to Cefalu, visit Cefalu, then drive to Palermo, and return the car in Palermo. If you are catching a flight upon arrival, return at the airport. If you plan to stay in Palermoa few days, then I would return the car in a city center location. I didn’t find the traffic in Palermo to be any worse than any other city, including San Francisco, but I didn’t drive in it at peak commute time, when the traffic in Palermo comes to a standstill. So just make sure you get to Palermo later in the morning or early in the afternoon.

Most of your route will be in freeways, except for the first 45 min or so from Piazza Armerina to the freeway, which is on a two way highway. In my experience they were all better paved than the freeways in California, where there are potholes so big you can blow your struts. In California the freeway budget is all spent on seismic retrofitting of viaducts and bridges. Paving is something that the California Department of Transportation does when they remember.

Honestly, the difficulty of driving in Palermo is overblown - in my experience. I picked up my car at Hertz in Palermo. It was a short, easy drive to the highway out of town. The problems with driving in Palermo that I observed while on buses and on foot are two-fold. Double-parking is normal, so main streets get clogged because there's only one lane moving in each direction instead of two. It's not difficult, it's just really slow. The other is that jaywalking is a national sport for pedestrians. As a driver, my only fear was that somebody would pop out suddenly from between parked cars and challenge me for the right of way (never happened - pedestrians are daring but neither stupid nor suicidal).

So I would just drive to Palermo and return the car at a city location, then taxi to the hotel.

If you really don't want to drive into Palermo, it's probably easier to go to the airport than to drive into Cefalu (which may have similar problems to Palermo, albeit on a smaller scale). The bus is often preferable to the train to get from the airport to the city.

Leave the car at the Palermo airport.

I actually thought about returning to Palermo train station but for some reason I can't return to train station on Wednesday May 17. I can on Thursday May 18. Is May 17 a holiday? I have tried both Avis and Europcar which appear to be only options to rent from Siracusa.

In September, I went the opposite direction, driving from Cefalu (which route takes you past Palermo) to Scicli, about twice as far as you are going. The only reason I mention my experience, is that Google maps decided the "autostrada was closed" (this was just outside of Palermo) and "did we want to save 20 minutes". We said yes. Then the maps app sent us the WHOLE WAY south via rural one lane roads, west of Enna, with no stores, nothing but farmland and incredibly gorgeous mountain vistas. Roads were potholed, there were brush fires along the way, and we never did get routed back to the autostrada! Looking back, it was exciting and fun, but we were sure that at any moment we'd either get a flat tire, or be put onto dirt roads. Neither happened. Have a happy adventure, and good luck with the maps! :) (We never lost gps connection, like you do when going through the numerous tunnels on the autostrada, which was a good thing!)

Yeah, it seems weird you can’t drop the car directly in Palermo, maybe email them? If the option then is between dropping the car in Cefalu v Palermo airport then absolutely drop it in Cefalu. Palermo airport is way out of the way, and no fun at all. If you drop it off in Cefalu… you’re in Cefalu! It’s a relatively quick off-ramp from the autostrada. There will be some slow traffic (one road into town) but the rental places are on the outskirts of the town. A couple hours to walk around and have lunch would make a nice break.

Most main and secondary road/routes in Sicily are in good condition and well marked. The roads around Piazza Armerina and Enna are as well. Things can get hairy on very rural roads though, so know your route and don’t follow any Google maps “shortcuts.”

The roads are just great, I often travel this route!

Thanks for the help!

I will get a driving map of Sicily and will be careful with goggle. We drove in Crete this past May and sometimes goggle saved us (found us unmarked entrance to a highway) but also took us down a middle of an olive grove! We will take the advice to skip the "short cuts"!

I like the idea of the afternoon in Cefalu. We were going to take a day trip by train from Palermo so this might be more efficient. I guess the question is whether that will be enough time or not. We could also spend the night but am a bit reluctant to add another one night stay (w are staying in Argentino and Piazza Armenia for one nights prior). Will have to think some more!

It’s just a couple hours drive from PA or Agrigento to Cefalu, so long as you get a decent start you’ll get there before noon. Cefalu is small, you can explore the old town in a matter of minutes really. Hiking up La Rocca is the only thing that takes time, so skip that. I loved Cefalu, but if it wasn’t part of your plan I wouldn’t try adding a night there. It’s simultaneously worth a couple nights and an ideal day trip if that makes sense lol.

Thanks for the idea of skipping the hike. I had in my head as a must do but we have quickly found that we can’t do everything we want to do . An afternoon visit would be much more doable without including it.

We spent 4 days in Cefalù last month at the end of a month-long visit to Sicily, which included the RS tour. Cefalù was the perfect place for us to wind down and relax. Since we had lots of time, hiking up La Rocca was a treat, spectacular views.