Opinions of Agrigento

i know what you mean. we read/hear about 'must-see' places and then for whatever reason bypass them. however, the niggling sense of 'missing out' persists. As an example, I have so far avoided the urge to visit taormina, alberobello, the amalfi coast, capri, and cinque terre. In the end, though it's your call and i can't imagine a consensus will emerge either way.

i can tell you that i enjoyed the temples in 2021, especially because it was the first time i had seen greek architecture. i only did a day trip and i am particularly happy about the photographs i got of the temple of concorde with the igor mitoraj fallen icurus sculpture in the foreground. i must say i like the segesta site better. I think it has to do with the visual of an isolated temple sitting in a very picturesque landscape.

you have to satisfy only one 'customer' here - yourself!

Alomaker, thanks for your thoughtful take. It's funny that you mention the photo of the fallen Icarus sculpture as that is one evocative image that really attracts me. Thanks, again!

Hi Rose,
Although I admire the beauty, significance, magnificence and history of the archeological site at Agrigento, I did not enjoy the experience of visiting it. I was there in 2019 in late September. The weather was sunny and very hot and there were swarms of people everywhere, all vying for that perfect photograph. I was disappointed in my visit. If I were ever to return, I think I would go in the evening and see it when illuminated at night. Same disappointment was true for my Villa Casale experience, probably worse, because the space and walkways there are very confined as you move through to see the mosaics. With the heat and hordes of people we were packed into the enclosed walkways and you moved at the pace of the crowd. I felt like I couldn't really see and appreciate the mosaics as I would have liked. Both sites are key tourist attractions in Sicily and so crowded, at least in September. I spent 22 days travelling around Sicily mostly by train and bus and absolutely loved it and saw many beautiful places, and many had lots of visitors and crowds but I was only disappointed at my experience at both of these places.

Since you are thinking of swapping out Agrigento, consider visiting the temples at Selinunte instead. It seems that not many people are familiar with that wonderful site. The Selinunte archaeological park is right on the coast, has many many temples and ruins and a small museum. And best thing about it was that it was not crowded at all and you could take all the time you wanted to explore and you didn't feel like you were in someone's way. The park is expansive. You can walk or for about five euros, if I remember correctly, there are small golf carts that make the rounds of the different temples and you can hop on and off as you want. We took a train and then a bus to get there and back to and from the small town of Mazara del Vallo which for me was a hidden gem of a place to visit. It is a small town on the coast with heavy Tunisian influence, ot far from Selinunte. From Mazara del Vallo we then caught a bus and headed to Agrigento, so maybe having had such a pleasant visit at Selinunte influenced my lackluster opinion of Agrigento. The Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo has interesting displays and artefacts from Selinunte so if you decide to go there, stop by the museum while in Palermo to learn about what you will see there.

I have been to Segesta on two different trips to Sicily and also enjoyed that very much. And not far from Segesta is beautiful Erice with splendid views. Both could be done in one day, especially if you are travelling by car.

The Greek ruins in Sicily are exceptional so I do think you will want to see some but there are options to consider. Enjoy your trip. The hard part about Sicily is narrowing down all the great places to visit and things to do.

if you like, take a look at the link in my profile for photos of my sicily trip, especially the photo of the temple and 'fallen icurus'. i agree with pat that if you are looking for an alternative to agrigento check out erice. absolutely stunning medieval hill village above trapani. regarding crowds, i suppose summer 2021 was a unique time. i arrived in italy just after air travel was opened up. sicily was mostly empty. i had villa romana del casale pretty much to myself! another trick that seems to work is arriving at a location as early as you can before even the locals are up and about. you not only have unrestricted views but the morning sun is wonderful for photography.

Only you can decide what you want to see and do. It's your time and money. Spend it the way you please. One person's highlight is another person's miss.

As an example, I have been to Iceland four times. (Five if you consider a one night layover.) Yet I have never been to the Blue Lagoon and I probably never will. No interest. Yet others claim it to be the highlight of their trip.

I'm interested in history so I liked Agrigento. I was there in May of 2019 and the crowds were manageable. I've also been to agricultural farms and saw how many different products were made. They were interesting too.

I tend to not travel during the busiest times but for a place like Italy that's difficult.

The one thing I can always miss, and this will get me strange looks from many here, is shopping. No interest. I don't need to buy souvenirs. My favorite things to bring home are photographs and memories.

One caveat......food markets. I do like them.

I went to the temples at Segesta, Selinunte and Agrigento in the span of one week in late April. Agrigento was the only one that was crowded. Segesta is lovely, including the amphitheatre and view. Selinunte was my favorite. The archaeology museum in Agrigento is very good.

You could visit Segesta on the way to Selinunte (it only needs about 1-1.5 hours) and still have plenty of time for Selinunte, stay nearby. Then you'd have time to drive to the Villa Romano and then stay the night in Piazza Armerina. The historic center of is charming and there are good restaurants. Allow a few hours the next morning to explore the town before continuing your journey.

I can't imagine skipping Valley of the Temples because it's crowded. There are other nice places to go, but there is no "substitute" for it. Paris is crowded, New York is crowded, London is crowded, the Parthenon is crowded. Erice is crowded!

If you believe you have to (say), spend the night somewhere so you can inhale its Karma after the busses leave at 5 PM, fine.But you are adding a lot of overhead time to your trip, which eliminates time for some other things. Like going back to an AirBnb with a coffee pod machine and a single-handle marble-tile shower, for some "living local."

The town of Agrigento is indeed unappealing from the outside, but the old town is actually nice once you're there, and the Valley of the Temples just blew my mind. I visited in April and there were no crowds at all, although it was 10 years ago so crowds might be more of an issue nowadays.

Regarding the town of Agrigento, yeah, it is just a gritty work-a-day town, nothing special, just people going about their day. But with a car, you really are not restricted to Agrigento. The site is really between about three moderate towns, and there are loads of lodging options in those other towns, plus in the countryside. We used Booking.com, and while we spent four nights there, we had a nice small house, with a pool, out in the country, with a vague view of the temples. We also planned some beach time and went other places along the coast.

We enjoyed the temples very much, can't compare them to the other temples/ruins mentioned. We also went to the villa del Casale, really one of the highlights of the trip. For both places, since you will have a car, I suggest getting there early to avoid the crowds. Most of the congestion is tour groups coming from some distance, so they hit late morning. At villa Casale, we showed up, had a pleasant visit with light crowds, and as we were leaving, the buses showed up.

We also enjoyed Piazza Armerina, stayed in a wonderful B&B, with a couple close restaurants that were excellent and a great gelato place.

Grazie, a tutti for your time and thoughtful perspectives! You've given me much to think about.

I've pretty much ruled out Agrigento in terms of lodging. If we do decide to keep Valley of the Temples on the agenda I think we will combine it with an overnight at this just discovered place ( Borgo delle Pietre) in Porto Empedolce - about 20 minutes away. It looks like a lovely place to relax for a night with a pool and restaurant on the premises. I have never stayed in a country type property like this so it might be a nice change, especially since we will have just come from 4 nights in hectic Palermo!

We enjoyed Agrigento and spent two nights there. We never went into the town. We stayed at B&B Villa San Marco. We arrived later in the day at the B&B and walked to one of the remote temples and also wandered into the Kolymbetra gardens while walking around. The next day we walked to the temples from the B&B via a path through an olive grove. The temple area was busy, but not overly crowded. The B&B is off a dirt road. It also offered dinner, so we took advantage of that and didn’t need to find a place to eat.

From there we visited Selinunte but only visited a couple temples. We had temple overload. Regarding Erice, we spent three nights there and that was one to many. There are enough things to see in it for a day. Even though inexpensive to visit, the castle wasn’t worth visiting. The town gets crowded with day trippers and desolate when they leave. After the day trippers leave, most of the stores and many restaurants close. By 10pm everything was closed. On our second day there we took the cable car down to Trapani. We also enjoyed Piazza Armerina as well as Marsala.

Jaimeelsabio, thanks for the recommendation of B&B Villa San Marco. It looks like a very interesting and funky (in a good way) place to stay!

There is a reason that the Valley of the Temples is the number one place visitors go in Sicily. Include it but do NOT stay up the hill in the actual city. There are several nice hotels near the temples. We enjoyed staying at Colleverde Park Hotel which also had a nice dining room.
We did venture up to the city but did not stay long. We have lived in center city NYC and Chicago and did not feel comfortable there. Many homeless. Vacant streets. We got the “creepy vibe” you mention. The temples are not very close to the actual city and the area around them is nice.

Thanks, Suki. Yes, I think that is my plan now - to visit the valley of the Temples but stay outside the town of Agrigento. Thanks for being one of the voices to help me sort it all out. Take care!

We stayed at the same hotel as Suki in 2019. We reserved a room that included a roof top terrace. We had to walk up a narrow staircase from the top floor to our room. The room wasn't really anything special but the terrace was almost the whole top of the building with a beautiful view of the temples at night. We could have hosted a party for 50 guests up there! We also had a nice meal in Agrigento one night while we were there. We were early and just checking out menus when a restaurant owner poked his head out the door and asked if he could help. They didn't officially open for an hour. We asked if we could make reservations and he said he would open for us. We entered and he locked the door behind us so we had the whole place to ourselves! Great food and personal service. It was one of our most memorable stops during our visit to Sicily. So my recommendation would be not to skip Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples.

Thanks Bobbo22, I love it when spontaneous moments like that occur in Italy and I have found that they have happened on every trip we have made there. I am sure it is a meal that you will always remember and the food becomes almost secondary (although I'm sure it was also good!)

We spent one afternoon/ night in Agrigento. We stayed at Hotel Villa Athena which is a beautiful hotel in the park. As guests, we had access to the temples via their Gardens. I went late in the afternoon and it was wonderful. That evening we ate downtown at Osteria Ex Panifico. My husband had the stuffed calamari which was excellent. The hotel is expensive, but we really enjoyed it. Wonderful night view of the temple Concordia