Our Sicily trip 4 years in the making.

I'll be watching this thread because I too want to go to Sicily. One question to start the discussion, you're showing 4 nights = 3 days in Palermo and you're showing 3 day trips over those 3 days - where's the Palermo time? I'm asking this without a map of Palermo or Sicily handy.

We were just in Sicily the end of April. The crypt was closed then and I don’t know if it has re-opened. You might want to check their website. Monreale was amazing and a morning there is all you need. Climb the tower, it isn’t too high and the staircase has wide steps. Cefalu was a little disappointing. The cathedral there was interesting, the stained glass stations of the cross need an explanation. But if you don’t have the time don’t fret over missing it. Palermo was fun and easy to walk everywhere. It’s a toss up between Ortygia and Taormina as to which was our favorite. We loved Sicily, more then we thought we would.

Good point. These day trips are possibilities. The crypts are right in Palermo. Cefula and Monreale are 1 hour away each. Also, I’m wondering if I should take away a day from Trapani (don’t go to one of the islands) and add another night to Palermo.

@Barbara. I thought the crypts might be closed. I’ll keep my eye out for that. Did you go to Trapani? Wondering if 3 nights is too long for there? Might want to add it to Palermo. Thanks for the input.
Diane

Why not spend the time in Palermo first, then go to Trapani, and then over to Agrigento? Seems like a waste of travel time to double back to Palermo.

@ Stan. We did consider that. But, it is an easier trip to Agrigento from Palermo. Unless, I am missing something. We do not have a car. All public transportation.

In Taormina do you mean Hotel Villa Schuler? We stayed there. Beautiful views. It is set in it’s own garden area yet quite near and easy to walk up to the main pedestrian street. Taormina was our least favorite location in Sicily but thank goodness we stayed at Villa Schuler which was like an island away from the crowds. Well run, efficient, nice served breakfast. We visited in September 2018.
Your itinerary looks very good and well thought out except why are you leaving Palermo and then doubling back to visit it? I understand you will not have a car.

@Suki. Yes Hotel Villa Shuler. Palermo is listed. 4 nights. Thanks. Any chance you have a recommendation for touring Mt.Etna?
Diane

Hi Diane, we were going to take our second trip to Sicily in 2020- canceled due to the Pandemic. Our first trip followed a tour of Southern Italy. The 2014 trip included Eastern Sicily. We were going to follow “Priscilla’s” itinerary referenced in this 2018 thread, plus car service along the way. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sicily-itinerary-help

OK, that answers that - I thought I’d seen that the two of you had a car. Since you don’t, maybe Modica could actually make sense as a daytrip, although it seems a long way for just a quickie daytrip stop. In 2 Sicily visits, I stayed a night in Modica on both trips - really a special place, including the exceptional chocolate!

I’ve had a car each time, so didn’t have to figure out how to get there, but are the incredible ancient Roman mosaics at the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina a on your radar?

@Janis. Yes I started that thread 4 years ago. Took some of her advice as well.
Diane

@Cyn. Yes definitely on our radar!
Diane

We did not go to Trapani, we travelled up north, went to the island of Salina, then to Taormina, Augusta, then Ortygia, then home from Catania. In Taormina we took a really fun cooking class with Siciliancookingclass.com with Chef Massimo. We made pasta, sauce, caponata, stuffed zucchini, sea bass, and a siciliano hamburger. There is a crypt in Ortygia which was open. It was very interesting but no bones as in Palermo.

@Barbara. Cooking class sounds like fun. Might have to book that. Thanks,
Diane

Ditto what Barbara recommended. Our culinary tour took Chef Massimo’s class. It was an adventure starting with a trip to the Market for fish & vegetables, etc. We also received an apron & printed recipes. The chef had a winning personality. It was a fun experience!

I think it sounds like a great trip. We’ve been to Sicily twice without a car … so I understand the transfer from Palermo airport to Trapani.

I’d leave Trapani at 3 nights, and spend your first full day there on Favignana. Good place to recover from jet lag. If you are bike riders, you can rent bikes and pedal around the island — it’s very flat & not much traffic. We took a bus around part of the island, just for sightseeing. Maybe 40 minutes? It dropped us off back where we started, then we took another bus to a gorgeous beach, Cala Azzurra. Rocky, without much sand and no beach chairs, but gorgeous views of the turquoise water. We walked back to town.

Then you’ll have a day for Erice, and evenings to explore Trapani. You’ll be rested and ready for Palermo.

We did not visit Ragusa so I don’t know if 4 nights is too much there? But if you decide it is, I’d add a night to Ortigia.

You’ve done a good job of planning and will see most of the highlights of Sicily.

@Charlene. Thanks for the feedback. So excited for this trip!
Diane

I forgot to mention -- there are a couple of interesting churches in Trapani. The Cattedrale di San Lorenzo has a Caravaggio painting (there's also a Caravaggio in a church in the piazza duomo in Ortigia).

And the Chiesa del Purgatorio has 20 platforms holding life-size wooden statues, grouped in tableaus. Each tableau represents an event around the death and resurrection of Jesus. For 400 years, on every Good Friday, these statues have been paraded on a 24-hour journey through Trapani.

We are not normally drawn to churches (we got burned out in Lecce!). But we discovered these on a rainy day in Trapani and were glad we did.

@Charlene. My notes on this trip are becoming quite extensive. Thanks!
Diane

@Charlene, I am all about Caravaggio <3. thanks for mentioning the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo - we'll be in Trapani for a couple of nights in October and this is a can't miss for me. kind of makes up for my feeling bad about skipping Messina and the 2 Caravaggios in the museum there, but it would a few-hours detour on our drive from Cefalu to Taormina and I decided we might enjoy our day more with a stop at a wine bar in Randazzo for a nice lunch and sampling of Etna wines instead. tough choices!

Diane, we did not visit Mt.Etna but we were lucky it was visible from Villa Schuler every day we were there. We could see it from our room’s balcony but there is also a roof deck to view it. . Our driver to Taormina was so excited when Mt.Etna came out of the clouds. We went directly to the Catania airport from Taormina to begin our trek home via London.

Diane-
In regards to visiting the Baroque towns, we did a day trip with a driver that was arranged ahead of time by our BnB host in Ortygia. We went to Noto, Ragusa & Modica+ other points of interest along the way, eg. Roman Mosaics at The Villa Del Tellaro. We stayed at La Via della Giudecca which is next door to Isabella Di Casteglia. I too would recommend an extra day in Ortygia- our favorite town in Sicily! Another thumbs up to Caravaggio! Huge fan.

First time I’m hearing about Caravaggio. Definitely on my radar now.
Diane

The beauty of this thread, for me, is that I now know I'm not into a wide sweeping tour of the island - I'm just going to focus on Palermo and close environs, for my 1st trip to Sicily.

Initial thoughts are 6-nights in Palermo ... 3 full days for Palermo, and 2 full days for nearby day trips. I'm into holidays, these days, without pace.

i went to sicily for 28 days in 2021. stayed in airbnb's and traveled entirely by public transportation. spent 6 days in palermo. worth every moment. don't miss the capella palatina and the baraque and norman churches. by the way, i saw a mention of caravaggio. in addition to the one in syracusa, there are two of his last works in messina; 'the resurrection of lazarus' and 'the adoration of the shepherds'. also, if you like art, don't miss the 'virgin annunciate' by antonello da messina in palermo. trapani itself was a letdown but erice is spectacular. one place i highly recommend is piazza armanina and the nearby villa romana del casale. breathtaking roman mosaics, apparently the most extensive in all of italy. from catania i took the circumetnea train. you can get off at any of the stops along the way. for me, it was randazzo with it's black lava stone churches. amazing. the journey itself is fun. on a single-track narrow gauge line still running some diesel railcars. i spend 5 days in syracusa and on 4 of those days made day trips to ragusa, noto, scicli, and modica. same rail line from syracusa. each town has amazing 'sicilian baroque' churches that dazzle the eye. if you have watched the tv series 'inspector moltebano', it was all shot around here. the inspector's office is in the main square in scicli. i could go on but sicily is a special place. i loved it, especially the people. the kindest, friendliest i have encountered in my travels. i am traveling trough southern and central italy right now and while i was in reggio calabria, i looked across the straits of messina and felt a pang of nostalgia that i don't usually feel about a country, oops, i mean region. sicily is italy but different, the food, the architecture even the faces of its people reflect the influences of all cultures that have come and gone. anyway, i am sure whatever you do and see, you'll love sicily!

Thank you for your input. Something tells me that I will plan to go back to Sicily as soon as I get home. 🥰

Hi Diane,

Late response here since I didn’t see your post earlier.

I know it may be too late to change your itinerary but this information may be helpful to others who are planning trips to Sicily.

One can travel to Agrigento (by bus) from Trapani, so there’s no need to backtrack to Palermo.
When in Trapani, you can also visit Segesta ( by bus) if you have the time.

Here’s my trip report where I included information about public transportation, where I ate, and my favorite gelato places!

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

Well thank you for your trip report. I might possibly rearrange to follow your advice. I’ll read through your very detailed report to see if anything else catches my eye. Thanks!

@Priscilla.
Looking at the bus from Trapani to Agrigento and see it’s a very long trip with a connection. Is it a nice ride and is the connection easy? It’s not too late for me to change my plan. Just looking at that long bus ride.

Not sure if you’re aware, but the Palermo airport is about 45 minutes from the Palermo city center. Traveling to Trapani by taxi from the airport takes about that same amount of time.

So going to Trapani first does cost you an extra hour or so for your return trip to Palermo, but it saves 4-5 hours on the bus to Agrigento.

Plus it gets you into Palermo after you’ve had a chance to acclimate & get over jet lag. I’d stick with the original plan.

Diane,
I took the Lumia bus from Trapani to Agrigento and there were no connections involved.
I don’t remember how long the journey took but I left Trapani at 9:30AM and arrived around lunchtime. According to the Lumia Bus schedule, the journey takes around 3.5 hours.
I enjoyed the scenery, especially when we were by the coastline as we approached Sciacca.

I presume the bus you plan to take from Palermo to Agrigento takes around 2 hours, right?
If this is the case, you may just want to keep your itinerary as is.

@Priscilla, I see a bus from Palermo to Agrigento at 1 hour. Train 2 hours. Is that possible? Anyway, I think I’ll leave my plan as is Trapani, Palermo then Agrigento.
Diane

I see a bus from Palermo to Agrigento at 1 hour. Train 2 hours. Is that possible?

Hmmm… I doubt a bus would make it in one hour because when I check google maps the travel time is about 2 hours.

I’m curious. Please let me know which bus company is showing the one hour journey.
Thanks!

@Priscilla. I use Rome 2 rio. But when I click purchase tickets nothing comes up. I guess I can trust that website anymore. 🤷‍♀️

Palermo Via Tommaso Fazello
07:45
1h
Autoservizi Salemi Srl
Agrigento Piazzale Vittorio Emanuele
08:45

I don’t think I saw Segesta on your itinerary. It was one of our favorite places in Sicily. Easy to visit from Trapani or Erice.

@Suki

Segesta doesn’t sound doable without a car. We are only using public transportation.
Diane

Segesta doesn’t sound doable without a car. We are only using public transportation.

There are buses from Trapani to Segesta, if you’re interested.

You can find information about this bus on my trip report (shared up thread), and at end of this post.

Regarding the bus from Palermo to Agrigento…
Since I didn’t take this bus, I did not research it prior to my trip.
However, the Lonely Planet Sicily guidebook mentions buses operated by Cuffaro and Camilleri

Which guidebooks have you found helpful when planning your trip?

Edited to add…

Here’s the website for the Tarantola Bus
which runs from Trapani to Segesta.

After selecting the departure (partenza), arrival (arrivo), and date, make sure you select, "Andata e Ritorno", (roundtrip) in the box adjacent to the date, to see the bus schedules.
I'd suggest confirming this information when you arrive to Sicily or Trapani.

Hope this helps 😉

@Priscilla. We are in Trapani 3 days. I know I want to visit Erice and one of the Egadi islands. So I have to see if Segesta fits. Thank you. I did find the schedule and see it is doable. I have read Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, eyewitness Travel and also follow a forum on TripAdvisor. Whay was Segesta your favorite place?