Palermo to Naples

What date are you planning on traveling on the train?

If you you look at the intercity they appear to be available on several random dates I checked for AM departures.

We are planning on leaving Palermo the evening of May 30.

Yes, we had looked into those train times, but did not want to lose a full day of travel. At this point we are going to fly out on an evening flight. I was just curious if anyone had done that and had any experience checking into a hotel that late. I have found several hotels that have a front desk open until midnight, but I was just a little concerned if the flight was delayed and we would be getting in after that.

When in late May? I have made a search between May 25 and June 1 on trenitalia.com and I couldn't find a single sold out direct train. Some ICN trains can't be booked at the moment, but I wouldn't change my plans only because Trenitalia is doing its stuff.

Both Tirrenia and GNV have horrible reviews? In all classes? It seems strange, anyway There are also ferries from Palermo to Salerno, it may be worth googling "Grimaldi lines" and check their reviews.

Amy, generally if you just notify the hotel that you'll be arriving rather late due to the arrival time of your flight, they'll be perfectly fine with it.
I was interested in seeing your thoughts on the overnight ferry - we are actually planning to do that from Naples to Palermo. I have done it in the past and although the cabins are quite minimal, for one night it's fine. It's not like you're going on a cruise.
Have a great trip!

The reviews on Tirrenia ferries on trip advisor are for all classes. There just seemed to be one very negaitve review after another. it could just be extreme situations. The GNV line has a few I know the travel industry is still recovering so I will look at the ferry going to Salerno.

The train we had wanted to be is in intercity train is number 1958. on the Trentitalia website it says seats sold out on train 1958. Solution not saleable. Travel solution not available for the selected date. I will keep checking to see if anything changes.

Thank you for all of your feedback and suggestions.

Read again, it says:

Seats sold out on the train 1958. Solution not saleable.

Travel solution temporarily not available for the selected date

Temporarily means that Train #1958 is not sold out and there is no reason to think they have uploaded a train that won't run. Keep in mind it's late March and you are looking the schedules of late May.

There are SuperEconomy (i.e. cheapest) tickets available on the same train running on April 29, a Sunday between 2 national holyday when EVERYBODY will be travelling. Why should the train running on a random Sunday in May be sold out ? The site Trenitalia.com has been translated, not reimagined.

Having worked in statistics I don't care so much about reviews, it's called adverse selection of not random, non representative samples. Or the Power of Pissed Off People, if you prefer.
Tirrenia is "the cheap ferry company", if a passenger wants to wake up as a satisfied customer the day after he'd better pay more and pick another company.

It sounds like our original plan for our train out of Palermo may still work out. Do you know when they update the train schedules for late May.

I had a really miserable, sleepless ride on that night train between Rome and Catania back in 2015. The carriage jerked constantly from side to side, so I was never able to fall asleep. I slept most of the next day and was off schedule for some time after that. It was worse than the overnight flight to Europe (which I hate with a passion). I was in a couchette; perhaps there are different shock absorbers on the regular sleeper carriages? I've taken several overnight ferries over the years--though not to or from Sicily--and have never had any trouble sleeping on them.