My husband and I will be in Sicily in May. We would like to visit one of the Aeolian Islands for a day. Does anyone have some advice on which Island is the best to see? Should we bring our car with us for the day? Would an evening boat ride from Milazzo be the best choice (to see the volcano on Stromboli) instead of a day trip? Recommendations on boat tours and/or ferry companies to use?
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16230 posts
Liberty lines or Siremar are the ferry company choices. I think Liberty runs the hydrofoils.
Cars are restricted in summer (not sure about May) so you might be forced to go without.
From Milazzo I think you can only go to Lipari, then from there you'd take a boat to the other islands.
It's takes about one hour from Milazzo to Lipari, so if you just go for a day you might have trouble visiting a lot of the others. Vulcano is close enough, Stromboli is farther. You'll have to look at the ferry schedules to see what you can fit in a day.
Posted by
London
75 posts
I thought ferries might be limited to Lipari, but it looks like you can get some direct to the other islands from Milazzo. I recommend searching on https://www.directferries.co.uk/. Lipari is the most built up with restaurants, shops, etc., in addition to beaches. Stromboli is definitely beautiful to see, especially at sunset, but there's not a whole lot more on the island (tho being on a beach with volcanic ash is quite an experience). If you're taking one of the fast ferries (hydrofoil) those are passenger only (no car). Either way, you wouldn't need a car on any of these islands. When we were staying on Lipari we did a tour which stopped at Panarea for lunch, had some swimming, and then continued on to Stromboli including a view of it erupting a sunset. If you have enough time to spend the night on Lipari I would definitely recommend that- there are loads of boats at the port doing those type of trips. Good luck!