Rental Car Questions - Mainland Italy to Sicily

I can't help with your car question, but I can't resist pointing out that 5 days is a terribly short time to spend in Sicily. Even with a car, you sort of need 2 weeks or more to see the highlights of the island, which are many, varied, and scattered. It's not like some smaller islands that have beaches and a cute town or two. With 5 days (is that 5 nights?) and needing to travel from and back to Calabria, you'll have just about 4 days of sightseeing time. The best you can do with that, I think, is see some of the east coast (Taormina, perhaps a short visit to Catania, Siracusa and maybe the Baroque villages. Accomplishing that much would require rushing. You'll be missing most of the interior, Palermo/Cefalu, Trapani/Erice, and most of Greek sites.

If you haven't been to Puglia, I'd suggest that area instead. Your time allowance would go farther there, but getting there would take longer, I admit.

Edited to add: There are definitely people on the forum who have driven rental cars in Sicily. I would guess most of them (maybe all) flew in and picked up the car in Sicily. I've read that taking a car on a ferry is often not permitted by the rental agency; perhaps that has something to do with the information you've been given.

Could not agree more. Thanks

Did you have some special reason to include a small part of Sicily while you were nearby? I agree a diversion would be easier, but if you had to get there I suppose you could take the train and pick up a car there if needed. Interested to hear the outcome, but AutoEurope deals with all the agencies so I assume this is the deal.

We have gotten a car in Rome at the airport and taken the ferry from Calabria to Sicily and back. We were not told we were not covered in Sicily. But we went straight to Avis, not to AutoEurope Car Rental. Each car agency can set its own rules.

Do you have coverage through your insurance here? Would that be possible?

We are going again shortly and this has not been an issue for us.

Not Sicily but Sardinia. I rented a car from Europcar through AutoEurope in Sardinia and wanted to take it on the ferry to Corsica. When I checked with Europcar, they said it was fine to do so. I would suggest contacting Europcar directly to find out your answer. I was just on their site and it would allow me to rent a car in Naples and return it in Palermo.

This is from their Terms and Conditions:

Vehicles may not travel on ferries and/or to Island locations without pre-approval from Auto Europe

Thanks for the responses. I got an online quote from Kemwel and then called them to confirm coverage on the ferry and while in Sicily. I was told that once on the ferry that I would have no coverage and that while in Sicily I would have coverage except for breakdown or if the car was damaged and could not be driven then I would be responsible for returning the car to mainland Italy.

I have plenty of time to sort this out as our trip to Italy is next April. I plan to contact the rental car companies directly with the coverage questions.

5 days in Sicily are too few. Switch plans and spend 10 in Sicily and 5 in Calabria, if you can.

I read the contract for Europcar, one of the main companies AutoEurope and Kemwel work with.
On page 6 at the second to the last bullet, it states you cannot take the car aboard trains or ships EXCEPT on regular ferry lines to the Italian islands, which is permitted.
http://images.europcar.it/T&C_noleggio_ITA_febbraio_2019.pdf

The notion that you wouldn’t be covered once in Sicily seems bogus to me. There are Europcar offices in Sicily where you could exchange the car. I would check directly with the rental company (Europcar in this case).

Ah, Roberto! I usually agree 100% with your sage advice. But I cannot subscribe to your recommendation of Stan reversing his trip! We usually spend more time in Calabria than Sicily on our trips and love it. It depends on what the goal of the trip is, I think you would agree. :-) Either way, it will be magical, Certo!

Thanks for the car rental information. I will be contacting the rental car agencies directly.

Don’t ever rent from EconomyCarRentals in Catania from the airport.
Big Ripoff! If you come a few minutes late, their partner Intercar cancels your reservation, EconomyCarRentals doesn’t return your reservation money and then Intercar tries to rent you a car for 5x more than the original booking!

If your flight is delayed...too bad!