Renting a car in Sicily

We picked up and dropped off the rental car at Catania airport. Returning the vehicle was easy to do as the airport is fairly small. The terminal is about a two minutes walk from where you return the car. I have no idea about Uber or Lyft. There are toll roads. We drove around the entire island and I believe we only had a toll between Taormina and Catania and it wasn’t much. There may have been one other, but I don’t recall. We paid the tolls in cash. I see no reason to rent a transponder.

We picked up at CTA and returned to PMO. No problems except we took 3 passes to see the proper entrance to return the car at PMO but that was on us. We just paid tolls as we exited the Autostrada. As you enter the Autostrada choose the lane to take a ticket. We screwed this up one time but I explained to the toll taker as we exited that we had no ticket and she just charged us the maximum, not enough to be a worry. We rented through Auto Europe for that trip and our car was from Europcar. Now I just rent from the cheapest option that includes 0 excess CDW including glass, interior and undercarriage coverage. I also pay for the extra tow service. I like worry free. If you shop diligently and book cars that can be cancelled you can just keep re booking if prices go down. In my experience you can prepay for the lower rate just be sure it can be cancelled if you find a better deal. I have never had a problem getting my money if I cancel. This is even with the lowest rated companies. Just understand the Terms an Conditions before you pay. I would rent from from the airport since they would have the highest volume and best chance of getting the car you want.

Thanks for the info. Helpful

Last May/June, I rented from Europcar through autoeurope. We spent the previous evening in Catania center, and for some reason it was much cheaper to pick up the car from the city office so I did that. Driving in the city isn't fun, but doable. After a week of touring we returned to Palermo, at the central train station. Again, city driving was tough, especially around the station, my daughter actually got out of the car and walked around the station looking for the rental return entrance, then came back to direct us, all while I sat in traffic. Once we dropped off the car, we took a taxi with all of our luggage the few miles to our hotel. I'm so glad i didn't decide to drive there, it would have been crazy. After 3 days in Palermo we took a taxi to the airport for ~$50 because we didn't want to deal with luggage and public transit. However afterward I found out it's not too difficult to get to the airport by train. In general, I don't mind using city offices but I try to have a plan to do the least city driving possible.

Anyway, just be aware that if you decide to use the city offices on either end, besides dealing with city traffic for a bit, you also have to be sure to check for office closing times, they all close mid afternoon (1-4pm? check to be sure). Also for drop off, check if there's an after hours return policy, it may not be allowed? Good luck.

As for toll roads, we never encountered any but we drove only around Mt. Etna, Catania, across to Agrigento and into Palermo. Often our phone google map would indicate possible tolls for a given route, but we never actually hit any.