Sicily - destination opinions?

I would not say that Cefalu has the prettiest medieval town center in Sicilia, although I love Cefalu. It does have beaches.

Count nights, not days.

You could spend more time in Palermo, visit Monreale, or spend a few nights in Trapani instead of Palermo and daytrip to Segesta and/or Erice, maybe even to an island or two. Erice is a medieval town at the top of a hill, very nice views, cooler than the city, about an easy bus ride from Trapani, or you can take the funivia.

I was in Sicilia in June, before the fires. Some transportation routes have been affected. Great losses for many people affected.

Even if you've got "archaeological exhaustion" the Greek temples are majestic. My trip to Sicily was April-May. Cefalu seemed to be pretty popular with a goodly number of people on the beach, even though the water was too cold for anyone not in the polar bear club. That leads me to think that in August, the small town and the beach would be very crowded.

My guess - the farther you go from the Palermo and the tourist-attracting towns like Trapani, the more likely you are to find a reasonably uncrowded beach. . . I don't know the area well enough for recommendations, but the southern coast beaches are beautiful. The drive could be as little as 1-1.5 hours from Palermo.

Yeah we are pretty set on not walking around in 100 degree weather. We've already made plans to come back to Sicily at some point during olive harvest season (fall) so we'll do the archaeological stuff then.

Zoe out of curiosity why do you say to count nights? We will likely get in around 10pm so that evening hardly counts, and we'll need to be at the airport at 5am for our departure flight.

Counting nights is what I do because a night is always one night, and you need to have a place to lay your head. Counting days (which you have done very carefully) is variable (3-16 hours of usable time), a long travel day or an unforeseen delay can eat into time you expect to sightsee. Most delays or mistakes happen during the day.

zoe - fair enough, that's logical.

any opinions on the type of tourist in cefalu? i actually quite enjoy vacationing with italians, so i really don't mind it being super crowded if it's italians there, but i've found that i don't have as good a time with my own countrymen, or brits. maybe it's easier to feel like you're on vacation when you can't understand anything going on around you :-)

if it's the english-speaking type of tourist, what other pretty medieval towns with a beach would you recommend instead? again we are going in and out of PMO so probably sticking to the western side, places accessible by train/bus - i don't drive and my husband doesn't drive stick, and i've read you need to reserve automatics well in advance and we don't want to be locked into anything.

My friends and I stayed in Mondello, a beach suburb of Palermo, and took the local bus into the city for a day (we had been to Palermo before but missed a few things). You could do the reverse if you want to stay in Palermo. The Mondello beaches get crowded, but many Italians go there because it is so close to Palermo.

I wish i could tell you what sort of tourists go to Cefalu, but I can't. What I noticed and found unattractive was that there were so many shops selling beach toys for kids. I'm not a beach goer, so they didn't interest me. If those shops had been selling local ceramics, I'd have loved the place! It is an old village, so it meets that requirrment, but I find that accessible, picturesque beach towns in southern Europe tend to be very touristy. Cefalu is pretty close to Palermo and is on the rail line, so...

If you are looking to relax and not run around I would stay away from Palermo. Just too crowded. If you want to stay in one areas and not run around you may want to stay in Taormina. It has old town, beaches and lots of day trips locations if you don't want to move around. You can visit Mt. Etna, have lunch at the Gambino Winery on the way down, Naxos has a nice beach. Catania not far if you are flying out of it.

If you are on the other side of the Island and want to rent a car I wouldn't stay in Palermo (just too busy) but outside of it in a place like Castellammare del Golfo or Scapello. So many day trips you can take from there and lots of good beaches. Monreale, Erica and lots of other good places just a drive away. If you are flying out of Palermo it is convenient.

Those are two good choices.