I have been to Italy 3 times but never to Sicily . Our family of 4 Adults and 4 kids ages 14 8 9 and 4 are planning to go to Europe for 3 weeks with 1 week or so in Sicily. We are planning on flying into Sicily and out of Frankfurt Germany. After Italy my daughter wants to do Austria/Bavaria she loves to hike. As I have found valuable information here before my first ever Italy trip years ago here I am asking. Which airport is the best to fly in? What kinda lodging could you recommend ?We prefer to rent a house that can hold all of us lol with a kitchen. What can we offer and do with the kiddos? Are there pizza cooking classes geared towards kids? Our 8 year old is attending cooking classes right now he loves to bake.All kids are taking music lessons maybe they can see a kids band or something? The rest of us love culture swimming beaches and good food. Would it be good to fly out to our next destination take train ? We are on a budget. Thanks
Posted by
11608 posts
We flew into Palermo and out of Catania, both flights were from and into Rome.
There are so many antiquities in Sicily that are worth exploring. We spent a week in a waterfront apartment on Ortigia Island , Siracusa and it is a good base. We spent a week there. There are waterfront properties available south of Siracusa too. With one week you only have time for Ortigia, maybe Taormina too.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6587 posts
With the exception of Taormina, all of our lodging was quite inexpensive. I would suggest looking at both apartment type accommodations as well as more traditional lodging.
We stayed at an Agriturismo in Agrigento that had inexpensive rooms, breakfast, and dinner can be added for a small price. She also has apartments. The owner, Chiara, was amazing. She was welcoming, kind and extremely hard working. We ate dinner with her family. She does have both apartments and individual rooms. Our room could have slept at least 3 and it was HUGE. There were several families there when we were there. She grows olives and nuts, simple, down to earth. She says she gets "travelers", not "posh" people. www.fattoriamose.com
Another place you may like is Cefalu. We stayed at a BnB ( www.sciroccobeb.it, [email protected] ), so you'd have to see if that'd work, but it was right at the base of La Rocca with an amazing terrace with views for miles. Cefalu is a wonderful town for wandering and has a huge beach.
We flew in and out of Catania because that's where we got the best rate. Airport was fine, small easy to manage. Very occasionally, the airport can be affected by Etna.
Posted by
New Jersey
217 posts
Sicily is quite large so with only one week I would suggest you zero in on either the east coast or west coast and keep your homebase ideally to one town or 2 at the most. Also, not sure you mentioned what time of year you are going as that can be a factor as well and if you will be driving or relying on public transportation. As far as airports, it is either Catania or Palermo. Again if you stick to the east coast Catania would be your airport of choice. I had a 21 day stay so we flew into Palermo and out of Catania as we had enough time to see both coasts and some of the interior.
Would recommend Ortigia (if you choose east coast) as it has a lot to offer in terms of beauty, location, sites and day trip possibilities. We rented an apartment with Airbnb but as we are only a two it would not be suitable for you. Just take a look on the Airbnb site and I'm sure you will be spoiled for choices. I really enjoyed the puppet show and puppet museum in Ortigia. Even though in Italian you can pretty much get the gist of it. We also attended a performance of Medea (a greek tragedy, again all in Italian) at the Syracuse Roman Amphitheater. Syracuse is right over the bridge from Ortigia and is walkable. Syracuse is also where you could catch a train to take a day trips.