Sicily Advice

I’m also visiting Sicily this coming October joining the RS 11 day tour. I strongly recommend you buy the RS Sicily guide book, assuming you don’t already have one. It is the best resource to address all your questions. One must see sight is the Cathedral located in Monreale. The RS guide book has a very comprehensive tour for that impressive site. His book has a detailed chapter on all the cities and places you mentioned. Have fun.

This spring, we really enjoyed this B&B guesthouse in Piazza Armerina --- it allowed us to get to the Villa Romana when it opened in the morning to avoid the crowds. La Casa sulla Collina d'Oro is also an hour and a half to Agrigento --- that sounds like a long drive, but we found driving through the countryside in Sicily a huge part of the fun of Sicily. This B&B is not actually on the hill of the hilltown, but across a valley from it with a nice view of the town --- so it's easy to drive to. There is a casual restaurant we liked a lot in the town and ate at twice: La Locanda

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My husband and I are going to Sicily the first two weeks in October, flying in/out of Palermo.

If you haven’t booked your flights yet, consider flying to Palermo, and out of Catania, or vice-versa, to avoid backtracking.

If your flights are booked, consider traveling counterclockwise starting in Palermo, then onto Trapani where you can visit Erice & Segesta , then you may consider following this route:
Trapani >> Agrigento >> Piazza Armerina>> Syracuse ( stay in Ortigia) > day trip to Noto, Ragusa, or Modica >> Taormina >> Aeolian Islands (via Messina or Milazzo) >> Cefalú>> Palermo.

As suggested by previous poster, consider reading RS Sicily book.
I found the Lonely Planet Sicily book very helpful as the RS Sicily book was not available when planning my trip.
Here’s my trip report with more details.

Will you have a rental car?

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

Oh, yeah, here's my trip report, too: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sicily-spring-2025

Hi there! Just checked on ferryhopper and in early October you can take seasonal ferries from Palermo to the Aeolian Islands (like Lipari (aprox. 3h45), Filicudi (aprox. 2h30), or Alicudi (aprox. 1h55), but keep in mind that there are typically 2–7 weekly departures per route. For a base, in general Lipari and Salina are more central with daily ferries to other islands like Panarea, Stromboli, or Alicudi. Hope that helps! xx

Thanks, Rob! we do have the Rick Steves guide (we love them), and we plan to visit Monreale when we're in Palermo.
Jessie

Selinunte is an excavation that few tours visit. It is comparable to Paestum.

Thanks very much--we'll go there!
Jessie

Have you considered hiring a guide in any part of your Sicily travel? My daughter and I are going to Sicily in November with the RS Best of Sicily 11-Day Tour. We are very excited to do our first mother daughter trip together and found an awesome guide recommended by Rick Steves in his guide book. Additionally, I have hired multiple guides throughout the tour beginning, one in the evening during the tour and a few at the end. In my opinion, this will be our only trip to Sicily and I want us to get the most out of this vacation. Our precious time will be at a premium for this tour and I do not want to waste any of it going in circles like my husband and I did while in Paris. The best thing about the guides is that they will be helpful when needing directions (no one likes the feeling of being lost), a translator and slimming down on what to view or not. I noticed Rick Steves does a very good job in unitizing guides in his program and work related events.

Hi Kat,
Thanks for this idea! We'll look for Rick Steves' guide suggestions.
I hope you and your daughter have a great trip!
Jessie