Sicily August/September without a car advice

Cefalu is east of Palermo on the north coast. It could be easily accessed by train from Palermo.We loved it and stayed 2 nights and wished for a couple more.

Randazzo is a bit hard with public transportation. You can take the train from Catania to get there. The circumetna only goes clockwise around Etna. If you wanted to go to Taormina from Randazzo, there is bus service.

I don't think you are crazy. It's doable. Some parts of Sicily will be more complicated than others.

I would suggest you see Mazara from Trapani. It was very unique/interesting and super fun.

It is fine, perhaps even better, to use your hotel or a TI for transportation help. I would just make sure you have a doable plan before booking hotels. For example, I did not know I could not take a train from Taormina directly to Randazzo

There has been a handful of seasoned travelers on this forum who have used public transportation in Sicily. We had planned a month itinerary in 2020 based on their recommendations, but had to cancel due to Pandemic. We pre booked all of our accommodations (cancelable). Our previous time in Sicily was with a tour that ended in Taormina. We were there in Sept. 2014. Following the tour we based ourselves in our favorite town of Ortigia and hired a driver to take us to Noto, Ragusa & Modica with stops at sites along the way. We stayed one night in Catania. Not our favorite city, but it’s worth a night to see the War Museum if interested.
I will look up our proposed itineraries and edit to add. Edited https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/my-trip-to-sicily-in-zoe-s-memory/
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-trip-report-april-2019-2-weeks-2-sisters-part-1-trapani-erice

How much time do you have? We are planning to go to Sicily next May. I have done a lot of research on using public transportation. Parts of the island are very doable. Other parts are not. And sometimes easier to go to a city than from it.

Most of the people on this board who have gone around the island (as opposed to confining themselves to East or north side where public transportation is better) have used a driver for part of it. It is particularly difficult to go to Ragusa or Siracusa from Agregento. Pricilla did it all by public transportation in the trip report Janis provided a link to.

Without a car, the area around Mt. Edna also seems challenging. People seem to 1) take a tour to wineries or other for the day 2) make a day trip going around the mountain on the railroad 3) hire a driver for at least getting around.

The Rick Steve’s book on Sicily has some information on transportation that you might find helpful.

My conclusion was that you really needed 3 weeks to do it all by public transportation as it often is not very efficient. We can only manage a little over two and so are looking at renting a car at least part of the time. But honestly I would not want to do that as a solo traveler. So if doing what you want seems daunting on public transportation you might consider a private transfer or two. We drove around Crete this summer and found a navigator was as crucial as a driver even using goggle maps. I don’t expect Sicily will be any different.

Keep in mind that there are few public buses rolling on Sunday.

The RS guide was very useful for planning public transportation. At the back of each chapter it details on how to get to one city to another.

Catania wasn't our favorite city, either, but we were very happy to spend a couple days there. The cathedral is interesting as well as the square it sits on, the fish market very enjoyable and the WWII museum very worthwhile. We traveled from Catania to Siracusa and mentioned our transportation plan to our inn (Palazzo Brucca) and she suggested a much better plan which was a bus that was a short walk away instead of taking the train.

We used a driver around Randazzo. He was very reasonably priced and a delight to be with.

I don’t want to say crazy, but it won’t be easy. What I don’t see here is time. How long are you staying in Ragusa for instance? If it’s a week, then sure. But if your plan is to see a different town each day, that’s tough. Still, if all you have is time and money, you can make just about anything work.

Even with an excess of time, I feel like with PT this itinerary would benefit from some editing. Monreal is just outside Palermo by public bus, so it should be part of your Palermo itinerary not Trapani’s. If you’re going to Agrigento, then skip Segesta. Noto is an easy day trip from Siracusa. So maybe even spend a couple nights in Ragusa, and see Noto from Siracusa. Not all these places are the same of course, but there’s “overlap” where you could trim some fat. Also, big Cefalu fan here, and given its ease/proximity from Palermo I would encourage making room for it.

Flexibility with public transport is good, but I would not “wing it” entirely. I found the Rome2rio app extremely handy in Sicily. Most PT is via busses, and these are run by different companies. I don’t think I could have effectively sorted it all out without the app. Use it before your trip to get a sense of routes, departures, etc. You may find certain routes are limited to the point it will affect your overall itinerary. Good luck. Sicily is a little challenging, but I loved it.

My husband and I made two trips to Sicily, for a total of five weeks, all by public transportation. It's a slower way to travel, but we just considered it part of the adventure. Bus information is the hardest to come by, but maybe not as bad now with Rome2Rio as a resource (if not always 100% accurate). You often have to know which bar sells bus tickets. I think it will be possible for you to wing it on accommodations. I often had researched a few lodging possibilities and then asked the current hotelier to call and make a reservation for us at the next place down the road.

I suggest Noto be visited from Siracusa. Easy bus ride.

The train line South of Trapani can bring you to some interesting towns on the West coast that you don’t mention. Also, consider a ferry trip from Trapani to Favignana. You can walk to the ferry on both ends. Trapani is a very reasonable base for PT. VisitErice from Trapani, not the other way around.

Catania is not worth more than one full day.

We used a driver to fill in the gaps when PT was impractical. Sicily Shore Tours. Did a good job.

I am a fan of PT but would strongly suggest splurging for a cab to and from Monreale. The bus service is ridiculously crowded. Monreale is not to be missed but the bus ride ought to be missed.

We had a driver for Trapani to Agrigento. If using PT, I expect best to access Agrigento thru Palermo.

We were in Sicily a few months ago. All of our bus tickets were purchased at a bus stop booths.

We also daytripped to Noto from Siracusa. We took the train. I believe the train was faster, though the bus might have run more often. If you take the train, you will walk about 3/4 mile up to the old town of Noto. The bus stop is closer to the Noto old town.

If you want to go to the Catania WWII museum, which is quite good, you will need more than a day in Catania.

THANK YOU everyone for your timely and extremely helpful comments. Each of you have given me very helpful guidance and I’m so thankful. I will reply in further detail when I have more time. Once my trip completed, I also will post my travel journal to help those coming after me.

I will be in Sicily for 18 days.

Grazi,
David