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Sicily

Does anyone have recommendations for favorite towns in Sicily not too far from the airports?

Posted by
28477 posts

What do you mean by "not too far"?

Will you have a rental car, or will you be limited to public transportation?

Are you trying to decide whether to fly into Palermo or Catania?

With a car, Rome2Rio.com says you can reach just about anywhere on the island (not the off-shore islands) within 2-1/2 hours from either Catania or Palermo Airport, if not both.

Posted by
5 posts

We do plan on renting a car and yes not certain of which airport. We are leaning towards the Catania airport and smaller surrounding towns as home base for two weeks.

Posted by
339 posts

That is a great amount time for exploring Sicily. You may want to consider staying in several areas of Sicily. It is easy to relocate there. We did 2-3 day stays. The island is pretty compact so relocating is not as big a deal as in other locations.

Posted by
28477 posts

Yes, there's so much of interest in Sicily that I wouldn't want to spend the entire trip at one base. That would mean too much driving back and forth. I can tell you what I did last year on a trip of about 18 days, traveling by bus and occasionally by train and skipping the major Greek sites at Agrigento and Segesta because if you've seen one Greek theatre... (Few people agree with me.)

  • Catania with day-trips to Etna, Taormina, and the interior town of Enna. (Most people would prefer to stay in Taormina; Catania's sort of a mini-Palermo in terms of atmosphere, and there don't seem to be any day tours run out of Catania.)

  • Siracusa with day-trips to Noto, Modica, and Ragusa. I think I also day-tripped from Siracusa to Piazza Armerina for the Villa Romana, but definitely with a car one of my home bases would be in the interior, and Piazza Armerina might be the best choice. Ortygia (the old city in Siracusa) is a special place, good for wandering.

  • Palermo with day-trips to Cefalu and Monreale (but the latter's virtually a suburb of Palermo). I think some time in Palermo (without a car) is pretty much required because of the number of sights in that city.

  • Trapani with day-trips to Erice and a couple of the Egadi Islands. The islands were pleasant enough but sort of underwhelming. I'd recommend the Aeolians instead if you have time to go offshore. You'd visit them from a base farther east.

I am not suggesting that those are the right places to stay, just showing how I sort of divvied up the island to keep distances manageable.

Posted by
11294 posts

acraven has given a very good outline of the standard highlights of Sicily, and in two weeks you can see a good deal of his list (focused, of course, depending on your interests). I agree that you don't want to stay in one area for all of the trip, as that would lead to too much driving (and even more time if not driving).

Starting at Catania airport and ending at Palermo airport, or vice versa, works very well. Catania airport is larger and has more flights.

If you want to know details (and I mean details) of my 10 night trip starting at Palermo and ending in Taormina (just flying out of Catania but not seeing the city itself), here's my trip report: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina