If you don't rent a car in Sicily, are you able to make the best of your trip? For example, I know it is easy to get from Palermo to Agrigento by train, but can you get to the archaeological sites without a car once there? The same question applies to Syracuse.
Thanks for your help.
Warren
There are parts of Sicily that you can see easily without a car while others not so much. You can take a bus to the archeological sites in Agrigento and the same for Siracusa (although we walked). The problem is getting between them.
You can get from Palermo to Siracusa by bus but it isn’t as easy to get from Agrigento to Siracusa. You have to go first to Catania I think. Basically the eastern and western sides of the island are not well connected except through Palermo and Catania.
We used a combination of public transportation and car rental. We rented a car when we left Siracusa and returned it after five days at the Palermo airport. We were in Sicily for two weeks.
Thanks Beth
For our trip to Sicily last year i used this website to figure out my itinerary.
https://mel365.com/2-weeks-in-sicily/
It helped me a lot. We ended up doing half by public transport and half by car.
Hope this helps!
When we were in Sicily we rented a car as we always do. We met a couple in Agrigento who were stuck moving on to their next stop as they were using public transportation and there was none to their next destination. They were very upset and there was nothing we could do to help them other than point them to the tourist office.
Warren,
One can definitely visit Sicily via public transportation but it will take much longer to get to the desired places due to bus/ train schedules.
Here’s a link to my trip report for more details, if you’re interested.
At the time of planning my trip, Rick’s Sicily guidebook hadn’t been printed.
I found the Lonely Planet Sicily guidebook very helpful especially when trying to figure out public transportation as there are various bus companies to deal with.
Enjoy your time in beautiful Sicily!
Thank you all for your help; if anyone would like any information before coming to London, please do ask.
This relates to the comment about taking longer getting places using public transportation.
We too had a rental car, but took a bus from Sigonella into Catania, a distance of less than 12 miles. Getting to Catania wasn’t an issue. Coming back, the bus was cancelled and we had to wait two hours for the next one. There isn’t much to do at bus stations.
In Agrigento there is a public bus just near the station that takes you to the temples.
The stop is to the right with the station behind you.
We found the unmarked stop and just waited till a bus came along and asked that driver what to do.
It was the right bus and we paid him, so bring change.
Returning to the station, the stop at Agrigento was marked, but the bus we got on took the long, but scenic! route back to the station.
In Syracuse, we couldn’t find, and never saw, a single public bus in five days.
We did ask and got vague replies.
We just walked to the archeological park from Ortigia and back.
It took about 40 minutes, but we walked slowly as it was hot.
We went between Palermo and Syracuse by InterBus.
Easy website, bought tickets in advance .
It takes 3 hours, with a stop for 20 minutes for bathroom and snacks at a services stop.
This was all in May 2023.
