3 couples travelling to Sicily in October. we would like to find a place where we can do great restaurants and our own cooking and use this as a base to see the area over a week or 10 days. outer island experiences would also be welcome
Posted by
Rome
212 posts
Why not stay in or around Taormina or Siracusa? From there the other cities are well connected, the farthest would be Palermo. Even to the Aeolian islands it would only be a few hours to Milazzo and then a short ferry over to Lipari.
Posted by
gaston, oregon, usa
842 posts
Laurie, post this same question in the Sicily section at Tripadvisor.com. "Vagabonda" will have some great ideas for you. You did not say what time in October.
I would NOT base myself in one place and attempt to see Sicily...you would be spending all of your time on the road....the island is just too big.
You could rent apts for 5 nites in one area, 5 in another, and then maybe spend 4 nites in the Aeolian islands. (We loved exploring the Aeolians using Lipari town as our base. But towards the end of Oct, it might be getting a little too isolated.) You will be hard pressed seeing Sicily with only three bases; 4 would be better.
We always rent apts when we are traveling with other couples, and find them on VRBO.com, and Homelidays.com. But when we did Sicily, we did it in two different trips, 5 bases, and we made use of Agritourisimos.
The freeways that cross the island are great, but you want to avoid driving thru Palermo, and some of the other big cities during rush hours. Make sure that you bring a GPS for your rental car.
We found that the Lonely Planet guidebook was a great resource for Sicily.