Sicily Hotel or Apartment

You need to give more info, like where in Sicily you want to stay as a base and where you want to visit. Not all areas are well served by bus or train, although many are - it just depends. If you have 4 people, it seems that an apartment may be cheaper but again, look at www.booking.com first and price it out both ways (apartment vs. 2 rooms).

Hotel, apartment or agriturismo is up to you and the rest of your party. Generally a hotel is more expensive for 4 people compared to an apartment that sleeps 4 or compared to an agriturismo (farmhouse).
Generally apartments or agriturismo give better value for the buck. But the disadvantages of the apartment (or the farmhouse) are:
- there is often a 3 nights or more minimum stay, therefore it may not work for short stays
- your room/apt may not get serviced daily, therefore you might have to make your own beds and clean your own bathroom.
- additional time is necessary for the check-in/out process as there are additional steps to be performed (including knowing how appliances work and cleaning up the place before checking out).

So my personal rule of thumb is that if I stay for 2 nights in a place I tend to stay in hotels. For longer stays (3 nights or more) I consider (but not necessarily choose) the apartment/farmhouse option, if feasible. The longer the stay in the same place, the more likely I am to choose the apartment/farmhouse option.

As far as Sicily is concerned, you first need to decide what you want to visit. Sicily is too huge to be visited from one location/base. You should select at least 3 bases (maybe 2 to 3 nights each).
These are the places I recommend to visit (I'm omitting the smaller islands around, since you don't stay there long enough):
- Palermo (& Monreale above it): Sicily's capital city deserves at least 2 days, especially if you want to take a day trip to Cefalu (see below). So 3 nights would be my recommendation. A car is not recommended while in Palermo as Palermo's traffic is the worst in Italy according to TomTom Traffic Index, the 3rd worst in Europe, after Moscow and Istanbul (and the 9th worst in the world, worse than Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Los Angeles and Beijing).
- Cefalu': would be a nice day trip from nearby Palermo (via train or bus). Quaint town with a nice Duomo and a nice beach.
- Western Sicily: if after Palermo you rent a car (which I recommend) you can use Scopello (a quaint village) to visit various locations in Western Sicily, such as Erice, Temples of Segesta, temples of Selinunte, San Vito lo Capo (best beach in Italy), Zingaro Marine Reserve (in Scopello itself), wineries all over the province of Trapani (largest grape production in Italy), plus other places.
- Agrigento: Valley of the temples, the Staircase of the Turks (famous cliff formation). You could do this area while you travel from western Sicily to Eastern Sicily (or spend the night(s) if you want).
-Piazza Armerina & Villa del Casale: I would recommend to spend a couple of nights here, so that you have a full day at your disposal.
- South East Sicily (Siracusa, Noto, Ragusa, Caltagirone): this is another area where at least 3 nights (2 full days) are called for. I stayed at this agriturismo to visit this area.
-North East Sicily (Taormina, Mt Etna, etc.). A couple of days here (I recommend Taormina or Giardini Naxos as a base) are de rigueur

So as you can see, 9 nights aren't enough even to scratch the surface of Sicily (I have omitted a lot of other places). So sit down with your friends (and a map of Sicily) and decide.

As mentioned above, many places can be visited by bus (and some by train), however I think a car would be more efficient for the more rural areas (especially if you want to stay at an agriturismo). The wise thing to do is to visit Palermo either at the beginning or the end of your trip, so that you stay there without a car. I drove the car in Palermo but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are at least comfortable driving in Manhattan. You are in Connecticut, so you might be, but still I would avoid having a car in Palermo. It's really a useless hassle to have.

Please let us know:

1. Are you going anywhere else or only Sicily?
2. What are your main interests? Greek temples, beautiful beaches, food & wine, nature/hiking, Norman churches, art . . .
3. What's your travel style - easy pace, leisurely dinners or want to see it all and sleep when I die? watching the budget? Splurging? whatever the cost?

Outside the major cities of Palermo and Catania, driving is easy and the main roads are excellent and scenic. Good GPS and/or savvy navigator will help you navigate the smaller towns, but neither is essential. Every driver must have an international driving permit (IDP), easy to get at AAA. You'll want a car large enough for the 4 of you to sit comfortably and hold your luggage out of sight if you will be changing locations and need to leave the car unattended en route. But you'll want one small enough to manage narrow streets with sharp corners and small parking spaces.

The main airports are Palermo and Catania, at opposite ends of (the largest) island in the Mediterranean. Depending on your answers to the above, you may want to spend all your time at one end or the other, or you may want to traverse the island, in one end and out the other.

Give us more info and we'll give you much better suggestions.

If you prefer beach/small town, stay in Cefalu and daytrip to Palermo once or twice.

Not to contradict Zoe, but to add some info. I'm a budget traveler and my Cefalu hotel far from the best room I had, and the cheapest I could find (with minimum standards) but the more expensive of my trip - including Palermo, Syracuse, Bologna, Assisi and Orvieto. On the other hand, I loved my 2 nights there more than my nights in Palermo. It's a fairly short train ride and the bus to Monreale is across the street from the train station in Palermo.

Here is my very detailed trip report from April-May 2014. I went with a friend and we drove (except in Palermo, of course). We loved all the places we stayed, and I'd gladly stay in any of them again. As the posters above have said, you can't see the island properly as day trips from only one base, so where to stay depends on what you want to see.

Do plan to fly into Palermo and out of Catania or vice versa - much more efficient as it avoids backtracking. Catania is actually the larger airport with more flights.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina