Sicily in early/mid May - crowded?

Best time to go.

As far as crowds are concerned, the beach resorts will largely be ghost towns, since May is too early. Historical sights may have some crowds, but in my experience (I’ve been to Sicily only May and June), nowhere close to what you see in Rome, Florence, or Venice at that time of the year.

Sicily is pretty cheap.
Check the prices at this hotel where I like to stay at Giardini di Naxos, on the beach next to Taormina.
http://www.hotellariva.com/index.php/gallery-hotel-museum/
Or this one in Scopello
http://www.pensionetranchina.com/en/
Not even 100€ for a double room, at most.

If you can, rent a car while in Sicily (but not while visiting Palermo, where a car is not needed and not even desirable). If you start your trip in Palermo, rent a car when you leave Palermo. If you end the trip visiting Palermo, drop the car upon arrival to the city.

Marcus,

May is a great time to travel to Sicily.
The weather is very pleasant and there are not large crowds.
The hills are verdant and there are wildflowers everywhere.

Enjoy your time in beautiful Sicily!

I went for the last week of April and first week of May 4 years ago. There were lots of tourists at the most popular places, like Monreale, but no place was bursting with tourists and prices didn't seem to be high season - certainly lower than the rest of Italy.

Chani--what was your itinerary that year? We are considering going to Sicily on the tail end of a trip next year, revisiting Taormina, then finishing up in Cefalu before flying out of Palermo.

I know everyone says you need 2, 3, 4 weeks for Sicily, but if you only have time to see a piece of it--and a piece is better than nothing--then it's doable & makes sense. More importantly, I have to check off on my bucket list the train-ferry from the mainland over the Strait of Messina!

Roberto da Firenze wrote:

Sicily is pretty cheap. Check the prices at this hotel where I like
to stay at Giardini di Naxos, on the beach next to Taormina.
http://www.hotellariva.com/index.php/gallery-hotel-museum/

Roberto--

Up in Taormina proper it's anything but cheap. We stayed at Hotel Villa Schuler (yes, we can see your beach at Giardini di Naxos from the patio) in October 2010 and it was about 175 Euro/night, and that was when the Euro:dollar was 1.42:1.00. i thought that was a lot at the time.

I checked out booking there for next April and May, and it's anywhere from 300-900 Euro/night, and that's not even the time of the Taormina Film Festival which is in July. We'll stay somewhere else, obviously!

We were in Sicily last May - weather was great. Small showers one night that didn't even require a coat or umbrella.

We toured most of the island except - Taormina. Prices seemed reasonable and crowds were pretty much non-existent. Monreale was doable. We visited a beach town on the south side of the island, but the beach wasn't really "open". We went to visit the tuna processing history.

If we were to go back, it would be in May.

Enjoy, Sicily is much more than most people imagine. And it really takes a good two + weeks to scratch the surface.

Well Jay. As you well know anything on Michigan Ave is super expensive, but just a few blocks away you find the bargains.