Sicily In June, What is the Best way to spend two weeks?

What a joy to come across someone who has two weeks (rather than something like 5 - 7 days) for Sicily. You'll still need to be selective. Being willing to rent a car for at least part of the time will allow you to see more, faster, especially in terms of non-coastal sites.

Before we all start telling you where we think you should go:

• To what degree, if any, are you interested in classical ruins (Greek or Roman)?
• Do you want beach time?

By the way, it will probably be quite hot. My own trip was in June 2015, and I wouldn't exactly call the temperature "pleasant". Having an air conditioned car will help quite a bit; at least you won't be spending so much time hanging around outdoor bus stops!

I may even be able to do 2.5 weeks! Wish it wasn't in hot June, but thats when I can get away. I am looking at arriving June 7. Because of the fact that I am using miles it seems I will need to fly into Catania, but have not really read too much exciting about Catania. I am ok with a rental car when needed.

I do want to see some of the classical ruins, but definitely is not a major focus. Some beach time is nice, can't imagine not getting in the water :)

The 2 beaches I enjoyed the most are Cefalu and Zingaro National park. I love Sicily - one of my favorite places in Italy. Are you going to have a car? or use public transportation? ( my thoughts are that a car would be the best option). If you look at some companies that do tours of Sicily - you could plan a nice itinerary with ideas from them.

Here is a link for all things Sicily
Best of Sicily

It's good to fly into and out of different Sicilian airports to reduce back-tracking, and the Catania airport has more flights than Palermo's.

Catania has a very attractive historic district and a worthwhile food market. As a biggish city, it has some not-totally-spiffed-up-for-tourism areas you may run into. You can often even see Mt. Etna from the city, or you can get a closer look by taking a train around the volcano, as I did, or a more up-close look by taking a tour that gets you near the crater.

Elsewhere on the E. coast is the beautiful and gloriously situated (but very tourist-clogged) town of Taormina. You'll want to see it, if only for the views and the Greek theatre. Whether it's a good overnight stop depends on your point of view and possibly also on your pocketbook. Logistically, it's easily visitable from Catania. Tours of Mt. Etna should be available. A Sicilian recommended the nearby coastal town of Acireale to me, but I didn't have time to check it out. There are beaches more or less at the foot of the hill on which Taormina is located. The train stop is called "Giardini Naxos".

Farther toward the SE is my favorite Sicilian city of Siracusa. The picturesque old town (Ortygia) is on a peninsula. Siracusa has a good archaeological museum and an archaeological park I really enjoyed; they aren't normally my thing, but this one had trees. It's an easy place to see classical stuff without having to make a special trip to one of the big sites like Agrigento, Selinunte, or Segesta.

There are several lovely Baroque towns not too far from Siracusa. If you want to stay in one of them, Ragusa would be my choice. I'd also recommend visiting Noto and Modica, plus Scicli if you have time. Although you can reach all of those towns by bus or train from Siracusa, a car will make you more efficient here. So maybe pick up a car before you start those visits.

Then next I would hit the inland sites since a car is also very, very useful there. There's a rail line running through the interior, but not all of what you'll want to see will be in towns with train stations. This part of Sicily is much less touristy than the coast (because no beaches--duh). Among your possible destinations here are the Villa Romana del Casale (fabulous mosaics) outside the pretty town of Piazza Armerina (perhaps the best place to spend the night), some (perhaps comparatively minor, but untouristy) Greek ruins at Morgantina, the town of Caltanisetta (historically a ceramic-production center), and the town of Enna which isn't tiny but somehow felt like the back-of-beyond during my visit (siesta time, probably).

On the north coast you have Palermo with its important archaeological museum, the unbelievable mosaics in the Monreale basilica outside of town, two great food markets, and a huge number of lovely (and varied) churches and private chapels. A good guidebook will describe the religious buildings well enough that you can pick a good variety to see. Their days and hours vary. Saturday is a bit of a tough day for visiting because many of the churches may be conducting weddings. No car in Palermo!!!

You can train east from Palermo to the old fishing town of Cefalu, now developed for tourism, There are beaches in the area.

I didn't get to the Aeolian Islands, off the coast farther east, but I believe they are worth seeing. The Egadi islands on the NW tip of Sicily were, to me, very underwhelming. I find that reviews of small European islands are often overly positive because they are the best place to find uncrowded beaches. If you're not going for the beaches, the travel time may not be worthwhile.

Trapani is a colorful coastal town in the NW. I liked it but admit that its biggest virtue is as a base for visiting the evocative medieval hilltop town of Erice. It is possible to stay in Erice, too.

Those are just the places I went (18 days, no car). Others can make additional suggestions.

Thanks for all this info! I am not a tour person, I would much rather find my own way. What is the best idea of places to stay? I usually use Airbnb, but am open to ideas in this area.

Go to Trip Reports on this forum and read Zoe's evocative and detailed reports from her trip to Sicily last summer. She lists all her accommodations and restaurants.

Sicily is the one recent destination where I wandered into the local tourist offices and asked for lodging assistance. That was not particularly effective, although the staffers were pleasant and tried to be helpful (though Palermo only provides information, no actual bookings). Apparently I look really, really impoverished when I travel, based on the quality of the places to which I was directed! All were perfectly acceptable (my standards are not high, except for cleanliness), but they were very budget operations.

I have used booking.com elsewhere, carefully reading all the English-language reviews from the last couple of years, and I have been very pleased with the results. With the possible exception of Taormina (and I don't know anything about accommodations in the little beachy towns), I believe you'll find the costs very low. As in the rest of southern Italy, the economy is such that a lot of people set up small lodging options (with or without breakfast) to supplement their income.

I believe it would be pretty hard to find a place that doesn't have air conditioning in Sicily, but it's not something to leave to chance when you're traveling in June.

I agree with Craven about the archaeological park in Syracuse but it doesn’t have a decent Greek temple! You have to see at least one in Sicily, which has a plethora of them. Segesta is probably the most photogenic, set in a lovely rural landscape. And the small theatre nearby is incredible, set on a hilltop cliff overlooking a valley. Also visit the duomo in Ortega, was originally a Greek temple, much of which remains, apart from the facade which is pure baroque.

So many good suggestions from acraven. I'll add that if you do go to Taormina, which is lovely (but expensive), see if you can do a combo tour of Mt. Etna and then stop at a winery. We went to Gambino Winery after our Mt. Etna tour and loved it. Trapani is beautiful, especially with the salt pans. We were there at sunset and it was magical.

I love Sicily. Have a wonderful trip!

Here are Zoe's reports, one from 2015 and 3 from 2017, with a car , Siracusa, and Acireale.

I spent 2 weeks in Sicily in 2014, mostly with a car. I'm not a beach person and my trip began in late April, so the water was too cold anyway. I spent a couple days in Palermo, then took the train to Cefalu (beautiful beach, probably crowded in June) for 2 nights, one full day, then returned to Palermo and picked up a rental car. I enjoyed the coastal towns of Erice and Mazara del Vallo, loved all the Greek temples (Selinunte, Segesta and Agrigento), an overnight in Piazza Armerina (lovely centro storica) for a long visit to the Villa Romana de Casale, then on to Siracusa (actually the old town center of Ortigia), with a day trip to Catania for the WWII museum and another to Mt. Etna (wasted day, it was fogged in). I probably could have gone to Etna on a day tour and taken the bus to Catania, but for some quirky reason, it was cheaper to keep the car than to return it early. I had planned to spend a day in Taormina, but a bum knee kept me from the inevitable up and down there. Then I dropped the car at the airport and flew out of Catania. It was easy to drive the roads, which are good and mostly scenic. Driving in Palermo and Catania is difficult mostly because of very heavy traffic.

Without a car, it will take you longer to get to places. There's little or no shade at the temple sites. Even in late April it was pretty warm.

Here's my VERY detailed trip report from April-May 2015: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina