Sicily in mid-November

Just be aware that in mid-November the weather may not be the best. I spent a week split between Trapani and Palermo, and we had several days of wind driven rain in Trapani. The vibe was New-England-beach-town-after-the-season-ends. Many restaurants were closed. Our driver who was to take us to Erice backed out. Palermo was better, grey days and not crowded. You are trading off the in-season crowds for unpredictable weather, so plan accordingly. Sicily is lovely, there is just more to do indoors in Rome when it rains.

We were there late October and first part of November and I would absolutely and I thought it was awesome. Crowds were thin, prices were soft and people seemed kinda relaxed. It's true that some innkeepers and restaurants close Nov 1, but the tradeoffs are so worth it that I wouldn't give it a thought.

I'd just get small hotels. Sicilian food is ridiculously good and it's a bargain. And having an actual innkeeper will be less mucking about.

My favorite spots were Palermo and Ragusa; followed by the Randazzo/Northern Etna area. We also spent a couple nights in Agrigento and 3 nights on Ortigia. People love Ortigia so what about Ortigia and Palermo as your two bases? I skipped Catania and Taormina so I can't comment. I'll definitely visit Catania on my next trip along with the southern/southwest coast.

I honestly wish you had another 4-7 days for Sicily. It's really fantastic and there's so much to see. Even if you had 3-4 more days, you could add a stop in the baroque hill towns or just extend Palermo time. But this way you'll get a taste of Sicily and you'll be hooked.

Thanks so much for both of these responses. They were helpful. Since the flights I’m looking at land in Catania, maybe it makes the most sense to spend two nights in that area adjusting to the time difference and exploring Etna before heading south and eventually looping west to Palermo over the next 5 days or so. I understand and accept that the weather might not be ideal, but it should be better than upstate New York! 😊

I think that idea makes sense. Some people love Catania, some people not so much. Maybe a lot of it has to do with whether you embrace a certain "grittiness" as character. I can't comment directly on Catania but I like Naples and people say the same about it. Catania has plenty to do and see. You can make a day trip up to Taormina and, like you mentioned, tours of southern Etna are another option.

The reason I mentioned Ortigia is that it's less than an hour from the Catania airport and people on the boards tend to love it. From there you have other day trips like the Baroque cities (Noto is 40 minutes away), and the Siracusa Archeological Park. We didn't do any day trips from Ortigia, we just explored the tiny peninsula, ate seafood, watched sunsets, saw the puppet theatre and the old jewish mikvah/bomb shelter.

3 Catania + 4 Palermo (Simplest and maybe best)
2 Catania + 1 Agrigento + 4 Palermo (Arrive agrigento late afternoon, see ruins next day, then hop train to Palermo)
2 Catania + 2 Ragusa + 3 Palermo (Burns a lot of time with connections to Ragusa?)
4 Catania + 3 Palermo (For Etna lovers)
- Or add a bus connection upon arrival and replace Catania with Ortigia in any of the above.

I will say... it sucks that Ponygirl above had so much bad weather. We had lovely weather. It rained three times in our almost 3 weeks on Sicily for a total of maybe 5 hours. But we not there during the last half of the month.

You can easily get a transfer to Ortegia or Taormina upon arrival and adjust to the time there in a more relaxing environment. Since you said you are interested in being active and outdoors, I think that is a better plan. Taormina is a good base for visiting Etna and enjoying hikes (weather permitting) and wine tasting. Maybe have these two towns as bases and possibly add a few nights in Ragusa too if possible, sticking to Eastern Sicily for this trip.

Also planning a trip to Sicily so appreciated everyone's thoughts. The OP mentioned they will work their way north after Sicily, which is also what we plan to do, and we're evaluating the ferry from Palermo to Naples OR the overnight train. Does anyone have experience to share with either option? Many thanks.

Does anyone have experience to share with either option?

Yeah, we took the overnight ferry from Palermo...

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/palermo-naples-overnight-ferry-experience

With a week, I think sticking to roughly two bases is good. I would suggest heading straight to Ortigia from Catania airport, there are regular busses right outside the terminal. Three nights there will do. There’s some actual sightseeing with the Archeological park and Orsi museum, but Ortigia is simply a picturesque joy to wander about in.

The headline sights on Sicily imo are Villa Romana and Agrigento/Valley of the Temples. Skipping either would be a shame. Seeing both as you cross the island from east to west will require a car rental. It’s just for a couple days and the driving is pretty easy, mostly on the autostrada. Staying a night between here (usually in Agrigento) is probably necessary.

Finally, wrap up in Palermo. Palermo is my top underrated city. It’s got plenty of sights, and is a blast to explore. I found it largely the opposite of what its image projects, that it’s dirty or gritty, but pretty clean, active, hip and sophisticated. The tourist center is largely pedestrianized. Include Monreale cathedral as a day trip via public transport here.

^^^ I agree with pretty much everything in this post.

Ditto to the insightful suggestions made by @awrzesinski.

Dusk at Valley of the Temples in Agrigento is magical and was the highlight of our time in Sicily. Ortigia is lovely but, in a seven day trip, two nights would be enough to give you a good taste. We stopped at Villa Romana del Casale en route from Ortigia to Agrigento, had a good dinner in Agrigento, and went to a lovely nearby beach the next day before visiting Valley of the Temples. It worked out great for us. We stopped at Monreale en route to Palermo where we dropped the car immediately on arrival.

So, perhaps consider:
Ortigia - 2 nights
Agrigento - 2 nights
Palermo - 3 nights

***Should add that we flew USA to Rome, then directly to Catania via ITA. Return was Palermo to Rome.

Hey @mml - where did you drop your car on arrival in Palermo? We want to do the same but hopefully avoid going to the airport.

@Wavemaker - No need to go to the airport. We used Hertz and dropped off the car downtown on arrival to Palermo. It was a short walk to our accommodation which was near the Cathedral. It looks as though (per Google) there are other rental agencies in the city as well.

Such great and valuable information, everyone. Thank you! The fares I’m seeing are very reasonable and despite the potential for wet weather (currently in Cape Cod where it rained for the past two days consistently), I think it’s a good time to get there. As a freshly retired teacher, I’m smitten with the idea of off season travel. 🙂

@Wavemaker. We used Sixt. We picked up and dropped it off near the harbor. A short walk or very short bus ride from the main pedestrian core. It was easy coming and going.

Transatlantic and Palermo to Bologna (much better options for times than flying into Florence where we’ll be staying a few nights) flights booked and now looking to lock in accommodations on Sicily. While I had originally planned to go southwest to eventually wrap around and reach Palermo, I’m reconsidering after receiving some recommendations from friends. Does this possible itinerary make sense?

*Arrive Catania and take train directly to Syracusa/Ortigia. Stay two nights.
*Take train to Taormina and stay two nights. Visit Mt Etna.
*Make our way to Palermo for 3 nights. Day trip to Cefalu. Transportation still tbd. Seems we have options, though, i.e. rental car, train, bus.

That is a painfully short trip to Sicily but those are good destinations. For more efficiency consider staying in Catania, which I think is a very nice and underrated city, and making daytrips to Taormina, Etna and Siracusa (public transport, except probably a day tour to Etna, or maybe find one that combines Etna with Taormina). Staying in Catania would also make your onward travel to Palermo easier. You have only two full days in Palermo, and there is so much to see there including Monreale, that I suggest skipping a Cefalu daytrip. But you can decide that once you’re there.

I understand our time on Sicily is brief, but we’re trying to make the best of it and get a flavor for the island. If we’re lucky, we can return another time! Maybe rent a car and stop in Cerafu on the way to Palermo? Drive the north coast and drop off the car when we get to Palermo?

I am sure that could be done if you really want to see Cefalu and are willing to drive the car into busy Palermo for drop off. I did a thorough tour of Sicily earlier this year, also in the off season, going all over the island for two weeks, including all the other places you plan to visit and much more, but the tour didn’t include Cefalu. So I’m not in the best position to comment definitively on a town I didn’t see. But I can’t say that I ever thought, in any of the other places, gee, I really wish we went to Cefalu instead. I know Rick features it in his Sicily show which inspires some to prioritize it ( as opposed to, say, Ragusa or Marsala). It’s clearly a pretty town, but I think primarily a beach resort these days, so I wouldn’t think it will be very lively in November. I wouldn’t personally give up time in any of your other planned destinations for Cefalu, but that is not of course the same as saying it isn’t worth a visit.

We loved Sicily…except for Cefalu. For what it is worth, we found Cefalu to be super crowded, touristy and unfriendly. It is the one place we visited to which we would not return.

I think it depends on your likes and interests, and also when you are traveling. You are going in low season, so I suspect Cefalu won’t be very crowded unless there is a festival happening. We loved Cefalu (and Taormina) too!) but not everyone does. We are about OPs age and very active/outdoorsy. We love the ocean and nature and do a lot of hiking, which we did in both places. Also beaches- which we enjoyed very much in both places, especially Cefalu. Taormina is very touristy, probably all year. But staying there enables you to enjoy its beauty at night and in the early morning, when day trippers are gone - and you can day trip from there to enjoy Etna etc., and escape the crowds. I think OPs plan is a good one, based on interests mentioned. But I agree with earlier posts that Agrigemto and the Roman mosaics in the center of the island are worth the trip, especially if you have an interest in Greek or Roman history.

Agreed - we loved Taormina and Cefalu. We actually found the people in Cefalu to be very friendly and had a few nice conversations with locals while we were there. This trip we just stayed ln the Eastern side of the island so our third base was Ortigia.

We drove from Cefalu to Taormina along the northern route. As many had warned, we spent a significant amount of time in tunnels so the views were minimal. We enjoyed the few views we did see, but the highway was certainly not “scenic”. We opted not to take the roads through the towns which may have run closer to the coast as we were trying to get to Taormina earlier in the day. I don’t think I would visit Taormina if not staying there due to crowds. It was nice to have mornings and evenings when the town was largely empty after day trippers and cruise ships departed.

We also found that we loved the little towns like Castelmola and Savoca. I know they aren’t for everyone, but we enjoyed being able to wander a bit.

Cefalu isn’t written in stone (my travel companion and I need to get together to plan some of the broad details), but it was brought to my attention by two friends (one lives in Dubai, the other Rome) who are extremely well traveled. Maybe I’ll ask them what they individually loved about Cefalu…

I really appreciate the time and opinions shared by all commenters. It’s really helpful!

BTW - ended up booking flights from Palermo to Bologna where we’ll take the train to Florence. This airport was not on my radar at all (I had considered Pisa, Rome & Florence, but didn’t think of Bologna!) but ended up having the best flight for our purposes - nonstop, early enough in the morning to get us to Florence by early afternoon and cheap. I booked on Wizz and it was $100 for 2 one-way tickets with seat selection and an up to 44lb piece of checked luggage each.

PS - I pack just carryon generally, but know that many of the short flight, budget airlines nickle and dime people for every inch of space occupied. I’ll check my carryon and not having to stress about weight, which would be nice.