Sicily in winter: Would it work?

I’ve been to Sicily in late November and also in the week leading up to Christmas. The only problem was the Archaeological Park in Siracusa closed at noon on the day of my visit to allow employees some time to prepare for Christmas. Unless you’re heading to beach areas like Taormina, I doubt that you’ll find many closures. To visit Sicily is a marvelous experience. In the time you have, not knowing into which city you’ll arrive, I would stay a few days and use public transportation for day trips. If you’re starting in Palermo, you could visit Monreale and Cefalu. But then, I would rent a car for a few days and choose between touring Segesta, Erice and Trapani, then heading to Agrigento. Piazza Armerina and the Roman villa would be next, followed by visits to Ragusa and Modica. Then stay in Siracusa where you could lose the car. From here you could easily use public transport to Catania, Etna and Taormina. It would be whirlwind to visit all the places I mentioned so I’d advise looking at tour guides to see what would interest you most.

I’d suggest booking “open jaw” using Palermo and Catania as your airports so you wouldn’t have to double back to your starting point.

Thanks, Philip, for the reassurance that many/most places will be open. I also appreciate your ideas about itinerary. However, I am NOT going to rent a car. That's a deal-breaker for me. If the only way to really see Sicily is by rental car, then that trip will have to wait until I have someone else along to share the navigating. I have trained and bused on my own all around Tuscany and Umbria - though I suspect that Sicily may be a bit more challenging re. the bus system. However, I'm hoping that it can be done by public transportation - and day tours - although it may somewhat limit where I can go.

As long as you're not looking for beaches, I don't see why anything of interest to you would be closed in the winter (except, as said above, right at the Christmas holiday). Of course, if you have your heart set on a specific sight, you should check; it may have shorter hours in the winter.

With two weeks, as long as you accept that getting places will take longer by train or bus than they would by car, and that you cannot see the whole island in that time, and that you can't stay in really rural areas, you'll be fine with public transportation. For many trips you will have to change transit modes; for instance, to get to the Villa Romana outside Piazza Armerina, you'll likely have to take a bus to Piazza Armerina, then another local bus to the villa.

I had a car, so I have no direct information on buses, except that I know there are buses from Catania airport direct to various places in eastern Sicily (no need to change in downtown Catania). There were also various day tours readily available from Taormina (they're advertised downtown at travel agencies). Actually, this is the kind of thing that may be curtailed in the winter, so again, check if it's important to you (your Taormina accommodation will know).

To look for bus information, I'd use the trick that acraven taught me for Spain. Use Rome2Rio to search for your desired route, and see which bus company or companies turn up. Then, go directly to that bus company's website to confirm information about routes, fares, etc. Never trust Rome2Rio as a final source, but it's a great place to start.

I did Sicily totally by public transportation in 2015. It was summer, but since the public transportation is mainly set up for residents, I don't think it will be sharply curtailed in the winter. However, you must be careful about Sundays and holidays. Very, very few buses run then, so you should plan to stay put on those days.

I was able to get to all of these places in 17-18 days (I tend to be a slow traveler): Catania, around base of Mt. Etna, Taormina, Siracusa, Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Scicli, Piazza Armerina, Villa Romana del Casale (took taxi from P.A.; not sure about winter buses), Caltagirone, Palermo, Cefalu, Trapani, Egadi Idlands (not especially recommended even for summer travel), and Erice. You'll note that I didn't list any of the isolated Greek sites; they are not my thing, though I liked the archaeological park and archaeological museum in Siracusa.

In roughing out your itinerary, don't forget how short the days will be.

Does R. Steves have winter tours to Sicily? If so, maybe that is an option. No driving. We went last June and enjoyed greatly.

We've done five weeks in Sicily over two different trips, all by public transportation. Can't speak to what will/will not be open. One of our trips began about March 20 and it was on the cold and rainy side part of the time. Other days were hot and sunny. I would throw out Siracusa (stay on Ortygia) and Cefalu as a couple of our favorites, though it really depends on your interests. Taormina is beautiful and you should visit it if you can, including Isola Bella, but you might not want to spend a great deal of time there on a winter trip.

Like others, we have also spent 2-3 weeks in Sicily and traveled solely via public transportation. It is quite doable, but takes a good deal of research. Buses reign in Sicily, but there are several different companies available and which one you use depends on your place of departure and your destination. Also, be aware that schedules are generally very limited on Sundays, so you will need to plan around that day. During our trips we deliberately avoided traveling on Sundays, even if it meant staying a day longer in a place. Here are a few links to bus to get you started:

http://www.interbus.it/
http://www.saisautolinee.it/
http://www.saistrasporti.it/

Buon Viaggio!

Oh my, these responses are so helpful! Thank you all for suggestions of itineraries, places to stay, links to transportation companies, and reminders not to attempt public transportation travel on holidays! I really really appreciate all of this help. It gives me a very good framework to help me start to sketch out how these 12 days (over two major holidays!) might work. I do have Rough Guide Sicily... and wish Rick's upcoming Sicily book was already published, but sounds like that's too far in the future to help me with this trip. Thank you, everyone, again!

Others have reported that Mondays are good days to travel since many sights are closed that day.

We did two+ weeks in Sicily in late Dec. a couple of yrs ago, mostly with OAT, Overseas Adventure Travel. Their website will have the itinerary specifics, you can cherrypick & google from there. Granted, all was with a guide & charter bus, but, main point, sites et al were open. We did drive on our own for several days, with the same ease for restaurants etc. Weather was fine, low 60's- mid 40'sF, a few inconsequential showers. Though on Dec. 31 it snowed near Palermo!, first time in decades. LOVED Sicily. Happy travels!