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Sicily itinerary advice for 3 weeks w young family

Posted by on

Hi there -
We are a well traveled couple now traveling as a family of 4 - a 3.5 year old and an 8 month old. We’re planning on Sicily for 3 weeks at the end of May 2023 as part of a 6 week Europe trip. This is longer than most itineraries but looking to travel slow as we have the time and given the age of our kids. Looking for itinerary suggestions/advice.

- Ideally staying a few nights per location given we are traveling heavier than normal
- Not planning on Mt Etna given young kids (and we’ve hiked up a volcano before!)
- Based on forums we chose Cefalu over Taormina, thoughts?
- Sad we don’t have Salina (Aeolian islands) but seemed like too much to fit in.
- Not spending much time in Palermo given we are with young ones
- Love history and historic sites, big foodies, hiking
- Typically very active travellers, my husband can’t sit long on a beach but its great for kids to play

Any spots we’re missing that a toddler would love? General thoughts?

Day 1: arrive Palermo, get rental car and drive to San Vito Day 2-4: San Vito - adjust to time zone and long travel while spending time on the beach and playing, little local adventures if we are up to it
Day 5-7: Trapini - Erice cable car, Mozia island salt flats, potentially see ruins en route
Day 8-9: Agrigento - see Selinute en route, stay near temple
Day 10-13: Agritourismo - swim in pool and play in playground, day trips to Ragusa and Noto, hopefully a cooking class - thinking Le Chiuse di Guadagna
Day 14-16: Syracuse - stay in old town, boat tour?
Day 17-19: Cefalu - beach, hill hike?
Day 20: Palermo - return car at airport, bus in for 1 day/night before flight or ferry to next destination (tbd!)

Posted by
11616 posts

Siracusa, stay on Ortigia Island, historic area.
Good plan to skip Taormina.
Agrigento- stay near temples, not up in city. We had a good experience at Colleverde Park Hotel.
Wonderful staff and dining room.
Selinunte- right after you enter there are golf carts you can get on which I highly recommend. This is a very large area of ruins that are located along the water.

Posted by
7214 posts

In Agrigento we stayed at B&B Villa San Marcos and walked to the temples from it. It’s down a dirt road and we looked up how to get to it before heading over. It did have a pool. It’s like an agritourismo as it also offered dinner nightly. We enjoyed it. We had looked at the Colleverde Park Hotel but it was already booked.

Haven’t been to the Mozia Island salt flats, but we did visit the Trapani and Marsala salt farms. We like the Marsala ones better. Both are off of very, very rural roads. We went to Agrigento, then Selinunte, and for us that was temple overload. We only went to the closest temples at Selinunte and moved on. Between those two places was the small town of Lido Rossello. It had a nice beach and one can get a close up look of the type rocks that are at the Scala dei Turchi.

Posted by
9 posts

Please let me know your final itinerary and how it worked out. We are in the beginning phases of also planning our first international trip. Have been to Italy twice prior for longer trips (3 weeks each time) but haven't traveled internationally with kids yet. Kids are 3 and 1 years old. Looking at 3 week trip. Lookiing at flying to Rome from Dallas and staying a week in Rome then flying to Palermo and staying 2 weeks (+/- couple of days) in Sicily. Then fly back to Rome, stay overnight in hotel connected to airport and fly back to States the next day. I'm assuming any airport transport is going to be costly and time consuming with carseats.

What I would like to do:
3 nights Palermo (to see churches and cathedral) and to rest after Rome flight.
3-4 night Cefalu because it has sandy beaches and the kids will love that
Taormina 3-4 nights because it looks stunning and could give more downtime for kids swimming, etc. Would probably splurge a little here for hotel with view
4 nights Syracuse

My husband would like to see the Agritourismo. Was maybe thinking for a driver for a day. Otherwise we could stay a night there, butr I hate staying anywhere for just 1 or 2 nights with kids this young. I'm also concerned about the physical toll with 2 very young kids at these places. My one year old isn't walking yet and he's heavy to baby wear.

Also haven't figured out logistics of how to connect to these places, besides we would probably fly into Palermo and fly out of Cantenia.

Posted by
2817 posts

Are you proposing to see both Selinunte and Agrigento in one day? That would be too much even without having young children I think. I would pick one. I would pick Selinunte with young kids because 1) it is less crowded 2) you can actually go into the temples 3) there are golf carts to ride in.

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