Sicily Itinerary Advice: Palermo to Catania Route

I wasn't much of a fan of Taormina. I suggest Randazzo, near Mt. Etna. Do a day trip to Taormina if you want to see it. Catania has a lot of Baroque cathedrals, we liked the city and enjoyed Mt. Etna views in the background. The fish market is also fun. We stayed in Agrigento two nights to give us a full day for the Valley of the Temples.

If you did Mt. Etna/Taormina before Ortigia, you could return the car upon arrival to Ortygia. Then use the train to go to Noto, and take a bus to the Catania airport. You don't need a car for Ortygia and a car would just make it more complicated.

EDITED: I think you have a pretty well planned trip. Many would tweak it some. I think you need more time in Ortygia. We loved it and its a forum favorite. Also, Palermo could use more time especially if you plan to go to Monreale and Cefalu

EDITED AGAIN: You definitely do not want a car in Palermo!

We spent two wonderful weeks in Sicily on an Overseas Adventure Travel tour in 2024 and went to most of those places. If you like Roman ruins and especially Roman mosaics, I urge you to fit in the site I found the most impressive of the whole trip: Villa Romana del Casale. Unlike Pompeii, where nearly all the mosaics have disappeared or been moved to the archeological museum in Naples to protect them, at Villa Romana del Casale, you see them in situ. They have protected them by building elevated walkways. It can get very crowded when the tour groups roll in, so you want to be there when it opens at 9 am, or perhaps late afternoon when they've rolled out again. It's open until 6 pm. I'd allow 2 hours or so. It's located near Piazza Armerina, which is about 90 minutes east of Agrigento. Ragusa is then about 90 minutes southeast from there, so not terribly out of your way. Here's Rick's video on it: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/sicily-mosaics

Other thoughts:
Your general route makes sense to me; it's similar to the route we took. Can't help you with parking or lodging, as we were on a bus tour and mostly stayed in the historic centers. Didn't go to Trapani, Cefalù, Segesta, Scicli, or Noto.
Agrigento - 2-3 hours is plenty for the Valley of the Temples
Modica - It was OK, but very similar in feel to Ragusa (hill towns with lots of steps and beautiful views). I prefer Ragusa, but we stayed in Ragusa and only had a few hours in Modica, so that probably skews my take on them.
Monreale - definitely. Pretty impressive church, and a lovely view of Palermo and the sea

Have a wonderful time. We enjoyed Sicily very much.

I would generally agree with Jules M, except that I would consider reducing, rather than adding to the time in Ortigia. It's fine, but I thought half a day there was enough -- especially since you have so little time (just one full day and parts of two others at most) for Taormina and the Mt. Etna and Catania area. I'm saying that not so much because I love Taormina -- it's beautiful, but it's small, crowded, touristy and pricey -- but because there's so much else around there. I was glad our tour spent four nights in Catania, an underrated city, with just a day trip to Taormina, rather than the reverse. One night in Agrigento is plenty. En route from Agrigento to Ragusa don't miss the Roman Villa near Piazza Armerina -- I've seen plenty of Roman sites but this one is really special. It's good that you're spending four nights in Palermo, well worth it, and also that you're getting to western Sicily which many travelers don't do. I wasn't overly impressed by the salt pans though. Ragusa is very good. The other baroque towns in that area also are good, or so I hear (the only other one I've been to is an evening in Modica), but there is enough similarity between them that if you spend sufficient time in Ragusa, which I think you are, I wouldn't stress too much if you miss the other ones given that your itinerary is overall pretty ambitious to see a big island. If you wanted a less whirlwind trip, I think the part of it I would eliminate is the far west, much as I did like that area -- but there isn't anything there that I would consider a "must see" compared to the other places you're going.

Whether one night in Agrigento is enough depends on when you arrive. Too late in the day and you won’t be able to visit the temples so you’d need to see the temples on the same day as you check out of your lodging, meaning your luggage would be in the rental car in a large parking lot while you’re visiting the temples.

We spent 3 hours viewing the temples.

I feel Trapani is worth a day at most while Erice can be seen in a couple hours. You can visit the salt farm (Trapani or Marsala) en route to Agrigento. I liked the Marsala salt farm better.

Thank you all for your suggestions! I am taking note!

To be honest, you really do not want a car in Palermo, so pick it up at the end of your stay there. Then I suggest dropping the car off at the Catania airport on your way to Taormina from Ortigia. There is a direct bus from the airport to Taormina, and again, there just is no place to park, or need, for a car there. Again, there is a direct bus to the airport (Interbus) from Taormina.

I agree with the suggestion for Villa Romano!!

I will say we used almost the entire day at Valley of the Temples.

Your plan looks excellent to me! Your route is about 3x more sensible than ours was last year (we drove from the west coast to the east coast, then back to the west coast). I agree with others that the Villa Romana would be a great addition.

We stayed in apartments and one B&B, rather than hotels, but parking was never a problem.

For what it's worth, my husband thought both Erice and Ortigia could have been day trips, I would have been happy with 1 or 2 nights in each instead of the 3 we stayed. I would have liked more than our 5 nights in Palermo and really want to return to it, he would have liked more than our 3 nights in Catania.

I don’t know what to say about Taormina since we didn’t go there on either of our trips to Sicily, except that it is probably one of those absolutely-beautiful-but-over-run-with-tourists places (like the Cinque Terre and the Amalfi Coast where we have also never been) that may benefit from your staying a night or two in order to see it evening and morning without so many people. Maybe not a good base? We sure liked Randazzo as a base at the foot of Etna.

Here’s my Sicily trip report: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sicily-spring-2025

I know you will have a wonderful time!

Pretty well constructed. A couple random comments -

The reason to do 2 nights in Agrigento is because you want a full day starting early if you want to see the site and the museum. And because it's a full day with a lot of walking under the sun, it makes sense to overnight there and get a start onward in the morning.

You can do your Monreale "day trip" as you leave Palermo on the way to Trapani.

The mosaics at the Villa Casale are not to be missed. It makes a good stop on the way to Ragusa.

I think it all looks good from here. I think an overnight in Agrigento is a solid logical stop. Yes, it’s only 3hrs or so to see the temples, but I’d rather have some breathing room there. I don’t think you need more than that though. Seeing the site later in the day when you drive in is probably ideal.

No Villa Romana? It’s a must-see in my book. If you got a nice jump leaving Agrigento it’s something you can see en route eastward.