sicily itinerary-feedback

We are doing the reverse next May. We will drive from Agrigento to Villa Roman del Casale 2 hours- Visit the site 2 hours maybe lunch then 1.5 hour drive to Ragusa. So you could probably do that in one day on your way to Agrigento and still have time to view the Valley of Temples, or view the site the next morning before heading to Palermo. Just a suggestion.

For Siracusa, you want to stay in it’s historic district on Ortigia. Add a day to your stay there.

One of my very favorite spots in Sicily was Erice, in the NW corner. Ancient stone hill town (was called Oryx in Greek times), great cuisine and baked goods, some beautiful views. Much better staying there than a day trip, I spent two nights. Very misty and mysterious in the late evenings and early mornings, at least when I was there. Quite easy to visit Segesta and/or Trapani from Erice, but try not to do that en route with your luggage in the car.

Thanks for the input!

Shelley-My concern has been leaving luggage in the car while touring. Will have to weigh risks.

Larry-Erice was on my list but think it will have to be next time. I had not considered staying in town so will file it away. There just is too much to see for one trip!

Suki- I had thought of adding the day Siracusa (staying in Ortigia) but had so many options running through my head. Somehow when I read your post, I knew that was the thing to do! It will give us 3-4-3-1-4 for stays which I think will work well.

I think your itinerary is really solid. I feel you on the one-night stay thing, but this is one of the few cases where I think it’s the best option. Without it, there’s just a lot more driving than I would prefer. Coming from Ragusa, you’re not driving on the Autostrada and it can be a bit challenging/stressful. The roads are good, but it’s mountainous country. I did something similar and ended up wishing I just did overnights. It just made for long days. I didn’t feel like there was much to justify additional nights in those towns either.

Also, you have three nights in Ragusa, which I’m assuming you’re using as a base to explore the hill towns. A daytrip to Villa Romana would really eat up one of those days. I don’t see the upside to that.

I had not thought about roads. Honestly, I didn’t even realize there would be mountains!! So thanks for the heads up. I will have to think about this some more. Maybe I just need another night in Sicily!

I've been on this horse before, but I think 3 nights in Taormina is too much. From Catania, in the best of worlds, its an hour trip, but that's not allowing time for airport formalities (minimal) and getting to the transportation that will get you to Taormina. So yes, you'll be pretty tired upon arrival and if you need serious sleep before getting started, you may need three nights. I don't think Taormina, is worth more than a day so could you reduce your overnights to two there? I agree with others in that I would add a day to Siracusa, or to Palermo which would allow you to visit Cefalu, but it would be a shame to be in Palermo without going to Monreale, too. Each will eat up a half day.

Or, what if you cut out the overnights in Taormina entirely, and head directly to Siracusa from the airport? You could add those overnights to Siracusa (and/or Palermo). Then from Siracusa, do a day trip to Taormina. I didn't look anything up, but I'm pretty sure it exists. That would give you a few extra days to work with and you wouldn't be using time backtracking up to Taormina and back through Catania to Siracusa.

I'm with team husband on avoiding the one-night stays. Power sightseers can do Ragusa in a solid day, but you could stretch that a bit and day trip to Villa Romana del Casale from there, minimizing your one-night stays. Or with an early start and good driving luck you could start at Villa Romana, (which would be good as it is crowded in the afternoon), and go on to Agrigento. Valley of the Temples will take a few hours, but I'd allow a few hours for the museum as well. If you want to both, I don't think you could do all three comfortably in one day. So depending on your priorities, you'd need at least one night, and maybe two in Agrigento. After the temples and museum, there's really not that much to see in Agrigento that would fill two days. You may want to consider figuring out how to squish Agrigento's sights into one day and make that your one-night stop.

We spent considerable time in Trapani, and it's a nice little town, but there are no real "sights" to see. We used it as a base for a bunch of day trips and a few rest days. Is there something in particular that you want to see/do in Trapani or perhaps a specific day trip from there? Being a glass-half-empty person, I wouldn't leave the luggage in the car either, but squeezing in a maximum number of stops may require that you keep moving for a day or two and require that the luggage be kept in the car..

wanderlust-I understand the reservations about 3 nights in Taormina. I originally wasn't going to go there at all. Then my husband talked to a co-worker from Sicily who said he had to visit Mt. Etna. I was going to let him do that from Catania and I was going to take the train to Randazzo. (I climbed Mt. Vesuvius and that was enough volcano hiking for me). Your posts on the train discouraged me and I decided Taormina would be more pleasant. We stayed in Oia on Santorini and managed to enjoy the beauty despite the crowds so figure we have some experience on how to do this (number 1 is to have your own balcony). Once we decided to fly into Catania, 3 nights became necessary. I think it will be too much to do a day trip to Mt. Etna the day after a transatlantic flight so we need to have two days which is three nights there. We would plan to leave first thing the next day for Siracusa and there appear to be some direct trains.

We have four nights in Palermo so I think that will allow us to visit Monreale which I agree would be a shame to miss.

I think I am leaning towards adding day to Siracusa and either doing Villa Romana del Casale on the way or not at all.

Thanks for all your input.

I wanted to go to Trapani because I wanted to see west coast. I think we will have to come back!

We are beginning--finally--to plan a 14-day trip to Italy, split between Sicily & Rome. On our first trip to Italy in 2010, we flew into Catania and stayed 4 nights in Taormina. That was my first Italian experience, seeing Teatro Greco with a lemon granita. I've been back to Italy two other times, but nothing gave me the same thrill as Taormina.

Yes, it's touristy. But it's gotta be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and finally, after 13 years, we'll go back, for a week. We'll base in Taormina, and through a company that really helped us out back then--Sicily Life. If we decide to do a second base, maybe it will be Trapani. One cannot do a daytrip from Taormina there, as it's a 4 hour drive, it's even 3 hours to Palermo. And no, even though I heard the highways are quite nice, the prospect of having my auto burglarized will curb any thought of driving.

Hi BethFL- I’ll add another nod for Taormina. We spent 2 nights in 2014. As mentioned up thread it is convenient to visit Mt. Etna. Memorable thrill to walk the Volcano. Taormina is a gorgeous medieval hill town perched on a slope high above the Ionian Sea. Fond memories going to a concert at Teatro Greco, & wandering alleys to explore off the beaten path. Taormina is especially magical early morning & evening. I have a favorite photo taken of Cumulus clouds that looked like cotton balls. We enjoyed the best Arancini in Sicily at Rosticceria Da Christina. Our plan was to return in 2020 as a day trip to Taormina. Highly recommend 2 nights for first timer!

We stayed 5 nights in Ortigia as a base to visit Noto, Ragusa & Modica. Ortigia is absolutely magical. We walked everywhere. Spectacular ancient ruins, fountains & narrow alleyways to explore. We enjoyed visiting the Archimedes Museum. Our B&B location was minutes to restaurants & sites. Hope you consider adding another night to Ortigia!

Beth, we were set to go to Sicily in 2020 (of course that didn't happen) and excluded Taormina from our itinerary based on suggestions from forum posters. Like you, we visited Santorini, which as we know is not universally loved on this forum, and managed to avoid the crowds for the most part and really enjoyed it. I've decided that sometimes the beauty of a place is enough to warrant the expense and the crowds. Whenever we decide to make that Sicily trip happen, we will include Taormina for a short visit. Good luck with your planning!

Thanks for the positive feedback on Taormina. I think you can enjoy different things about a place. And I do think like Santorini, it is the beauty not how authentic it is.
And I agree that two nights would be ideal except that we will be arriving in evening the night before from a transatlantic flight and my husband is keen on going to Mt Etna. We don’t always move fast that first morning and the tours seem to leave at 8:30 am.

Your plan is a good one. Three nights in Taormina is not too much, especially if one day will be spent going to Mt Etna. We were there for 4 nights and only experienced crowds one day (it was a holiday).

You’ll also be glad you have 4 nights in Ortigia. Have you planned your transfer from Taormina to Ortigia? Since your time in Sicily is precious, and since there are four of you to share the cost, I’d take a serious look at a driver to take you from your hotel in Taormina to the one in Ortigia.

Sicily is like Crete — too much to see in one visit!

We stopped in Piazza Armerina for the day on route from Agrigento to Noto. There were many tour bus drivers standing around outside next to their buses plus we saw a guard in the lot too. The lot was filled with cars so we took the chance leaving our luggage hidden in the trunk of our car. Nothing bad happened! We have been robbed while traveling so are very careful.
We spent two nights at Taormina which was enough as we didn’t visit Mt. Etna. We have visited quite a few other volcanoes.: Taormina was our least favorite place in Sicily, over touristed, jam packed with cruise ship tours. Won’t return.

Beth, a fun few hours from Taormina: four of us shared a taxi for about 2 hours, driving very uphill outside of Taormina, to the small old stone hill town of Castlemola. Wandered for maybe an hour, small lanes, shops, a castle. Their specialty is almond wine. Then on the way back, we stopped at the 12th century church carved into a rock wall, a very small and earthy sanctuary. (Madonna Della Rocco) From the little terrace in front of the church, there is a great view down over Taormina, including a view of the Greek theater. A memorable couple of hours.

Thanks everyone!

Charlene-with Crete I KNEW i couldn’t see the whole island and didn’t even research the eastern part. With Sicily I kept reading how it was a two week destination and thought I could see it all. I have since decided it is a three week destination so I will have to be content seeing part of it.

On the private driver-it looks like there are multiple direct trains to Siracusa taking two hours which seems ok. Is there something I don’t know? I did see that train station is down a hill so thought might be better to take taxi there.

Suki-thanks for your experience at Villa Romans del Casale. That might be better than doing a day trip. We have been to Mt Vesuvius and frankly I am not that charmed by a trip to Mt Edna either. I might do something else that day!

Larry-I was planning actually to visit Castlemola! Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Driver vs train just depends on your tolerance for multi-step transfers: taxi to a train, then a train ride, then a taxi to your hotel vs being picked up at one hotel & delivered to the next. Admittedly this may be a function of age, but the less I have to handle my suitcase, the happier I am.

Beth, I’ll just add that we took the train from Taormina to Siracusa. We found it a convenient 2 hr trip. I recall we bought our tickets the day before at a travel agency in town. When we took our day tour to Noto, Ragusa and Modica our driver stopped at Tellaro Roman Villa. It’s a smaller site than the Roman Villa of Casale in Piazza Armerina, but still amazing if interested in mosaics. https://www.sicilyonweb.com/tellaro-roman-villa/

Charlene-I really don’t mind schlepping my luggage too much and like the extra space you usually get on trains so probably will stick with that as long as they work reasonably well.
Janis/thanks for sharing that you took the train and the website. I had read that there was another Roman site with mosaics but didn’t have information on it!