Sicily lodging

Jo, we were planning a revisit to Sicily for Sept./October 2020. We were going to follow Priscilla’s itinerary with a few tweaks (see link). We had planned about 28 nights (including a couple nights in Rome). Our plan was to travel the island by Bus and add a driver from Agrigento to Ortigia visiting sites along the way. All our accommodations were refundable and every host was gracious when we had to cancel.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/my-trip-to-sicily-in-zoe-s-memory/

i will share our itinerary but we rented a car and I can’t imagine touring Sicily without one.
We picked it up as we left Palermo.
Palermo, five nights
Trapani with half day at Segesta
Agrigento, two nights
Stopped at Villa Romana Casale
Noto, one night
Ortigia Is/ Siracusa- one week, dropped off car when arrived.
Driver to Taormina
Taormina, two nights
Catania
Driver to airport

Rick has a new guidebook to Sicily. It should help you in deciding what towns to visit. The hotel advice my also be helpful, though who knows about the post-COVID world?

During my trip to Sicily, we only used the bus and trains. The bus seemed to be a better match for going to smaller towns vs, the train schedules. Lodging was all done at AirBnB's which lived up to their listed descriptions.

Flew into Catania, bus to Syracuse/Ortygia. (3 nights)

Bus to Villaggio Mosè, just south of Agrigento, (4 nights) walking distance to San Leone. . Day trip by bus to Sciacca.

Bus to Palermo (4 nights), day trip by train to Cefalu, day trip by bus to Piana (my Father's birthplace). Prestia e Comande bus to Palermo airport for flight out.

Did anyone add a hop over to Malta during their Sicily trip. We were thinking of combining the two places. Jo, have you thought about Malta?

We have a few people here who've posted about trips to Malta. The Search function may uncover their posts.

Thanks, i will do a search.

Any recommended towns

Check out the "Itinerary" section for a starting point

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/sicily

Thanks everyone, I guess I really wasn't clear with my question..we're trying to find information on fall festivals and planning to visit towns around them. I know festivals in small towns dont seem to be posted till the last minute. I would just hate to miss something because were in a town thats too far away on short notice.

Jo, if you are specifically looking for festivals, I would do some internet searches to get started. I find they are often listed on tourism bureau websites. Just googling "Sicily" and "festivals" brings up many hits.

We have checked the Sicily sites as suggested, the problem is information is very general with givings seasons. "Many towns with fall festivals". How to be in the right town at the right time? Main holidays are dated but small towns with Saint or food festivals are not... I'm feeling the only way would be to randomly contact hotels in towns we would like.

Rick lists some festivals in his Sicily guidebook. I've found the DK Eyewitness Guides very good for listing market days in the towns they cover. I imagine they have decent coverage of festivals as well. Older editions of the DK guides can often be found online; for this purpose they may be about as useful as the current edition, given the lead time for publication.

It's true that exact dates are often not readily available online very far in advance. You see posters advertising them in neighboring towns after you arrive in the area. If you know there is historically a specific kind of festival held in a specific town, that makes it more likely you'll find some sign of it online. Googling the Italian translation may help.

Thanks everyone for the help....We're all keeping positive about traveling to Italy soon.

Here is one of the search results I saw, there are dates though they change according to year (like first Tuesday of given month).
http://www.sicily-tour.com/festivals-of-sicily

Once you know where you’re going, I can tell you where we stayed on our Sicily trip, if we stayed in a city you’re visiting.

First; I added Malta to my trip and loved it. I spent 4 days there and could have spent more but at least see the town oc Valleta and harbor area. Lots of history, postcard picture pretty everywhere, friendly.

For Sicily, I loved Siricusa and Palermo, but spending the nights in the smaller towns is quiter and very enjoyable. Places like Erice and Modica are wonderful in the evenings when the majority of tourists leave. Public transport works but eats a lot of time due to less service than the mainland.