Sicily seaside town to stay

Look at Taormina on the eastern coast; Cefalu on the northern coast; or Agrigento on the southern coast.

You might want to try an agritourismo out in the country; like Villa Dafne near Alia.

Check Segesta. We stayed there while on a bike trip. Walked to the beach...toured Segesta ruins (quite a lot!)

Very nice/small town, no American tourists in May.

Ellen - we loved the town of Acireale. It is in between Taormina and Catania. We used it as a base to see Taormina (which is a bigger very touristy city - full of honeymooners when we were there), Etna, & Siracusa. Note, this is on the east side, not near the big ruin sites but there are still lots of ruins, and a lot to see on that side of the island. Acireale had, I think 2 real restaurants and a bar/cafe. We stayed at the wonderful Palazzo Giovanni - a family B&B with the friendliest hosts and views of both the sea and Etna from the rooftop patio where breakfast is served.

We also stayed near Marsala which I found to be a nice town, still not small, but not very touristy and near enough that we could see Segestra, Selinunte, Erice.

Seaside + greek ruins + not big + non touristy = Siracusa

It's a good base for Taormina, Noto, Etna. A little to far for the other major sites as a day trip though.

Of all these suggestions, Acireale would be the best.

Acireale is a larger town, but local and on the coast. Taormina and Cefalu are touristy; Agrigento doesn’t have the best beaches; Segesta is inland; and Siracusa is seaside, but a city and busy.

Southern Italy has more in the way of Greek ruins. Look around Eraclea Minoa, or Sciacca, and even Scopello in the northwest, which is near Segesta and an easy reach to Selinunte.

Cindy - one other comment. I know you said you are not into big cities but we were in Sicily with two older teens (17 &19) and they both really liked Palermo. It is definitely big and a little crazy but we found it so different from other Italian cities - a little edgier but still lots of REALLY interesting things to see. We also had a week and we spent 2 nights in Palermo, 2 near Marsala, and the other 3 in Acireale.

On our way from Sicily to Tuscany, we stayed in Tropea - a beach resort area in Southern italy that was filled with Europeans but few Americans. It was a beautiful area with really great beaches and we did spend 2 "beach days" here.

Also, not sure where else you are planning on going, but we also stayed in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast so that we could see Pompeii and I remembered how beautiful it was from being there before. In hindsight though, it was NOT the best place to be with my 17 year old son. Again, the area was FILLED with honeymooners or whole families actually there fore the many weddings that were taking place. It was just a little "fancy" and though he was a good sport about it all, this was probably his least favorite part of our trip.

I agree that Cefalu, Toaramina and Agregento are the best seaside spots. Cefalu was my favorite

Karen, thanks for the feedback for traveling with teen-aged boys. Mine are younger than yours - 12 and 15 - and I know they will want to find things to do. We live in the woods in northern Minnesota and my husband really wants this to be a relaxing trip - big cities (especially foreign ones!) totally stress him out.

We're planning to also go to Rome and stay a week in one of the hilltowns (maybe Cortona or Volterra) and daytrip around the area. May also hit CT or another coastal town if we want more coastal scenary than what we already get in Sicily.