sicily/sorrento

I would spend the whole 10 days just in Sicily instead of mixing Southern Italy and Sicily. There is plenty to do in Sicily for 10 days, and I would save Southern Italy for a trip of its own. Your itinerary has you jumping around a lot (geographically) and missing a lot of places in between.

You received similar comments to a prior thread on this topic:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/italy-trip-7bee6338-7296-4f40-92ce-cdc705c47d33

We are planning to make aloop
palermo to taorimina ,taking the car ferry to inland, drive up the coast to Amalfi and Sorrento. We are going in may
Is there a better way?

Have you looked into the drop off fees for the car rental since you want to start in one city and then end in another? You have 6 cities listed for 10 days...that's an aggressive schedule.

You may want to look into flying to/from either Catania or Palermo to Naples. Flights are often quite inexpensive. The drive up the mainland from the Sicily crossing to Sorrento is quite long.

They were not that bad
We like to drive so we have more freedom to go when we want and stop places to explore

I would not want to be driving around the Amalfi Coast or Sorrento in tourist season. The road is difficult when there are no cars. I think 10 days is about the minimum for Sicily by itself. If you want to split between the island and the mainland, fly between them (to Naples) and visit Pompeii and sorrento by local train and Capri by ferry, Amalfi by ferry or bus (ferry's probably faster because the narrow road can mean long traffic delays

We are planning to make a loop

So you are starting your trip in Palermo, ferrying to the mainland, going as far north as Pompeii and then retracing your route back to Palermo to return home?

Any suggestions?

Make it a one way trip and return home departing from Naples, rather than backtracking to Palermo. Whether the rental car drop fee makes it prohibitively expensive is your decision.

EDIT- The 'one way' I was suggesting was the driving part, from Palermo to Naples. OP mentioned 'making a loop' which to me sounds like driving back to Palermo to fly home.

I think joe means "multi-city", not one-way.

You have received better advice than what I will propose, but you seem determined to drive through Sicily and Southern Italy's coast, so here goes:

Fly into Palermo. Drive to Erice, Segesta, Monreale. Three nights.

Stop in Cefalu on the way to Taormina. One night.

Ferry across the straits (make sure your rental company permits this), stay in Tropea. Two nights.

Drive to Paestum or Salerno. One night.

Drive to Sorrento. Two nights.

Drive to Napoli. One night.

Disclaimer: you could not pay me to do this, but I travel slower than most.

You have received better advice than what I will propose, but you seem
determined to drive through Sicily and Southern Italy's coast, so here
goes: Fly into Palermo. Drive to Erice, Segesta, Monreale. Three
nights. Stop in Cefalu on the way to Taormina. One night. Ferry across
the straits (make sure your rental company permits this), stay in
Tropea. Two nights. Drive to Paestum or Salerno. One night. Drive to
Sorrento. Two nights. Drive to Napoli. One night. Disclaimer: you
could not pay me to do this, but I travel slower than most.

Zoe, doesn't one have to backtrack through Palermo to get from Segesta to Monreale? There appears to be one relatively direct back road but it seems quite....adventurous! Maybe if I was younger.... :) Have never driven in Sicily, but aren't the main highways pretty good and not heavily traveled?

Man, that's a lot of one-night stands. I guess this is the itinerary where the traveling itself is part of the overall experience.

As I write this I’m in Amalfi, having driven down the coast road earlier today. This is the second time for that drive and both times it was in December. I love driving and love twisty, turney, hilly roads BUT I would never venture down this road in or near tourist season. Many buses, tour buses, caravans and tourists who don’t have any idea as how to drive on this road. To drive from Sorrento to Amalfi would easily take 3+ hours. And most likely in the 4-5 hour range.

On my first trip to the Amalfi Coast, I also started in Palermo and spent a week on Sicily which let’s you scratch the surface. I went from Palermo to Cefalu then Agrigento, Piazza Armerina, Siracusa, Catania, and Taormina (not overnighting in all of those towns) before taking the ferry in Messina for the drive to Positano.

On Friday, I just completed the Rick Steves’ tour of Sicily and after my two visits I feel you would be doing yourself an injustice by not seeing more of that enchanting island. Your plan will allow you to briefly see but not really learn about or explore your destinations. You’ll also spend a lot of time just packing, unpacking and driving. Do a bit more research and really drill down as to what you’d like to see. In the time you have,I would chose either Sicily or Southern Italy but not both. You could easily spend 10 days exploring Paestum, Salerno, the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii and Herculaneum and finish up with a few days in Naples.

Dolce far niente!

We we in Amalfi in July two years ago. The traffic going into town in the morning was pretty bad. By the time we left (we were on a tour bus) the incoming traffic was bumper to bumper and slowed to a crawl. I have no idea were everyone thought they were going to find parking.

Listen to all the above advice. You do know it will take you a whole day just to drive to Sorrento from Sicily - right? We did the reverse drive several years ago - Sorrento to Sicily, it was a 7+ hour drive. While we enjoyed the experience it is not one we would do again. Fly to Naples, save yourself some time and stress.

Jay, you can go around Palermo to get into the north coast highways.

But as I said, not my kind of trip.

Have you driven in Italy? I drove in Sicily and the roads are very good but the city traffic in Palermo and Catania is as bad as Manhattan. I also drove the Amalfi Coast in February and loved it - but it was often quite difficult driving and it was low season when there were hardly any cars on the road and it was still sometimes hard to find parking.

thanks for all the advise
if we fly into palermo, do sicily and then fly to naples, then how would we visit the amalfi coast because we will have to fly home from naples

also is it a better time to go in september

You can rent a car at Napoli airport, or take a bus to Napoli Centrale, go downstairs to take the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento, bus or ferry to Amalfi Coast. Reverse that part to get back to Napoli.

I took the SITA bus from Sorrento to Amalfi. Very easy. Yes, I would go in September instead of peak of summer.

Or you could go from Naples to Salerno by train and use that as a base for the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, even Paestum.

so if we fly from palermo to naples and then take the train to salerno, wouldnt that be just as long as driving from messina to almalfi?

If you insist on driving, maybe it's the same.

You can find out via Google or Rome2Rio roughly how long each option would take. A flight between Naples and Palermo is about 1 hour; the train between Naples and Salerno is about 40 min to 1 hour.