Sicily - Stay put or move around

With that little time - and given your interest in Mt. Etna - I would just concentrate on the eastern side of the island. Fly into Catania and base yourself around there. I'm not sure what salt flats you're referring too, but if you mean the ones close to Trapani on the western side, I would save those for another time. You really don't have enough time to zigzag all over the island - I would stick to one region only for 6 days (6 days is really a short time for a place like Sicily). In 6 days, you can see: Mt. Etna, Taormina, Giardini-Naxos, Catania, Siracusa, etc - all of them are located on the eastern side. I'm thinking Giardini Naxos may be a good pick for your base since it has a beach and is well-situated relative to Mt. Etna. I'm not sure you need two bases but it ultimately depends how much of a radius you want to make from Catania.

This is a good free guide to get you started - it has a decent map you should look at when gauging where to base yourself:
http://www.bestofsicily.com/index.htm
http://www.bestofsicily.com/roadmap.htm

Thanks Agnes! Agreed, the Taormina area looks perfect for us and Giardini-Naxos looks like a great base. I never would have found that town. Thanks! We are flying out of Palermo (only one stop back to the states vs 2, hence a much shorter flight) so we will drive over. I wish we had a month!

Yikes, I didn't realize you were flying out of Palermo...are you flying into Palermo as well? In that case, you should stick to the western side of the island with only 6 days (or you may need two bases after all, depending on when your flight is). Whatever time savings you get from one less connection will be spend driving from the eastern side of the island to Palermo on the western side (if you were to stay around Taormina area). I'm not sure, but there also may be steep drop off fees if you rent and drop the car off at different places (Catania Airport, Palermo Airport). You don't need a rental car in Sicily but you need to have a little leeway with bus/train schedules. I did without a rental car...it was a little less efficient where I was, but I was able to easily get to Taormina with a bus from Siracusa (south of Catania). But on Sundays, the public transport is really limited. Good luck with your planning!

Kelly---

We stayed in Taormina for 4 nights in 2010--our first stop on our first trip to Italy--and it was magnificent. We flew into Catania, so it was a 45 minute drive north. No beaches really, so Giardini Naxos might be a better choice, but only for that aspect. Taormina is the hub in the area, where stuff happens. The food is tremendous, shopping great, the Teatro Greco magnificent. A wonderful, albeit a little touristy, place.

While there, we used Sicily Life (https://www.sicilylife.com/) for a killer trip to the sites in the medieval villages above Taormina--Forza D'Agro, Savoca, Castelmola--where scenes from 'The Godfather' were shot. Also visited some creepy catacombs in the area, where the mummified remains are dressed up! Wanted to use Sicily Life for an Etna tour as well but there wasn't enough time.

If you're flying in & out of Palermo, there's frankly no way around the 3-hour drive (by car, a little longer by bus) to/from Taormina, but 6 days/5 nights really isn't enough time to have two bases. I'd stay in Taormina and take taxis to and from the beach on the days you want to go. Probably 10 Euro for a 10 minute ride. If you walked, it would be about 45 minutes, downhill there, but a strenuous uphill on the way back. I wonder if a hotel would have a shuttle?

Enjoy your planning!

Kelly,
Just be forewarned that Taormina is super pricey compared to all other places in Sicily. I visited for a day but would not have liked to stay there overnight unless it was a truly special occasion. There are far better values in Sicily - Taormina has higher costs on just about everything - food, lodging, goods/gifts, etc. It's like the "Capri" of Sicily - super exclusive and super touristy, with prices to match. Yes, it's extraordinarily beautiful, but at a high cost. There is a nice beach below via a funicular called Isola Bella. I would pick Giardini Naxos if you have any budget constraints. The bus service is very decent, and there is also a train stop there as well. While not hanging off a cliff (like Taormina), it has nice beach fronts and is very close to Taormina via a short bus ride that takes you almost to the gate of the town.

Thank you Agnes and Jay! We re looking forward to our stay!

I like to stay in Giardini Naxos, on the beach. I've always had a car but I'm sure there are buses up to Taormina. Siracusa could be another base on the same side of the island. 3 nights in Giardini and 2 or 3 in Siracusa would be good.

We are home and LOVED Sicily. I thought I would follow up on my own question – to stay in one place or move around. We chose to move around. With so many places to visit in the world, sometimes you only have the one chance. That said, either choice is right. We could have easily spent 5/6 days in each town.
TAORMINA (3 nights) is a perfectly preserved hilltop town with pedestrian streets, tourist shops and restaurants one after another. Vacationers dress up, some fit for a wedding, during the evening Passeggiata stroll. And the ambiance is amazing. It is a picture perfect town, worthy of any postcard. It is a tourist town, no longer a Sicilian village. The funicular to the beach is easy and fun and Isola Bella is as picture perfect as the old town. Our best meals in Taormina we at the beachside restaurant. If I were to do it again, I would stay an extra day as the beach was so wonderful and we had hiked up Mt Vesuvius a few days earlier we skipped Mt Etna for another beach day. I would have loved to tour the lava caves and famous ice cave.
TRAPANI (3 days), is a great town with pedestrian streets and a lively Passeggiata, evening stroll. Fortunately we had a car as the Funicular up to Erice was paused due to wind. Visiting the Salt Flats at Saline della Laguna was a highlight. While we had booked a tour to collect “flower salt” but the wind (not much I might add) made the salt unharvestable so we took a tour of the flats instead, still a great experience. The staff is impeccable. We took the hydrofoil to Favignana and rented bikes, touring the island, visiting the crystal clear waters. With the electric bikes, my 73-year-old mom toured with us easily! Half the island is relatively flat and my 10 year old who was just a tad short for the electric bike had no issue keeping up on a regular. Visiting Cefalu on the way here was good enough for me. The Lavatioi Medievale, where the ladies went to do the washing, was idyllic. I could envision women washing for hours! It was the coolest place in town, a place of their own where they could chat for hours. I loved it. Jumping of the end of the docks with the locals was a blast – definitely nervous the first time, but exhilerarating! If I were to do it again, even with kids if the flower salt experience is not available I would book the bathing in the salt. It was a three-hour experience with made me nervous but you just wanted to jump in! I would have booked a cooking class in Erice, there were a few but the times didn’t work for us. With an extra day, I would have made a day trip to Palemo for the churches, market and a puppet show. With a few extra days I would have headed over to the Aeolian Islands to bath in the Lava Mud.
CASTELLEMARE-DEL-GOLFO (2 days), surly the best beaches and food. The Beach at Faraglioni Di Scopello, just outside the reserve, was picture perfect (even thought they are pretty rigid about where you sit ☺) Every meal we has in town was excellent and some of the best we discover in all of Italy. This town is defility a working town and tourism is only a part of their economy. This was the most affordable lodging by far and the hotel has a pool which was a bonus after a day at the beach. We visited Segesta on the way and it is well worth the stop. If I were to do it again, I would have packed a float of some sort as there we so many amazing outcropping rocks that you could swim to but with a 10 and 12 year old, I picked my spots more carefully, as even when you get to them, there is nowhere to stand. The tourist boats didn’t get close either. This is true for all the spots. Swimming shoes and good goggle are a must!
Loved Sicily and with direct flights from all over Europe, making our flight from Florida only two legs, it is very accessible, drivable by car and an affordable history/beach vacation.