Sicily Tours, Less Strenuouis Than Rick's

TAUCK. They are high end and luxury, but you get what you pay for. They carry & transport all luggage for you - you will NEVER touch your bag. They have a fantastic Sicily tour- we are going 2025.

Hi — We, two mid-seventies folks, did a ten day self-drive trip to Sicily last September and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unless you get stuck, literally, in a tiny alleyway driving was a pleasure. With 14 days you can have a more relaxed trip. We have neighbors, 80ish, who went in 2021, hired a driver and also had a fabulous time. Bottom line, Sicily is totally doable without a tour for those of us of a “certain age”.

You might want to take a look at Odysseys Unlimited for a tour company. They are excellent. You don’t have to handle your luggage. They are small group tours. I find them to be more relaxing than Rick Steve’s tours. You can call them and tell them your concerns. They can tell you if the tour will be doable for you as most of the staff there have done the tours themselves and have personal experience. We have had a few people in their early eighties on our OU tours and they have done just fine. I hope this helps.

We spent more than two weeks in Sicily traveling independently with a rental car. It was wonderful and I highly recommend doing it yourselves. We spent a full week in Ortigia and could have stayed there longer. We flew to Palermo from Bari in Puglia where we had spent ten days. These two locations pair well.
We have taken a few tours like you, China, Egypt, Turkey, Japan. It wasn’t necessary to be on a tour in Japan, very easy.

Here's another vote for Odysseys Unlimited. I've only done one tour with them - Romania and Bulgaria - but the group size was smaller, the hotels were good, the transport your luggage, and the pace was reasonable. They use a nice big bus for relaxing. They max out at 24 people per group.

Most of the people traveling with us had done numerous tours with Odysseys and many many of them were in their late 70s and early 80s.

We toured Sicily with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) in April 2022. We had a wonderful time. Groups are no larger than 16 and they cater to an older crowd. We were 69 then and there were 3 very fit 80 year olds on our trip. We had a fabulous guide, the tinerary was great and we interacted with many Sicillians. If you go, consider adding the pre-trip to Matera. It was wonderful.

If you are interested in the possibility of only hiring transport, you might look for posts by Wanderlust58. She and her husband spent three weeks in Sicily traveling by private transportation. She wrote a trip report I know as well as some other posts along the way.

Oh my! What helpful advice! Thank you all very much. I am happy to hear driving wasn't a problem there (unlike Rome!) and there are some tour groups I will research. Probably not Tauck, they are a bit out of our reach. And I will reconsider renting our own car as well.

If you do decide to self-drive in Sicily, the one place you definitely do not want a car is Palermo. There we were able to drop the car off in the city on arrival, take a quick taxi to our accommodation and then, on departure, taxi back to the airport which worked out great. Elsewhere we were able to drive directly to our destination or to a parking lot/facility within reasonable walking distance. Full disclosure…at times that did involve pulling carryons over hilly cobblestone streets.

We were in Sicily for 2 weeks in October 2022 and found it to be a fantastic place for a relaxing trip. Although we rented a car for the middle portion of our trip (Agrigento, Villa Romana del Casale, and Ragusa) you can still see so much using public transportation.

Here's my proposed itinerary for you, Palermo (5 nights), Ortiga (4 nights), Catania (3 nights)
Day 1: Arrive Palermo
Day 2: Explore Palermo
Day 3: Day trip to relax seaside in Cefalu (1 hr train)
Day 4: Join a full day tour to Agrigento to see Valley of the Temples
Day 5: AM/ Monreale Cathedral (22 min bus) PM/ More Palermo
Day 6: Train to Syracuse (4 hr) Taxi to lodging in Ortiga
Day 7: Explore Ortiga
Day 8: More Ortiga
Day 9: Day trip to Noto (33 min train)
Day 10: Train to Catania (1 hr) Explore Catania
Day 11: Day trip to Taormina (1 hr train)
Day 12: More Catania
Day 13: Fly out of Catania

mimi and Leia, thank you for the suggestions. I really appreciate them and they will inform my plans.
Grazie!

Anorher vote for Odysseys Unlimited. I took their Southern Italy and Sicily tour and it was excellent.

Just for reference, here is our itinerary from last September, which was all via rental car and, essentially, in reverse of what @Leia did:

Arrive Catania drive to Taormina via Castelmola

Etna wineries loop, back to Taormina

To Ortigia

To Ragusa via Noto

Ragusa - Modica - Scicli - Ragusa

To Agrigento via Villa del Casale

Agrigento, Valley of the Temples at dusk

To Cefalu’

To Palermo via Monreale

Palermo

Depart from Palermo

For us, the only disappointment was Cefalu. We found it extremely crowded, touristy and, overall, unwelcoming. So, in retrospect, would add a night to Ortigia and leave off Cefalu. Happy planning!

Grazie! And mml, excuse my typo on your handle earlier.