Sicily Travel Advice

Posted by Lynne on 09/11/23 11:16 PM

I need some Sicily advice. If we only have 10 days in Sicily, and we'd like to visit my husband's family's town of Santa Ninfa, what would you recommend for additional locations? Neither of us has been to Sicily before. We would plan to visit in either May or September.

We enjoy history, easy to moderate hiking, and photography. We'd love to see water but don't necessarily want to spend much (if any) time lounging around beaches.

We also would prefer to have 2 - 3 places as "home base" vs. changing hotels often. We are open to renting a car and to public transportation. We typically plan the trips ourselves vs. taking a tour or cruise.

Thanks so much for your thoughts.

Posted by Janet

Boise, ID, USA

09/11/23 11:23 PM

2216 posts

Time of year?

Posted by Lynne OP

09/11/23 11:26 PM

43 posts

Sorry - this would be for either May or September.

Posted by MaryPat

Irving

09/12/23 12:35 AM

3041 posts

Fly in and out of Palermo and Siracusa. Both cities are on water. Cefalù is another place to visit and is doable as a day trip from Palermo by direct train (1h): https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html and is also on water.
You’ll need to rent a car in Palermo to get to Santa Ninfa (1h 15m). From Santa Ninfa drive to Agrigento and sleep there. From Agrigento drive to Siracusa (3h).

Posted by stan

The Heartland USA

09/12/23 03:27 AM

8619 posts

Lynne, sending you a PM. We visited Santa Ninfa in 2019.

Posted by awrzesinski

09/12/23 06:32 PM

954 posts

It’s good to think of nights versus days, because your arrival and departure days are generally a wash. I’m going to assume your trip is more like 8 nights = 8 full sightseeing days. That’s on the low end of days for a good Sicily trip, and Santa Ninfa will be taking up one. So, there doesn’t seem to be a ton to play around with. With that in mind I would stick to the west side of the island. Renting a car will be your best bet.

I’m thinking roughly:
Arrive Palermo. and head to Trapani -2 nights.
Drive to Santa Ninfa, visit and continue on towards Agrigento. Stay in or near Agrigento-2 nights. See Valley of the Temples (a must imo.)
Head back to Palermo - 4 nights (ditch the car)
Day trip by train to Cefalu for a day. See Monreale another day.

You could also do this in reverse order, driving to Palermo airport from Trapani. Might be better that way honestly. But I think two nights south as a base for Santa Ninfa and Agrigento is sensible. If you have an extra night to add, I would then go 2/3 Cefalu/Palermo. Or, a day and night to go further east to Villa Romana del Casale is some effort but totally worthwhile. Based on your interests, I think you would enjoy all these places.

Posted by janicehr

09/12/23 07:37 PM

2 posts

We were just in Sicily for 6 nights and were fortunate to have mild temps for September (low 80’s and one day about 88). We have been to Sicily before, so we skipped the large cities this time. We flew into Palermo and rented a car in order to cover more territory off the main beat and path. We did 2 nights in Trapani, but as the previous poster noted that’s really only one full day to see sights. I would have extended this to 3 nights so we could have visited one of the islands off the coast and we would have gone into Marsala from our Trapani base. Really enjoyed the salt flats and found the ones closer to Marsala more picturesque than those closer to Trapani…beautiful at sunset so have your camera ready! We visited the Valley of Temples and recommend bringing comfortable shoes for lots of walking. We then headed inland to Villa Romana del Casale which was quite impressed! Then north to Cefalù for 2 nights. This town is all about the beach and since that’s not high on your wish list, I’d skip it - I actually wondered what there’d be to do if it rained while we were there. The mosaic at the Duomo is being renovated, so that was not possible to see during our stay. Palermo is very vibrant and I’d say you can see the majority of must sees in 2 days. Be sure to enjoy the delicious and refreshing granita, cannoli and arancini along with lots of fresh fruit. Sea food is in abundance on most menus. Note on driving- be warned stop signs appear to be ‘optional’ and it wasn’t uncommon for 3 cars to sneak thru an intersection on one turn🤷‍♀️